Veronica Lombardo has launched her own independent sales and rep company, Veronica Lombardo Management (VLM), which handles representation on the West Coast and in Texas for a roster which includes kroma digital cosmetics, Somatic and Delolo. The latter is a video and art-making collective made up of artist/designer Leila Fakouri and actor/writer Will Bowles. Somatic, owned by executive producer Steve Waite and executive creative director James Thayer, is a Los Angeles-based digital studio that applies its signature graphic style to varied disciplines–specializing in integrated motion graphics, live action, VFX and editorial. And kroma is a digital cosmetics company that was founded in 2001 by Bert and Amy Yukich whose work includes commercial collaborations with brands such as Crest, L’Oreal, Tresemme, Candie’s, CoverGirl and Palmolive. Over the past 14 years Lombardo has represented content creators and diverse talent as a below-the-line agent at Partos Company, NYO and Sheldon Prosnit Agency (now known as Represent). In 2008 she broke out on her own, hanging her own shingle, opening 9 Agency….
Jennifer Kent On Why Her Feature Directing Debut, “The Babadook,” Continues To Haunt Us
"The Babadook," when it was released 10 years ago, didn't seem to portend a cultural sensation.
It was the first film by a little-known Australian filmmaker, Jennifer Kent. It had that strange name. On opening weekend, it played in two theaters.
But with time, the long shadows of "The Babadook" continued to envelop moviegoers. Its rerelease this weekend in theaters, a decade later, is less of a reminder of a sleeper 2014 indie hit than it is a chance to revisit a horror milestone that continues to cast a dark spell.
Not many small-budget, first-feature films can be fairly said to have shifted cinema but Kent's directorial debut may be one of them. It was at the nexus of that much-debated term "elevated horror." But regardless of that label, it helped kicked off a wave of challenging, filmmaker-driven genre movies like "It Follows," "Get Out" and "Hereditary."
Kent, 55, has watched all of this — and those many "Babadook" memes — unfold over the years with a mix of elation and confusion. Her film was inspired in part by the death of her father, and its horror elements likewise arise out of the suppression of emotions. A single mother (Essie Davis) is struggling with raising her young son (Noah Wiseman) years after the tragic death of her husband. A figure from a pop-up children's book begins to appear. As things grow more intense, his name is drawn out in three chilling syllables — "Bah-Bah-Doooook" — an incantation of unprocessed grief.
Kent recently spoke from her native Australia to reflect on the origins and continuing life of "The Babadook."
Q: Given that you didn't set out to in any way "change" horror, how have you regarded the unique afterlife of "The... Read More