Rise, the membership organization for gender diversity within the broadcast technology sector, is expanding from its roots in the U.K. with launches in North America and the Asia Pacific (APAC) region. Additionally Rise has appointed four new board members as it seeks to increase its important work throughout the media and entertainment sectors.
Serena Harris, North American sales director at Annex Pro, will be running Rise North America. Harris, who is based in Vancouver, B.C., has over two decades of experience in the media and entertainment industry and worked with Avid and Marquis.
Nancy Diaz Curiel, managing director of Digigram Asia, will run Rise APAC. Based in Singapore, she has over 10 years of experience in the broadcast industry and will be launching a Rise mentoring initiative in the region shortly.
Rise’s alluded to four new board members are: Andy Beale, chief engineer BT Sport, Lisa Lavender, operations director of The British Arrows, Joanna Cosgrove, director at Moore Kingston Smith LLP, and Tanya Rai, key account manager at Sundog Media Toolkit.
Rise managing director Carrie Wootten stated; “Rise is growing at an astonishing rate, and we are immensely grateful to all of our sponsors and partners who have enabled this to happen. Expanding into the North American and APAC market is very exciting, and we are positive Serena and Nancy will go beyond our expectations in advancing our global efforts in gender equality for the industry.”
Rise is supported by leading industry companies including gold sponsors Avid and Sky, and silver sponsors Clear-Com, Audio-Technica Europe, Ross Video, DPP and Pixelogic.
Rise Up, a new school outreach initiative to inspire and educate children about broadcast technology, is supported by BT Sport and Sky.
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