By BY CAROLYN GIARDINA
NEW YORK-Nitza From, owner/editor at New York-based editorial boutique Salamandra Images, has been elected president of the Association of Independent Commercial Editors (AICE) East Coast chapter by its board of directors, which was itself elected by the general membership at a meeting last month.
Additionally, the board elected David Friedman, editor at New York-based djm Films, first VP; Roe Bressan, managing director of the New York office of Red Car (which also has bases in Hollywood, Santa Monica, Minneapolis, Chicago and Dallas), second VP; and Mitch Garelick, controller of Horn/ Eisenberg, New York, secretary/treasurer.
From has been an AICE/East board member for over five years. As president, From succeeds John Palestrini, CEO of The Blue Rock Editing Co., New York, who has served as AICE/East president since spring 1995. Palestrini is currently AICE’s national president.
"I would like to continue what [past presidents] Dennis [Hayes, who closed his Dennis Hayes & Associates in 1997 and retired], Arthur [Williams, president of New York-based Editing Concepts] and John did, because they did wonderful, wonderful work and brought the editors together," said From. "I would like to strengthen our position in the ad community … and encourage the editors to really get together and be more involved."
Part of that, she said, is a current AICE effort to develop an advertising campaign that will increase awareness of the editor’s role. "People should really get to know us and appreciate the work that we have been doing and are continuing to do," From explained.
The newly elected 1999 board is rounded out by Palestrini; Williams; David Binstock, Rhinoceros; Bob Friedrich, First Edition; Michael Pollock, Vito DeSario Editing; Jane Stuart, Cabana; Chris Franklin, Big Sky Editorial; Alan Morris, Invisible Dog; and Craig Warnick, mad.house. All are based in New York.
John Held is executive director of the national AICE and AICE/East.
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