Director Joshua Neale has joined Smuggler for worldwide representation. Smuggler marks his first stateside production house roost. Neale had been handled in the U.K. by Independent in London.
Neale directed his first broadcast documentary in 2006 wiht the chilling The Boy Who Killed His Best Friend for the BBC Four series My Crazy Life. He followed that with his musical documentary Karaoke Soul in ’07, which mixed intimate observational documentary with musical performances from the central characters. The Guardian commented, “Neale has come up with a genre all of his own–a docu-music video,” and the film resulted in the director being nominated for the ’07 BAFTA Breakthrough Award.
Neale stepped into the advertising arena in ’08 with a documentary launching the Jazz for Honda via Wieden+Kennedy, London. Next came the Nokia 97 Portraits Series featuring individuals from around the world who use technology in interesting ways. These portraits showcased Neale’s talent for capturing a diverse range of characters and his commend of authentic documentary as an approach to branded content.
Among Neale’s recent credits are two :30s for Lurpak’s “Joy of Creation” campaign. One of the semi-improvised commercials, “Pie,” led to a BTAA Award earlier this year. Neale also recently wrapped five sets of IDs for Waitrose through MCBD featuring the genuine reactinos of children trying exotic foods for the first time.
Neale is set to soon edit his U.S.-based feature documentary A Sorry Story for BBC Four, and is currently in pre-pro for the Wall’s Projects with Saatchi & Saatchi.
Martin Scorsese On “The Saints,” Faith In Filmmaking and His Next Movie
When Martin Scorsese was a child growing up in New York's Little Italy, he would gaze up at the figures he saw around St. Patrick's Old Cathedral. "Who are these people? What is a saint?" Scorsese recalls. "The minute I walk out the door of the cathedral and I don't see any saints. I saw people trying to behave well within a world that was very primal and oppressed by organized crime. As a child, you wonder about the saints: Are they human?" For decades, Scorsese has pondered a project dedicated to the saints. Now, he's finally realized it in "Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints," an eight-part docudrama series debuting Sunday on Fox Nation, the streaming service from Fox News Media. The one-hour episodes, written by Kent Jones and directed by Elizabeth Chomko, each chronicle a saint: Joan of Arc, Francis of Assisi, John the Baptist, Thomas Becket, Mary Magdalene, Moses the Black, Sebastian and Maximillian Kolbe. Joan of Arc kicks off the series on Sunday, with three weekly installments to follow; the last four will stream closer to Easter next year. In naturalistic reenactments followed by brief Scorsese-led discussions with experts, "The Saints" emphasizes that, yes, the saints were very human. They were flawed, imperfect people, which, to Scorsese, only heightens their great sacrifices and gestures of compassion. The Polish priest Kolbe, for example, helped spread antisemitism before, during WWII, sheltering Jews and, ultimately, volunteering to die in the place of a man who had been condemned at Auschwitz. Scorsese, who turns 82 on Sunday, recently met for an interview not long after returning from a trip to his grandfather's hometown in Sicily. He was made an honorary citizen and the experience was still lingering in his mind. Remarks have... Read More