The new Venice, Calif.-based ad shop that Rupert Samuel, former director of integrated production at Crispin Porter+Bogusky, is partnered in (with fellow CP+B alumni Tom Adams, Paul Keister, Bob Cianfrone and Brian Rekasis) is called Goodness Manufacturing. And the Goodness moniker is most apropos in describing another Samuel endeavor, this one slated for Sunday, Oct. 7, when he, his brother Rowley Samuel, director of creative integration at DDB Chicago, and friend Andy Kenny will be running in the 30th annual Chicago Marathon to help raise not only awareness of congenital toxoplasmosis but also money for The Toxoplasmosis Center in Chicago.
The cause hits close to home for Rupert and Rowley Samuel in that the latter’s son, Fin, was born this past January with congenital toxoplasmosis and has consequently been challenged with a brain injury, affecting his development and resulting in seizures. Fin also has visual impairment, Hydrocephalus (water on the brain) and in his first six months has undergone two operations performed by a neurosurgeon.
Still Fin manages to shine through this adversity–and now there’s a way to help many of those stricken with this illness.
In that the disease is rare, funding is hard to come by. Government resources, for example, are most often targeted at more common illnesses such as heart disease and cancer. The Toxoplasmosis Center has thus found it difficult to gain necessary funding and has looked to other avenues to support its pioneering research into preventing and treating this disease that is triggered by a parasite infection during pregnancy.
To continue the good work of The Toxoplasmosis Center, your help is needed. To sponsor the aforementioned trio of marathon runners, log onto www.active.com/donate/toxoplasmosis.
The Toxoplasmosis Center provides care and treatment to patients from all over the world. It is one of the only centers that offers comprehensive, lifelong care to people of all ages stricken with congenital toxoplasmosis and other Toxoplasma gondii parasite infections. The Toxoplasmosis Center has been working with some of the same patients for more than 25 years.
All donations based on sponsorship of the Chicago Marathon runners will be paid into the Finley John Gubbins Samuel Special Needs Trust Fund from which all money raised will be given to The Toxoplasmosis Center.
While coping with the illness is an ordeal for patients and their families, an e-mail from Rowley Samuel to help drum up Marathon run sponsors reminds us that human triumph is still possible under the most trying circumstances.
The opening sentences of the e-mail, in which Rowley Samuel refers to his wife Gemma, sum up the family’s strength, its state of mind, heart and spirit. It reads, “I said to Gemma the other day that the last year has been by far the hardest year in my entire life but at the same time the most amazing one. Hard because of all the troubles we have had to see little Fin deal with, amazing because of how he has dealt with them and what we now have as a family.”
“Se7en” Turns 30, Gets A Special Restoration From David Fincher For Its Re-Release
For David Fincher, seeing “Se7en” in 4K was an experience he can only describe as harrowing. That or a high school reunion.
“There are definitely moments that you go, ‘What was I thinking?’ Or ‘Why did I let this person have that hairdo’?” Fincher said in a recent interview with The Associated Press.
He’s OK with the film being a product of its time in most respects. But some things just could not stand in high-definition resolution.
“It was a little decrepit, to be honest,” said Fincher. “We needed to resuscitate it. There are things you can see in 4K HDR that you cannot see on a film print.”
Ever the perfectionist, he and a team got to work on a new restoration of the film for its 30th anniversary re-release. This weekend the restored “Se7en” will play on IMAX screens for the first time in the U.S. and Canada, and on Jan. 7, the 4K UHD home video version will be available as well.
The dark crime thriller written by Andrew Kevin Walker and starring Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman as a pair of detectives looking for a serial killer was somewhat of a career-reviver for Fincher, whose directorial debut “Alien 3” had not gone well. “Se7en” was not a sure thing: It was made for only $34 million (and only got that when Fincher managed to persuade studio execs to give up $3 million more). But it went on to earn more than $327 million, not accounting for inflation, and continues to influence the genre.
Fincher has over the years overseen several restorations of the film (including one for laser disc) but decided this needed to be the last. It’s why he insisted on an 8K scan that they could derive the 4K from. He wanted to ensure that it wouldn’t have to be repeated when screens get more... Read More