Word is that director Jaume is bidding on jobs through bicoastal/international PartizanA.New York-based Shooting Gallery Productions has signed director/cameraman Allen Weiss, who has directed independently for the past year through his own Raleigh, N.C.-based shop, Brackish Films…..Palomar Pictures, Los Angeles, has added director Mike Lipscombe, formerly with bicoastal Holiday, for commercial and music video representation, along with fashion photographer Dah Len…..Lovinger Mahoney Adelson, New York, has brought director Charlie Cole on boardA.Director Ray Lawrence has signed with bicoastal Cohn+CompanyA.Word is that director David Denneen of Cylo, bicoastal and London, is eyeing and being courted by several other production companiesA.Publicly held, Minneapolis-headquartered Intelefilmawith a family of commercial production houses that includes bicoastal/international Chelsea Pictures and The End, bicoastal Curious Pictures and New York-headquartered Populuxe Picturesahas launched a creative service company, New York-based DCODE, headed by president Bill PernaA.David Coulter, formerly an executive producer at Hollywood-based SunSpots, has partnered with Sterling Ray, head of Atlas Pictures, Santa Monica, to form Tropix Films. The new Santa Monica venture, a satellite of Atlas, opens with two directors: Larry Carroll, who had been at SunSpots; and Richard Taylor, previously repped by Rhythm & Hues Studios, Los Angeles. Patti Coulter serves as head of production for Tropix….New York-headquartered, publicly traded Paradise Music & Entertainment has launched Matter, a Los Angeles shop specializing in design for new media content, including broadband and the Internet. Veteran film production designer Alex McDowell has been named to head Matter. Paradise is parent to several companies, including bicoastal commercial production house Straw Dogs and Nashville-based spot, music video, live event and concert film shop PictureVisionA.Editor Michael Schwartz has joined Zap Edit, New York….Chicago-based Cutters has signed colorist Peter Simpson, who comes aboard after 15 years at Sydney, Australia-based post house Frame, Set and Match…..
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