Director Richard D’Alessio has joined bicoastal/international @radical.media for exclusive representation worldwide—except for Canada where he continues to be handled by Imported Artists Film Company, Toronto. D’Alessio was last repped in the U.S. by now defunct Shooting Gallery Productions….Filmmaker Mikael Salomon has come aboard bicoastal Coppos Films for exclusive representation as a spot director/DP. He was formerly handled for commercials by bicoastal Flying Tiger Films. Salomon’s longform credits as a director include episodes of the Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks HBO miniseries Band of Brothers, pilot episodes for CBS’ The Fugitive and The Agency, and such feature films as A Far Off Place and Hard Rain. Salomon first established himself as a noted cinematographer (e.g.—Far And Away, Backdraft, The Abyss)…. Director Duncan Sharp has joined Green Dot Films, Santa Monica. He had been at Life of Riley, Los Angeles….Executive producers David and Patti Coulter have launched BeachHouse Films, Santa Monica… Amy Russo is joining Santa Monica-based editorial house Terminal as a producer….Editorial house FilmCore Santa Monica has promoted postproduction supervisor Christie Price to producer….The industry is mourning the death of Charlie Willis, producer of Actual Reality, Atlanta, who succumbed to cancer….And noted agency creative Don Tennant passed away at age 79. He died last weekend (12/8) at his family’s Los Angeles home. Tennant’s credits included helping to create brand icons like Tony The Tiger, the Pillsbury Doughboy and the Marlboro Man. He is perhaps most closely associated with agency Leo Burnett, breaking into that ad shop in 1950. During his 20-year tenure at Burnett, he served in various creative capacities, culminating in his role as worldwide creative director and chairman of the creative review committee. He resigned from Burnett in 1970, first becoming COO for Chicago agency Clinton E. Frank and then in ’73 moving on to launch his own shop, Don Tennant Advertising, also in Chicago. That agency was sold in ’87, after which Tennant served as a creative advertising consultant. His survivors include three children and six grandchildren. Two of his sons are well known in the industry: director Andy Tennant, a noted feature filmmaker (e.g.—Anna And The King, Fools Rush In) who has diversified into spot directing via Hollywood-based Level 7 (SHOOT, 10/26, p. 1); and Tim Tennant, president of integrated creative services company Aspect, which has several holdings and maintains a joint venture relationship with Level 7….
Review: Rachel Morrison Makes Feature Directorial Debut With “The Fire Inside”
"The Fire Inside," about boxer Claressa "T-Rex" Shields, is not your standard inspirational sports drama, even if it feels like it for the first half of the movie.
There's the hopeless dream, the difficult home life, the blighted community, the devoted coach, the training montages, the setbacks and, against all odds, the win. We've seen this kind of story before, you might think, and you'd be right. But then the movie pulls the rug out from under you: The victory is not the end. "The Fire Inside," directed by Rachel Morrison and written by Barry Jenkins, is as much about what happens after the win. It's not always pretty or inspirational, but it is truthful, and important.
Sports dramas can be just as cliche as fairy tales, with the gold medal and beautiful wedding presented as a happy ending. We buy into it time and time again for obvious reasons, but the idea of a happy ending at all, or even an ending, is almost exclusively for the audience. We walk away content that someone has found true love or achieved that impossible goal after all that work. For the subject, however, it's a different proposition; Life, and all its mundanities, disappointments and hardships, continues after all. And in the world of sports, that high moment often comes so young that it might be easy to look at the rest of the journey as a disappointing comedown.
Claressa Shields, played by Ryan Destiny in the film, was only 17 when she went to the 2012 London Olympics. Everything was stacked against her, including the statistics: No American woman had ever won an Olympic gold medal in the sport before. Her opponents had years on her. She was still navigating high school in Flint, Michigan, and things on the home front were volatile and lacking. Food was sometimes scarce... Read More