London-based Colonel Blimp has signed filmmaker Billy Lumby for commercials and music videos. His short film God View was an experimental drama shot entirely from above using a specially designed bodyrig. After a run of top festivals and awards (including Clermont-Ferrand, Seoul, Encounters, St. Petersburg), it was bought by Canal+ and broadcast on TV in France, Spain, Switzerland and across Africa. Lumby’s latest film SAMUEL-613 was commissioned by Dazed magazine and won this year’s Pears Short Film prize. Produced in association with UK Jewish Film, it explores London’s Hasidic community, gaining unprecedented access for a drama, including non-professional actors and Yiddish dialogue….
Anheuser-Busch InBev has entered into a strategic partnership with Wieden+Kennedy, which will take the creative lead on campaigns for the global brand Corona and for Bud Light. W+K New York will handle Bud Light, previously a BBDO account. W+K Amsterdam will lead global business for Corona….
Dawn Tenny has been promoted to president and CFO of Schneider Optics, and Stuart Singer to sr. VP and CTO of the company. Tenny is a veteran of 22 years at Schneider Optics and has been CFO for the past decade. In her new position as president and CFO, she will oversee all company operations in partnership with CEO Dwight Lindsey. Meanwhile in his new position, Singer, a 20=plus year veteran of the company, will manage Schneider’s team regarding technical developments and customer requirements, as well as all aspects of the Industrial Optics portion of the Schneider business in the United States. A renowned industrial optics expert, Singer holds numerous optical distinctions. Singer was an integral part of the development of Schneider’s industry-leading Motion Picture Filter products, and is a sr. member of the Society of Optics and Photonics Engineering worldwide (SPIE). He lectures around the country on advanced optics, robotic and machine vision, as well as authoring numerous esteemed technical papers….
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