Transatlantic creative production house Loveboat has signed Elena Parasco to its cooperative of directors and interdisciplinary artists. The company will represent her in the U.S. and France.
Born and raised in New York and a graduate of Wesleyan University, Parasco is known for her limit-pushing style of shooting. Parasco’s identifiable style and quick, cinematic lens define her approach to athemic, culture-saturated work that champions unheard global voices, while keeping viewers grounded in story. Her work ranges from setting a new style in her female gaze-driven breakout film downtowngirlsbball to pushing expectations for a league of athletes in the WNBA’s 2020 anthem “Make Way.”
Parasco has worked with numerous artists and brands, including Nike, Converse, Facebook, Levi’s, WNBA, A$AP Rocky, the New York Knicks, and the New York City Ballet. Her film and creative work have been featured in publications including The New York Times, T Magazine, Hypebeast, i-D magazine and Vice.
She was named a finalist in the 2018 ADC Young Guns for her creative portfolio. The One Screen New York Film Festival named Parasco a finalist for Best Branded Content of the Year for her film Locker Room Talk for Nike’s Air Force 1 campaign and in Experimental Filmmaking for her film downtowngirlsbball. Prior to joining Loveboat, Parasco was with production house Sibling Rivalry.
Parasco has spoken on panels such as The Force is Female for Nike and on the NBA All-Star Panel (2020) in Chicago, both of which brought powerful storytellers around the world to speak on the importance of inclusive voices within visual stories. Additionally, Parasco’s photographic work was included in a book and museum exhibition in Harlem, New York titled CITY GAME (2020), curated by Spike Lee.
“Loveboat is committed to creating the opportunities that commercial work provides to push the boundaries of both style and narrative within anthemic filmmaking,” said Parasco.
“Elena is a force with a keen eye, whose poetry on film champions athletes, women, and the unheard voices,” says Jeff Baron, managing partner of the L.A. office. “Our commitment is to mentorship and director development at Loveboat and Elena’s passion for storytelling is a perfect fit.”
First-Time Feature Directors Make Major Splash At AFI Fest, Generate Oscar Buzz
Two first-time feature directors who are generating Oscar buzz this awards season were front and center this past weekend at AFI Fest in Hollywood. Rachel Morrison, who made history as the first woman nominated for a Best Cinematography Oscar---on the strength of Mudbound in 2018--brought her feature directorial debut, The Fire Inside (Amazon MGM Studios), to the festival on Sunday (10/27), and shared insights into the film during a conversation session immediately following the screening. This came a day after William Goldenberg, an Oscar-winning editor for Argo in 2013, had his initial foray into feature directing, Unstoppable (Amazon MGM Studios), showcased at the AFI proceedings. He too spoke after the screening during a panel discussion. The Fire Inside--which made its world premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival--tells the story of Claressa “T-Rex” Shields (portrayed by Ryan Destiny), a Black boxer from Flint, Mich., who trained to become the first woman in U.S. history to win an Olympic Gold Medal in the sport. She achieved this feat--with the help of coach Jason Crutchfield (Brian Tyree Henry)--only to find that her victory at the Summer Games came with relatively little fanfare and no endorsement deals. So much for the hope that the historic accomplishment would be a ticket out of socioeconomic purgatory for Shields and her family. It seemed like yet another setback in a cycle of adversity throughout Shields’ life but she persevered, going on to win her second Gold Medal at the next Olympics and becoming a champion for gender equality and equitable pay for women in sports. Shields has served as a source of inspiration for woman athletes worldwide--as well as to the community of... Read More