Production company Doomsday Entertainment has signed commercial and film director Charlie Buhler for her first U.S. spot representation. Strongly influenced by her upbringing as a bi-racial woman growing up in a predominantly white area in South Dakota, she uses her work to make sense of the dichotomy between how she experienced the world and how the world experienced her through the lenses of race and gender. Her thematic explorations of identity and representation become strikingly clear in powerful film and photography work, as well as branded content for clients including Target, Google, Calvin Klein, GE, Narciso Rodriguez, and The New York Times.
The signing with Doomsday comes right before the scheduled Aug. 14th release of Buhler’s film Before The Fire, written by and starring Jenna Lyng Adams of The Kominsky Method, which held its world premiere at the Cinequest Film Festival in March. The film received acclaim as a frightening and timely look at how individual lives are turned upside down by a global crisis, inadvertently striking an eerie resemblance in the COVID-19 era to how we live today. Dark Sky Films recently announced the acquisition of all North American distribution rights for the project.
Doomsday founder and executive producer Danielle Hinde said of Buhler, “She has such a unique perspective and vision, and we can’t wait to develop her voice further. Her ability to pull off her first feature film on her own makes me ecstatic to see what else she can accomplish. Along with her unparalleled work ethic, she has limitless amounts of compassion and creativity, which are always my favorite filmmaker attributes.”
Buhler added, “Danielle has an incredible track record for discovering and championing the industry’s most exciting new voices, and I am pinching myself that I will have the opportunity to move into the next stage of my career alongside her and the rest of the Doomsday team.”
Buhler earned her BA in Film, Television and Theater as well as American Political Studies from the University of Notre Dame, after which she launched her production company Madfire Pictures in 2013. She is currently in postproduction on her upcoming documentary film Rosebud, which follows the lives of three Native American hip-hop artists on the reservation in South Dakota. Buhler is represented for film and TV by Verve.
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