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    5 filmmakers selected for AIR’s Unsigned Diverse Directors Showcase

    By SHOOTUpdated:No Comments1914 Views
    Pictured (clockwise from upper left) are directors Jeffrey Morgan, Jose Ho-Guanipa, Samer Almadani, Megan Brotherton and Ivan Carlos Vaccaro
    LOS ANGELES --

    The Alliance of Independent Representatives (AIR) recently hosted its 2nd Annual Unsigned Diverse Directors Showcase. The virtual event took place on May 22, with five directors selected from a pool of more than 60 filmmakers in a blind vote of AIR members.

    Directors presented their work and took questions from a virtual industry audience that included AIR members, production company client EPs, members from AIR partner ADA  (Association of Directors Agents) and other special guests. The finalists were also awarded a free online Commercial Directing Masterclass from Commercial Directing Film School’s Jordan Brady, who directs through his own production company, True Gentleman.

    The final five consisted of: 

    • Commercial director/DP Samer Almadani, a first generation Syrian American, born in Ohio, with work in food and tabletop, sports and lifestyle. 
    • Writer-director Megan Brotherton whose work includes directing for Funny Or Die.
    • Jose Ho-Guanipa, who was born in Montreal to Venezuelan and Chinese parents. He is an alumnus of SHOOT’s 2019 17th Annual New Directors Showcase.
    • Jeffrey Morgan, a Native American/Mexican American, who is an alum of SHOOT’s 2007 5th Annual New Directors Showcase. After working in production at Deutsch for over 20 years, he left to direct and make documentary films.
    • And Ivan Carlos Vaccaro–born in Buenos Aires and now based in Mexico City–whose music videos earned Latin Grammy nominations, leading him into commercials.

    The Unsigned Directors Showcase is one of several initiatives that AIR’s Diversity in Talent Committee has undertaken to address the overall lack of diversity in the advertising  and production industries. This committee works to create meaningful change and facilitate opportunities for talent from underrepresented groups, including from the BIPOC, women, Latinx, and LGBTQ+ communities.

    Sonia Blum of Sonia Reps, AIR’s Diversity in Talent Committee co-chair, said, “I’m grateful for the opportunity to work with our committee members on the Showcase, and I’m proud of all the winners. The quality of work we’re seeing from underrepresented talent is outstanding, but we still need further opportunities for these directors’ work to be seen.”

    Diversity in Talent Committee co-chair Mary Saxon of Saxon Presents added, “The majority of last year’s finalists signed on with AIR client production companies for representation, and we’re hopeful that this year’s directors will all find a home as well.”

    Tags:AIRAlliance of Independent RepresentativesUnsigned Diverse Directors Showcase



    Marshall Brickman, who co-wrote “Annie Hall” with Woody Allen, dies at 85

    Sunday, December 1, 2024
    Marshall Brickman speaks to reporters during a news conference Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2008 in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

    The Oscar-winning screenwriter Marshall Brickman, whose wide-ranging career spanned some of Woody Allen 's best films, the Broadway musical "Jersey Boys" and a number of Johnny Carson's most beloved sketches, has died. He was 85.

    Brickman died Friday in Manhattan, his daughter Sophie Brickman told The New York Times. No cause of death was cited.

    Brickman was best known for his extensive collaboration with Allen, beginning with the 1973 film "Sleeper." Together, they co-wrote "Annie Hall" (1977), "Manhattan" (1979) and "Manhattan Murder Mystery" (1993). The loosely structured script for "Annie Hall," in particular, has been hailed as one of the wittiest comedies. It won Brickman and Allen an Oscar for best original screenplay.

    In his acceptance speech (Allen skipped the ceremony), Brickman referenced one of the film's many oft-quoted lines, saying: "I've been out here a week, and I still have guilt when I make a right turn on a red light."

    "If the film is worth anything," Brickman told Vanity Fair in 2017, "it gives a very particular specific image of what it was like to be alive in New York at that time in that particular social-economic stratum."

    Brickman and Allen had met in the early 1960s, when Allen was breaking through as a stand-up comedian. Brickman was brought on to write jokes for him. At the time, he had been playing banjo for the folk group the Tarriers. In one of the many twists of Brickman's career, it was an album he and his college roommate Eric Weissberg recorded that later made the soundtrack to 1972's "Deliverance," including "Dueling Banjos."

    Brickman, born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, was the son of Jewish socialists Abram (who fled Poland during WWII) and Pauline (Wolin) Brickman, who was from New York.... Read More

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