Director Tim Godsall and executive producer Ian Webb have launched Canadian production company Merchant. Based in Toronto, Merchant will represent directors for commercials, branded entertainment and music videos in the Canadian market. Godsall will remain with Anonymous Content for representation in the U.S. and U.K. and with Revolver for all Australian work.
Godsall, who is known for his visual storytelling for brands including Squarespace, Axe, Old Spice, ESPN, Southern Comfort, FedEx and Xbox, among many others, and Webb, who most recently served as an executive producer at Suneeva, originally met while Webb was working as a producer at OPC several years ago. When Godsall decided to launch a new company, he said, “the first person I spoke with was Ian, and we had a really similar vision for a company that does interesting work and has a strong culture.”
Webb added, “On the most basic level, we want to be a conduit for great work. Canada, and Toronto specifically, has a reputation for being a creative force, and if we do our job properly, we will encourage, facilitate and continue to elevate the work coming out of Canada with the many great agencies, clients, creatives and producers who call Toronto home.”
In addition to representing Godsall, whose noted accolades include more than two-dozen Cannes Lion Awards, assorted Clio, Andy, AICP Show, and British Arrow Awards, Merchant launches with a roster of directors including Alex Hulsey, Jun Diaz, Leilani Croucher, Malcolm Venville, Michael Downing, Nadia Lee Cohen, Patrick Daughters, Stephen Carroll and Trevor Clarence.
Merchant has also partnered with U.S.-based Anonymous Content to represent a selection of that shop’s directors for Canadian work: Alejandro G Iñárritu, Alex Lill, Alfonso Cuarón, Armando Bo, Autumn de Wilde, Bardia Zeinali, Brett Morgen, Cara Stricker, Cary Fukunaga, Daniel Kaufman, Dee Rees, Edgar Wright, Frédéric Planchon, Grant Singer, Jovan Todorovic, Marco Prestini, Mark Romanek, Matthew Dillon Cohen, Olivia Wilde, Patty Jenkins, Sam Esmail, Terence Nance, and Todd Phillips.
Local school staple “Lost on a Mountain in Maine” from 1939 hits the big screen nationwide
Most Maine schoolchildren know about the boy lost for more than a week in 1939 after climbing the state's tallest mountain. Now the rest of the U.S. is getting in on the story.
Opening in 650 movie theaters on Friday, "Lost on a Mountain in Maine" tells the harrowing tale of 12-year-old Donn Fendler, who spent nine days on Mount Katahdin and the surrounding wilderness before being rescued. The gripping story of survival commanded the nation's attention in the days before World War II and the boy's grit earned an award from the president.
For decades, Fendler and Joseph B. Egan's book, published the same year as the rescue, has been required reading in many Maine classrooms, like third-grade teacher Kimberly Nielsen's.
"I love that the overarching theme is that Donn never gave up. He just never quits. He goes and goes," said Nielsen, a teacher at Crooked River Elementary School in Casco, who also read the book multiple times with her own kids.
Separated from his hiking group in bad weather atop Mount Katahdin, Fendler used techniques learned as a Boy Scout to survive. He made his way through the woods to the east branch of the Penobscot River, where he was found more than 30 miles (48 kilometers) from where he started. Bruised and cut, starved and without pants or shoes, he survived nine days by eating berries and lost 15 pounds (7 kilograms).
The boy's peril sparked a massive search and was the focus of newspaper headlines and nightly radio broadcasts. Hundreds of volunteers streamed into the region to help.
The movie builds on the children's book, as told by Fendler to Egan, by drawing upon additional interviews and archival footage to reinforce the importance of family, faith and community during difficult times,... Read More