Chelsea Pictures, which earlier this week was named The One Show’s Production Company of the Year, has added London-based director Dumas Haddad to its U.S. roster. This marks his first-ever branded representation in the American market.
Aside from his commercial work for Guerlain & Footlocker x Fifa, Haddad has directed promos and music videos for Ghetts, Anaïs, and Lonepsi. Most recently, Haddad directed rising star Priya Ragu’s vibrant music video for her song “Chicken Lemon Rice” celebrating her Sri Lankan heritage.
“From the first time we saw Dumas’ body of work, we knew we wanted him at Chelsea,” said Lisa Mehling, president of Chelsea. “We are drawn to filmmakers whose singular point of view just grabs you–and Dumas’ potent blend of humanity and classic composition and lighting is outstanding.”
Haddad is a director, writer and photographer with a focus on storytelling and dramatic action. He has developed his craft from the worlds of fashion, music and bleeding edge culture.
Dumas earned a Vimeo Staff Pick for his work directing Anaïs’ music video “Lost My Faith,” securing himself a slot on the shortlist at Berlin Commercial for Best Emerging Talent. For his powerful documentary short film Fathers, which interrogates and challenges stereotypes surrounding the role of the Black father in modern society, Haddad also received a Vimeo Staff Pick as well as landed on the Shortlist at the Kinsale Shark Awards. In 2019, Haddad was highly commended by the 1.4 Awards as an On The Cusp of Greatness new director selection. His surreal short film, The Gift, premiered on Film 4 and was commissioned by Random Acts.
His next short film, Things I Never Told My Father, was written by Letitia Wright exploring the dynamic of grief. Haddad is also set to release work he directed for Gucci.
“I’m truly honored to start this new and exciting journey in the U.S. with such an amazing family,” said Haddad, “The U.S. is a market that most excites me and the team’s dexterity and astuteness in the space is beyond impressive.”
James Earl Jones, Lauded Actor and Voice of Darth Vader, Dies At 93
James Earl Jones, who overcame racial prejudice and a severe stutter to become a celebrated icon of stage and screen — eventually lending his deep, commanding voice to CNN, "The Lion King" and Darth Vader — has died. He was 93.
His agent, Barry McPherson, confirmed Jones died Monday morning at home in New York's Hudson Valley region. The cause was not immediately clear.
The pioneering Jones, who was one of the first African American actors in a continuing role on a daytime drama and worked deep into his 80s, won two Emmys, a Golden Globe, two Tony Awards, a Grammy, the National Medal of Arts, the Kennedy Center Honors and was given an honorary Oscar and a special Tony for lifetime achievement. In 2022, a Broadway theater was renamed in his honor.
He cut an elegant figure late in life, with a wry sense of humor and a ferocious work habit. In 2015, he arrived at rehearsals for a Broadway run of "The Gin Game" having already memorized the play and with notebooks filled with comments from the creative team. He said he was always in service of the work.
"The need to storytell has always been with us," he told The Associated Press then. "I think it first happened around campfires when the man came home and told his family he got the bear, the bear didn't get him."
Jones created such memorable film roles as the reclusive writer coaxed back into the spotlight in "Field of Dreams," the boxer Jack Johnson in the stage and screen hit "The Great White Hope," the writer Alex Haley in "Roots: The Next Generation" and a South African minister in "Cry, the Beloved Country."
He was also a sought-after voice actor, expressing the villainy of Darth Vader ("No, I am your father," commonly misremembered as "Luke, I am your father"), as... Read More