THE FIRST SPOT for Ald. Bob Fioretti’s (2nd) mayoral campaign — produced, shot and edited by the alderman’s video team leader, Jerry Vasilatos — has rolled out online, crafted from one of the alderman’s stops before an audience on the campaign trail.
Vasilatos got into political campaign messaging by having produced a batch of social media campaign commercials for attorney and community activist Dr. Amara’s Enyia’s mayoral run that started last July. When Enyia dropped out of the race in early December, she threw her support behind Fioretti. Impressed by Vasilatos’ videos for Enyia, Fioretti invited him to join his team.
The upcoming mayoral election is Vasilatos’ first direct involvement with politics, an area, however, in which he is well informed. “I like Bob and his vision for Chicago and I am very pleased to be working for him,” he says.
CHICAGOANS PRESENCE AT SUNDANCE, Jan. 22-Feb. 1, will be noticeable as a dozen indie films by Columbia College alums will compete among a record 8,061 submissions, along with features “Unexpected,” from Kris Swanberg (Joe’s wife) and Kartemquin producer Peter Gilbert, and Jennifer Reeder’s short film “A Million Miles Away.”
Also, on Jan. 26: Actress/filmmaker Grace McPhillips of Sterling Rock Films will moderate a panel of noted women explaining “Why Women Filmmakers are Good Investments,” and Daufenbach Camera will host its first Sundance event at Butcher’s Chop House, noon till 2 p.m..
KEN ERKE RETURNS to Cramer-Krasselt – Corona beer’s agency – to lead creative at the agency where earlier in his career he’d been a group creative director. He’d been VP/ECD at Interpublic’s R/GA Chicago office and earlier ECD and CCO at Y&R Chicago; both were four year stints.
Erke succeeds former SVP/ECD Derek Green, the agency’s top creative, who left the agency in December and returned to his native Australia. He reports to Marshall Ross, vice chairman and chief creative officer.
BULLETPROOF FILMS’ FEATURE DOC “Nelson Algren: The End is Nothing, the Road is All” signed with First Run Features of New York, one of the biggest indie film distributors in North America. Nearly 20 years in the making, the doc was produced by Mark Blottner, Denis Mueller and Ilko Davidov.
A KEY CHARACTER in the Clint Eastwood-directed hit “American Sniper,” starring Bradley Cooper as Chris Kyle, a Navy Seal deployed to Iraq as a sniper, is played by Ayman Samman, a former Chicagoan.
Samman, from Egypt, spent 11 years in Chicago earning a reputation as film and stage actor, comedian and had his own band, Emerald Lizards, before moving to Hollywood.
“AMERICA’S GOT TALENT” nationwide talent search starting here Jan. 24-25, will be held at McCormick Place, which the producers must’ve deemed was sufficiently large to accommodate all the hopefuls expected to audition for Season 10 of NBC’s top-rated show.
SPECIAL GUEST at IFP/Chicago’s Feb. 10 meeting is noted LA entertainment attorney Michael Donaldson, speaking on “Fair Use for Filmmakers” – “fair use” being the defense against a claim of copyright infringement when using material from a copyrighted source in docs and scripted films.
Donaldson, dubbed “Legal Obi Wan Kenobi” and the “fair use guru of the documentary film set,” has been an indie film specialist for 30 years. His book, “Clearance and Copyright” is in its fourth edition.
At Film Row Cinema, 1104 S. Wabash; doors open at 6 p.m. Tickets, members, $10, non-members, $20, may be purchased here.
REEL MICHIGAN: “King Kong: Skull Island,” set in 1971, is reportedly going to be filmed in Detroit this summer. The known stars to date are Michael Keaton and Detroit native J.K Simmons.
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