- Asa Mader
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Asa Mader (born February 20, 1975)[1] is an American film director, screenwriter and visual artist.
Contents
History
He studied cinema and new technologies at Brown University and New York University and was awarded the Roberta Joslin Award for Excellence in Art with one of his first Super 8mm films.
After co-founding the highly successful NY-based digital design studio DIGITALFORM -- which served many of the most prominent brands in the high-end luxury market (YSL, Versace, Valentino, Bulgari, Cacharel, Dolce&Gabbana, Pucci, Paul Smith, Sisley, Missoni, Moschino, Vivienne Westwood and Oscar de la Renta) -- Mader decided to focus his creative energies towards directing and his original passion: cinema.
His first narrative film La Maladie de La Mort, based on the homonymous novel by Marguerite Duras and starring Anna Mouglalis, was part of the official selection of the Venice Film Festival [1] among others: Locarno Film Festival, “Premiers Plans” in Angers, Cannes Film Festival (Short Film Corner), International Film Festival of Kerala and the Festival “Entrevues” of Belfort.
In 2004, Asa Mader created his first stage direction HEROINE starring Anna Mouglalis, a theatrical installation/performance combining film projections and the texts of Ovid and Marguerite Yourcenar, along with text messages (SMS), all written proclamations of love, waiting and the anguish of love at a distance. HEROINE premiered at the Festival of Ortigia[2] in Siracusa, Sicily.
In 2005, Asa directed two films for French TV - Little Italy: Wiseguys, Bullets, Backrooms is a docu-fiction based on the Soundwalk (audio tours) of the mythic mafia neighborhood of New York. Pigalle starring Lou Doillon is the first of a series of five films commissioned by Paris Première, in which a young actress takes you into the heart of her neighborhood, in this case the red-light district of Paris.
Asa Mader has co-written several of the Soundwalk (audio tours), including the official Da Vinci Code tour of the Louvre with Jean Reno.
He is also the narrator of the DUMBO Soundwalk (audio tours).
In 2006, Asa Mader presented three large-format film and video installations shot in Bombay and commissioned by Lille3000 in the exhibition entitled Bombay: Maximum City. Additionally, Asa presented a diptych of “film portraits” on the writers Suketu Mehta (Pulitzer Prize Nominee) and Pavan Varma (author of Being Indian) in the same exhibition.
Asa Mader presented several film works at Le Laboratoire in Paris in a joint exhibit with acclaimed photographer and preeminent photojournalist James Nachtwey, subject of the Academy Award-nominated documentary War Photographer.[3] The exhibit entitled Combat pour la vie / Struggle for Life consists of a series of original photographs bearing witness to James Nachtwey’s work in Siberia, Asia and Africa, and to initiatives in the fight against AIDS, tuberculosis and other infectious diseases. Asa created film portraits of four of the leading medical scientists in this field as well as an installation/portrait of the photographer James Nachtwey.
Asa Mader directed the music video "Violet Hill",[4] the first single of Coldplay's album Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends.[5] The music video was nominated for Best UK Video[6][7] and Best Special Effects in a Video at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards[8] and Best Video at the Q Awards[9]
Asa Mader worked in collaboration with choreographer Benjamin Millepied on a dance (and film) piece entitled Years Later, commissioned and performed by Mikhail Baryshnikov.[10] The piece was previewed on April 14, 2009 at the Baryshnikov Arts Center's Spring Gala in New York and premiered in Riga, Latvia on May 2, 2009.
Asa Mader's most recent collaboration with Benjamin Millepied resulted in the short film "Time Doesn't Stand Still", starring Léa Seydoux.[11] It features an original soundtrack by composer (and longtime David Lynch-collaborator) Angelo Badalamenti. A short teaser of the film was previewed on the website NOWNESS.com in December 2010.[12] The completed version of the film is scheduled to be released in 2011.[13]
Filmography
Feature films
- Sworn Virgin (2009 - in development)
Films for TV
- Pigalle with Lou Doillon (2006)
- Little Italy: Wiseguys, Bullets, Backrooms (2005)
Short films
- Time Doesn't Stand Still (2011)
- La Maladie de la Mort/The Malady of Death (2003)
Music videos
- "Violet Hill" by Coldplay (2008)
References
- ^ a b De Haiden, Moritz (2003) Venice Biennale: Cinematographic Art - 60th International Exhibition, Mondadori Electa, ISBN 978-8837024611
- ^ "Heroine at Festival of Ortigia", Ortigia Festival 2004
- ^ "“Combat pour la vie”, une expo de James Nachtwey", Obiwi, 12/02/08, retrieved 2010-01-21
- ^ "Violet Hill", Youtube Official
- ^ "'George Bush' gets on his dancing shoes for new Coldplay video", NME, May 20, 2008, retrieved 2010-01-21
- ^ "2008 MTV Video Music Awards | Best UK Video", MTV UK News
- ^ "Best UK Video", BBC News Aug 2008
- ^ "MTV Video Music Awards 2008 - Nominees", MTV Video Music Awards, retrieved 2010-01-21
- ^ "Coldplay Top Q Awards List", MTV UK
- ^ "He Has a Pass to Dance as Long as He Wants ", New York Times, May 14, 2009, retrieved 2010-01-21
- ^ "Black Swan Choreographer in Romantic Tango Short", Filmmaker Magazine, December 12, 2010
- ^ "NOWNESS presents Time Doesn't Stand Still" NOWNESS.com, Dec 12, 2010
- ^ "Millepied returns to Movies: New short film with director Asa Mader ", Vogue Italia
External links
Categories:- American film directors
- American music video directors
- American screenwriters
- American filmmakers
- American artists
- Brown University alumni
- New York University alumni
- Living people
- 1975 births
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