Picrow Signs Directing Duo Zeitgeist

Picrow has signed directing duo Zeitgeist, featuring Danish director/writer Liv Colliander, director of the film Dryland, and David Henry Gerson, who recently won a Student Academy Award for his film, All These Voices.  The announcement was made by Picrow founder/director Peter Lang. The duo are excited to apply their highly evocative, visual takes to lifestyle and fashion branding.

SHOOT, SHOOT, SHOOT

“Zeitgeist are extraordinary,” says Lang, who first met the directors at a Kodak party. “They’re great at preproduction, on set, and in post. They have a deep respect for the craft of filmmaking and put a lot on the screen. They’re going to bring a new beauty to advertising.”

“David and I are elated to join Picrow,” adds Colliander. “I think David and I bring something better to lifestyle work. We do it better together. When we pull each other’s strings the work has a color and power that’s on a different level. At the end of the day, we both just love to shoot, shoot, shoot.”

Academy Award

Gerson is a Sundance award-winning filmmaker, who has won prizes from the the American Film Institute and is the winner of the 2016 Student Academy Award for his film All These Voices. The film chronicles a young Nazi soldier coming to terms with his actions after encountering a theater troupe both celebrating and grieving the end of WWII. It’s powerful stuff, that manages to be as much about theater and film as it is about forgiveness and the horrors of the Third Reich.  Though several of Gerson’s films involve serious themes, there are playful elements in his work, too. His commercial work includes spots for Western Digital, The NY Times and surreal excursions into fashion with spec pieces for Prada and Chanel.  “I have always loved the visual languages of high-fashion advertisements — they tend to be as free, as elaborate, and as skillfully crafted as the fashion brands they represent,” says Gerson. “For Prada, I watched tons of Prada ads — which are often so very fun, playful, and seemingly in the shadow of Fellini. For the Chanel piece, I loved Chanel's elegance and grandeur in their ads, their old world sensibility, and thought a Film Noir for Coco Noir was a natural fit!”

A Dane of Light and Dark

Colliander is a Danish director best known for writing and directing of her highly lauded short film Dryland, the story of a young girl using her love of swimming to help cope with the trauma of her mother’s suicide attempt. In addition to her short films, on the ad side Colliander has directed branding films sponsored by Porsche for the book ROR MIG, a Danish suspense thriller authored by Linda Victoria, and Fishley, a smartphone-based sports fishing app. “I love finding the beauty in the real and the raw, and weaving that sensibility into a cinematic story.”  So Colliander says working with Gerson is a perfect union.  “There are complicated and complementing elements in both of us — light and dark coexist with the intimacy of the real and the hugeness of spectacle and they complement each other tremendously — we feed off each other.  Our work together, our whole, is greater than the sum of its parts.”