Asa Mader is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 film director

Film director

A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...

, screenwriter

Screenwriter

Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...

 and visual artist.

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

YSL

YSL may mean* Yarrow Shipbuilders Ltd* Yves Saint Laurent * Yves Saint Laurent * St. Leonard Airport, St. Leonard, New Brunswick, Canada* A brand of cigarette sold by Japan Tobacco* Yamaha's model code for trombones...

, Versace

Versace

Gianni Versace S.p.A. , usually referred to as Versace, is an Italian fashion label founded by Gianni Versace in 1978.The first Versace boutique was opened in Milan's Via della Spiga in 1978, and its popularity was immediate. Today, Versace is one of the world's leading international fashion houses...

, Valentino

Valentino

Valentino Clemente Ludovico Garavani , best known as Valentino, is an Italian fashion designer and founder of the Valentino SpA brand and company. His main lines were Valentino, Valentino Garavani, Valentino Roma, and R.E.D...

, Bulgari

Bulgari

Bulgari is an Italian jeweler and luxury goods retailer which has been owned by the French firm LVMH since October 2011. The trademark is usually written "BVLGARI" in the classical Latin alphabet , and is derived from the surname of the company's Greek founder, Sotirio Voulgaris...

, Cacharel

Cacharel

Cacharel is a French brand of ready-to-wear clothing, perfume and accessories. It was created in 1962 by Jean Bousquet, in Nîmes, who founded the company of the same name in 1964...

, Dolce&Gabbana, Pucci

Pucci

Pucci may refer to:*Members of the Pucci family, a major Florentine political family**Antonio di Puccio Pucci , Florentine politician and architect**Puccio Pucci , Florentine politician, son of Antonio...

, Paul Smith

Paul Smith

Paul Smith may refer to:In music:*Paul Smith , British record label manager and art event producer*Paul Smith , prominent composer of American film music*Paul Smith , Los Angeles jazz pianist...

, Sisley

Sisley

Sisley may refer to:*Alfred Sisley, a French impressionist painter of English origin*Sisley, a Benetton Group brand, established in 1974*Sisley Paris, , a French cosmetics company founded in Paris in 1976 by Roland de Saint Vincent and Jean Francois Laporte, before being taken over by the famous...

, Missoni

Missoni

Missoni is an Italian fashion house based in Varese. It is famous for its unique knitwear, made from a variety of fabrics in colourful patterns. The company was founded by Ottavio and Rosita Missoni in 1953.-Brands:...

, Moschino

Moschino

Moschino is an Italian fashion design house and manufacturer of women's, men's and children's fashion.-History:The brand was originally created in 1983 by the late Franco Moschino...

, Vivienne Westwood

Vivienne Westwood

Dame Vivienne Westwood, DBE, RDI is a British fashion designer and businesswoman, largely responsible for bringing modern punk and new wave fashions into the mainstream.-Early life:...

 and Oscar de la Renta

Oscar de la Renta

Oscar de la Renta is one of the world's leading fashion designers. He was named to the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame in 1973.-Career:...

) -- 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

Marguerite Duras

Marguerite Donnadieu, better known as Marguerite Duras was a French writer and film director.-Background:...

 and starring Anna Mouglalis

Anna Mouglalis

-Biography:Anna Mouglalis was born in Nantes, Loire-Atlantique, to her Greek father and French mother. She spent her youth in the Var département, before moving back to Nantes with her family. Her father is a doctor and her mother is a masseuse. Until 2001 she studied at the Conservatoire National...

, was part of the official selection of the Venice Film Festival

Venice Film Festival

The Venice International Film Festival is the oldest international film festival in the world. Founded by Count Giuseppe Volpi in 1932 as the "Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica", the festival has since taken place every year in late August or early September on the island of the...

  among others: Locarno Film Festival, “Premiers Plans” in Angers, Cannes Film Festival

Cannes Film Festival

The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...

 (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

Anna Mouglalis

-Biography:Anna Mouglalis was born in Nantes, Loire-Atlantique, to her Greek father and French mother. She spent her youth in the Var département, before moving back to Nantes with her family. Her father is a doctor and her mother is a masseuse. Until 2001 she studied at the Conservatoire National...

, a theatrical installation/performance combining film projections and the texts of Ovid

Ovid

Publius Ovidius Naso , known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet who is best known as the author of the three major collections of erotic poetry: Heroides, Amores, and Ars Amatoria...

 and Marguerite Yourcenar

Marguerite Yourcenar

Marguerite Yourcenar was a Belgian-born French novelist and essayist. Winner of the Prix Femina and the Erasmus Prize, she was the first woman elected to the Académie française, in 1980, and the seventeenth person to occupy Seat 3.-Biography:Yourcenar was born Marguerite Antoinette Jeanne Marie...

, 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 in Siracusa, Sicily

Sicily

Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...

.

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

Lou Doillon

Lou Doillon is a French model and actress. Her father is director Jacques Doillon and her mother is British actress and singer Jane Birkin.-Biography:...

 is the first of a series of five films commissioned by Paris Première

Paris Première

Paris Première is a French TV channel, available on cable, satellite and the digital terrestrial service, Télévision Numérique Terrestre. It was launched on December 15, 1986 and is now wholly owned by M6.-External links:*...

, in which a young actress takes you into the heart of her neighborhood, in this case the red-light district of Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

.

Asa Mader has co-written several of the Soundwalk (audio tours), including the official Da Vinci Code tour of the Louvre

Louvre

The Musée du Louvre – in English, the Louvre Museum or simply the Louvre – is one of the world's largest museums, the most visited art museum in the world and a historic monument. A central landmark of Paris, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement...

 with Jean Reno

Jean Reno

Jean Reno is a French actor. Working in French, English, Spanish and Italian, he has appeared not only in numerous successful Hollywood productions such as The Pink Panther, Godzilla, The Da Vinci Code, Mission: Impossible, Ronin and Couples Retreat, but also in European productions such as the...

.

He is also the narrator of the DUMBO

Dumbo

Dumbo is a 1941 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and released on October 23, 1941, by RKO Radio Pictures.The fourth film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, Dumbo is based upon the storyline written by Helen Aberson and illustrated by Harold Pearl for the prototype of a...

 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

Suketu Mehta

Suketu Mehta is a writer based in New York City. He was born in Kolkata, India, and raised in Bombay where he lived until his family moved to the New York area in 1977. He has attended New York University and the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop.His autobiographical account of his experiences...

 (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

James Nachtwey

James Nachtwey is an American photojournalist and war photographer.He grew up in Massachusetts and graduated from Dartmouth College, where he studied Art History and Political Science ....

, subject of the Academy Award-nominated documentary War Photographer

War Photographer

War Photographer is a documentary by Christian Frei about the photographer James Nachtwey. As well as telling the story of an iconic man in the field of war photography, the film addresses the broader scope of ideas common to all those involved in war journalism, as well as the issues that they...

. The exhibit entitled Combat pour la vie / Struggle for Life consists of a series of original photographs bearing witness to James Nachtwey

James Nachtwey

James Nachtwey is an American photojournalist and war photographer.He grew up in Massachusetts and graduated from Dartmouth College, where he studied Art History and Political Science ....

’s work in Siberia, Asia and Africa, and to initiatives in the fight against AIDS

AIDS

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...

, tuberculosis

Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...

 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

James Nachtwey

James Nachtwey is an American photojournalist and war photographer.He grew up in Massachusetts and graduated from Dartmouth College, where he studied Art History and Political Science ....

.

Asa Mader directed the music video "Violet Hill

Violet Hill

Violet Hill, also known as Tsz Lo Lan Shan is located within Tai Tam Country Park in Hong Kong. The hill is a popular site for hiking. Hong Kong Government named three trails on the hill, namely Wilson Trail, Tsz Lo Lan Shan Path and Tai Tam Country Trail...

", the first single of Coldplay

Coldplay

Coldplay are a British alternative rock band formed in 1996 by lead vocalist Chris Martin and lead guitarist Jonny Buckland at University College London. After they formed Pectoralz, Guy Berryman joined the group as a bassist and they changed their name to Starfish. Will Champion joined as a...

's album Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends

Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends

Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends, often referred to as simply Viva la Vida is the fourth studio album by British rock band Coldplay, released on 11 June 2008 on Parlophone. The album was named after a Spanish phrase that translates in English as "long live life"...

.
The music video was nominated for Best UK Video and Best Special Effects in a Video at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards

2008 MTV Video Music Awards

The 2008 MTV Video Music Awards took place on September 7, 2008 live from Paramount Pictures Studios , honoring the best music videos from the previous year. Nominations for a majority of the categories were announced on the MTV program FNMTV after being selected through viewer online voting at...

 and Best Video at the Q Awards

Q Awards

The Q Awards are the UK's annual music awards run by the music magazine Q. Since they began in 1990, the Q Awards have become one of Britain's biggest and best publicised music awards, helped in no small part by the often boisterous behavior of the celebrities who attend the event...

Asa Mader worked in collaboration with choreographer Benjamin Millepied

Benjamin Millepied

Benjamin Millepied is a French danseur, best known for his work as choreographer in the movie Black Swan .-Early life:...

 on a dance (and film) piece entitled Years Later, commissioned and performed by Mikhail Baryshnikov

Mikhail Baryshnikov

Mikhail Nikolaevich Baryshnikov is a Soviet and American dancer, choreographer, and actor, often cited alongside Vaslav Nijinsky and Rudolf Nureyev as one of the greatest ballet dancers of the 20th century. After a promising start in the Kirov Ballet in Leningrad, he defected to Canada in 1974...

. 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

Benjamin Millepied

Benjamin Millepied is a French danseur, best known for his work as choreographer in the movie Black Swan .-Early life:...

 resulted in the short film "Time Doesn't Stand Still", starring Léa Seydoux

Léa Seydoux

Léa Seydoux is a French actress and model. She is the granddaughter of Jérôme Seydoux, Chairman of Pathé, and grandniece of Nicolas Seydoux, Chairman and CEO of Gaumont....

. It features an original soundtrack by composer (and longtime David Lynch

David Lynch

David Keith Lynch is an American filmmaker, television director, visual artist, musician and occasional actor. Known for his surrealist films, he has developed his own unique cinematic style, which has been dubbed "Lynchian", and which is characterized by its dream imagery and meticulous sound...

-collaborator) Angelo Badalamenti

Angelo Badalamenti

Angelo Badalamenti is an American composer, known for his movie soundtrack work for director David Lynch, notably Blue Velvet, the Twin Peaks saga and Mulholland Drive...

. A short teaser of the film was previewed on the website NOWNESS.com in December 2010. The completed version of the film is scheduled to be released in 2011.

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)

External links

• Asa Mader - personal website