Robyn Friedman, Danny Friedman Launch Compass Artist Management; American Documentary Create Mental Health Fund; Vision Films Boards ‘A Bennett Song Holiday’ – Film Briefs

Amanda N'Duka
·3 min read

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Entertainment industry vets Robyn Friedman and Danny Friedman have co-founded Compass Artist Management (CAM), a Toronto-based full-service talent and management agency that will rep clients for film, television, stage, new media, motion capture and voice artists in North America and around the world. The sibling duo will co-manage the firm’s roster, with an experienced executive team including Jane Cai as co-founder and VP of operations, Noreen Murphy as agent and manager of the firm’s Voice Performance Division, and Stephanie Zavitz as accounting manager.

The new venture has already established its roster with talents such as Shay Mitchell (Pretty Little Liars), Christopher Russell (Jack Ryan), Charlene Amoia (How I Met Your Mother), Hallea Jones (Locke & Key), Jarrod MacLean (Designated Survivor), Kevin Hanchard (Orphan Black) as well as stage actors Makambe Simamba, Samantha Walkes (Book of Mormon) and Simon Gagnon (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child).

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Robyn began her career with the Talent Group and has been working with performers for thirty-five years. She co-founded Artist Management Inc (AMI) and most recently co-managed the client roster at FTI.

Danny, who has over two decades of industry experience, began his career as a music composer for film and television. The 11-time SOCAN Award winner was also production executive at one of Canada’s leading media companies, CanWest (now Corus Entertainment) where held positions as producer of children’s programming, senior producer of promotions and live events, and music director for all of the company’s international television assets including, Global TV in Canada, Network 10 in Australia and La Red in Chile. He’s also co-managed clients with Robyn at AMI and FTI.

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American Documentary (AmDoc), the nonprofit organization behind the award-winning PBS series POV, is launching a new Artist Mental Health Fund to support the independent documentary community by providing critical support for the mental health of Black artists as well as indigenous peoples and artists of color (BIPOC) who are working directors, producers and interactive creators. These grants come at a time when the overall concerns about mental health in the documentary field, particularly as filmmakers of color are disproportionately vulnerable to lack of work and health risks due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the toll of ongoing systemic racism and police brutality. The creation of the Artist Mental Health Fund was informed by conversations with mental health practitioners, filmmakers and interactive creators, as well as critical learnings shared from the D-Word community and at the International Documentary Association’s (IDA) Getting Real ‘18 conference. Applications will be accepted until June 20.

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Vision Films has acquired worldwide rights to A Bennett Song Holiday, the sequel to 2018’s romantic family comedy Bennett’s Song starring Corbin Bernsen. Harley Wallen returned to direct the sequel which takes place where the original left off but this time the journey is quite different. Pearl (Calhoun Koenig) is returning from touring with her band managed by her new grandpa Sam Bennett (Dennis Haskins) and decides that the band will start helping at the community center ran by her deaf uncle Adam (James Caverly). When the villainous trio of Aiden Neville (Corbin Bernsen), Paul Neville (Fred Buchalter) and Tessa Anderson (Kaiti Wallen) try to turn the community center into retail and condo space, the family come together to fight for the community. Harley Wallen, Aphrodita Nikolovski, and Bryce Xavier co-star. Painted Creek Productions produced the pic in conjunction with Auburn Moon Productions.

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