W+Okay Produced Documentary Wins Prime Prize at 2023 SXSW

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Ken A. Meyer started working at Wieden+Kennedy in Portland, Ore. in 2002, two years after being recognized with systemic scleroderma, a life threatening autoimmune dysfunction that thickens and hardens the pores and skin and inner organs. 10 years in the past, he requested the company to assist him make a movie about his expertise and the way he’s discovered consolation within the works of Paul Klee, a Swiss-German painter who had the identical illness.

The result’s Angel Applicant, a 74-minute documentary that made its world premiere at South by Southwest on Monday and was awarded the pageant’s Documentary Characteristic Jury Award. It’s written, directed and edited by Meyer, who has needed to retire on account of his sickness, with Jason Roark, one other former W+Okay worker, serving as director of pictures and a producer.

“Dan (Wieden) and David (Kennedy) didn’t begin an promoting company—they based a spot that may champion the inventive initiatives of our folks —whether or not on behalf of a model or just for the world to see,” W+Okay inventive chief and Angel Applicant government producer Susan Hoffman tells Adweek.

A grasp of the trendy artwork motion, Klee fled Germany in 1933 when he was branded a “degenerate artist” by the Nazi Get together. He started affected by a mysterious ailment whereas in Switzerland that originally stopped his work, however then he turned much more prolific, portray deeply private items that chronicled his experiences with titles comparable to “Concern of the Mirror,” “Abruptly Inflexible” and “Storm within the Physique.” Pictures of the work are interspersed all through the movie as Meyer describes how systemic scleroderma has modified his personal life and the best way he connects to Klee’s story.

“I’m eternally grateful to Wieden+Kennedy for taking part in such a pivotal function within the creation of this movie,” Meyer tells Adweek. “W+Okay is such a particular and beneficiant place that really invests in its folks and their concepts to assist change the world via creativity.”