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Superlative signs director Claudia Abend
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The documentary director Abend, brings a “Humane Kindness” to spots and branding.
Latin American director/editor and documentary filmmaker Claudia Abend has joined Superlative for spots and branding work.
The announcement was made by Superlative Managing Director David Kwan, EP Pia Clemente and Creative Manager Stefan Dezil. Her empathetic docu-style POV has garnered several international awards for the documentary films Hit (2008), The Flower of Life (2018) and spot work for P&G, Nestle and Blue Cross/Blue Shield. Superlative has already worked with Abend, together producing a new ad campaign for digital agency Tinuiti and The Honest Company, a consumer goods corporation featuring eco-minded products.
“We found Claudia through her poignant documentaries on the festival circuit,” says Dezil. “We are excited about her textured narratives, emotional storytelling, and her powerhouse long-form storytelling abilities, currently on her third feature film. As Superlative continues to build our brand after premiering our latest films at Sundance and SXSW, Claudia is the kind of multidimensional artist we are excited to partner with on branded content and beyond. Fluent in English and Spanish, her reel shows real prowess with infants, food and skin products, families both young and old. Great visual storytelling and inspirational doc work.”
Abend began her career in her native Uruguay, studying film and editing in college. “My dad would show me films like Citizen Kane,” she says. “I love cinema and became an editor. It was here that I learned all about communicating human emotion.”
From the get-go, Abend hit it big as a documentary director, teaming with Adrianna Loeff on Hit, a movie chronicling pop artists of Uruguayan music. Abend took home a Best Editing award for the film. Her second documentary, The Flower of Life, also made with Loeff, received a FONA award from the National Film and Audiovisual Directorate (ICAU) with additional support from the Sundance Institute’s Documentary Edit and Story Lab. The film documents the lives of witty and wise Octogenarians living in Uruguay.
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In between documentary films, Abend has busied herself with the art of directing commercials. “I love the storytelling, telling you something about someone,” she says. “Documentary work and commercials are two different worlds, totally separate, but my documentaries give me experience working with real people.” Abend points to her We Are With You spot for BlueCross.
In the film, Abend chronicles the lives of everyday people taking proactive steps to maximize their health and quality of life. “A group of people with authentic stories of what health means to them,” she says. “I have a way of looking at the world, a sensitive way of filming. I believe all experiences form you.”
Abend also works as a professor, teaching students filmmaking and editing at the local University. She is currently working on her third film titled, Mom is Here, which follows four female artists as they prepare for a play, revealing their deeply personal motherhood stories, including adoption, same-sex parenting, and a child's fight for survival. The film is a portrait of unconditional love and the invisible bond of friendship and complicity shared among women who support one another.
