Paul Swadel
Paul is a prolific director, producer and executive producer.
He's produced and directed a vast array of successful short films which have been screened at Cannes, Venice, Berlin and Sundance festivals to name but a few. A highlight was Accidents that competed at Venice Film Festival and garnered several drama and jury awards in its successful festival run.
Saatchi & Saatchi spotted his talent early in the commercials world for the New Directors Showcase at Cannes in 2000. As a TVC director he has done award winning work for Sony, Nike and had his Playstation work picked up globally.
Paul has directed a significant number of award-winning art documentaries around the world. These range in subject from Placido Domingo at the NY Metropolitan opera to a six-hour series on the history of New Zealand Art – "A superbly made, thoughtful journey... the word seminal springs to mind" – NZ Herald.
The first feature film from Headstrong Ltd that Paul has executive produced with Ant Timpson and Leanne Saunders is The Devil Dared Me To. It has sold well domestically and should be out in UK, US, Canada, Mexico and Germany and other countries in 2008 after playing to 20 International Film Festivals. The second film A Song of Good has begun its festival run with a World Premiere at Rotterdam where it sold out all of its screenings.
Paul is currently developing a number feature projects as a co-director with his brother Marc Swadel who has recently returned to New Zealand from Europe. Marc's reel includes work with The Strokes, Sonic Youth and Iggy Pop, and his TVC work was featured in the Saatchi New Directors Showcase at Cannes in 2003.
Paul has also nurtured a filmmaking partnership with CGI director and animator James Cunningham that spans 12 years and three globally successful short films (including Infection, which screened in competition at Cannes and Sundance among some 20 festivals in total). They are currently working on indie CGI film Marshal, written by Glenn Standring and designed for production with performance capture technology.
Paul is based in Auckland, New Zealand.