Award-winning documentary director Ky Dickens joined STORY for exclusive national commercial representation. Recent credits include projects for McDonald’s, Tylenol, Huggies, Kohler and the Illinois Lottery. She is currently working on a project for Hallmark.
“Ky is a passionate director with an amazing gift for working with ordinary people and bringing out the emotional heart of a story,” says STORY executive producer Mark Androw. “She offers a fresh voice and perspective, and we are very excited to introduce her to a wider market.”
Joining Dickens is her longtime producer, Amy McIntyre, who will represent Dickens and STORY’s other directors in the Midwest. McIntyre had previously produced Dickens’ work at Conspiracy and MK Films. She also had produced at Big Deahl in Chicago and in New York.
Dickens’ commercial work includes a documentary-style Mother’s Day video for Tylenol, in which mothers of varying backgrounds talk candidly about their non-traditional families. Among them is actress Lucy Liu, whose child was born via surrogate.
“My passion and experience lays in working with real people,” says Dickens. “Documentary style work is a booming part of the commercial industry. America has fallen in love with documentaries through Netflix and that has led to a demand for more authentic commercials.”
In other recent commercial projects, Dickens has profiled the founders of Koval, a Chicago distillery, and captured the energetic routine of truckers and real delivery workers in a campaign for Wrangler Workwear.
On Dickens’ documentary side, set for release in 2017 are “The City that Sold America,” about Chicago’s illustrious and iconic advertising history, and “Zero Weeks,” about America’s family leave crisis.
Dickens’ 2009 feature doc, “Fish out of Water,” won four juror prizes on the festival circuit and was distributed internationally by Netflix and First Run features.
Her second feature doc, “Sole Survivor,” debuted on CNN in 2014 and became the network’s second highest grossing film. It was named Best Feature Film at the 2013 BMA Awards.
Dickens received a Focus Award for Achievement in Directing from Women in Film. She is a member of the Gene Siskel Film Center Community Council.
