Adrienne Campbell-Holt is stepping behind the camera. The award-winning theater director has signed on to make her feature debut with “Contested,” a political thriller. A press release announced the news.
Penned by former political operative Lynn Reed, the timely pic “examines political polarization through the lens of family rift. Kate Adams is the top advisor to the woman who would be the first female president of the United States, while her brother Mark serves in a similar capacity for the opponent,” the project’s synopsis details. “Although they have battled professionally for decades, the extreme tactics and high stakes of this campaign threaten to destroy any remaining familial bond, while also threatening to permanently (and literally) divide the country.”
Campbell-Holt, founding artistic director of New York’s Colt Coeur theater, has directed 11 world premieres, including Ana Nogueira’s “Empathitrax,” Ruby Rae Spiegel’s “Dry Land,” and Theresa Rebeck’s “Downstairs.” She served as associate director on Broadway’s “Dear Evan Hansen.” In addition to shadowing directors on series such as “Madam Secretary” and “Grey’s Anatomy,” Campbell-Holt has helmed two shorts, “Henry and the Trains” and “Autobiography of Red.”
Reed is producing via her Kettle Cove Productions banner.
“Lynn Reed has a demonstrated commitment to telling emotionally impactful stories set against the backdrop of larger narratives about ambition and identity,” Campbell-Holt said in a statement. “As a lifelong political junkie, I’m thrilled to join Lynn on this journey and bring this moving story to the screen.”
“I think it’s a really exciting and inspiring time to be a female director,” Campbell-Holt told us in 2018. “I feel so energized by all of the playwrights that are putting women front and center and are allowing women to have all the complexity men have had for many hundreds of years — especially in our culture, where we are having really interesting conversations about how we internalize the impact of our conscience, actions, and behaviors.”
The director added, “I’m also a huge film person. I love so many of the female filmmakers that are telling stories that are new and surprising. Movies reach so many more people than most theater productions. Marielle Heller [director of ‘The Diary of a Teenage Girl’ and ‘Can You Ever Forgive Me?’] and Desiree Akhavan [director of ‘The Miseducation of Cameron Post’] are both very exciting to me.”
