Charlie Chaplin: A Man of the World Selects Workhouse as Agency of Record

WORKHOUSE (workhousepr.com) one of the country's leading public relations and integrated creative firms, today announced that it has been selected as the Agency of Record for CHARLIE CHAPLIN, A MAN OF THE WORLD, a documentary feature focusing on the Romany gypsy roots of cinema legend Charlie Chaplin. Workhouse will develop integrated promotional campaigns that synchronize communication efforts, including international endeavors, and will execute a comprehensive public relations plan on behalf of the project. The assignment is effective immediately. Interested media please contact Workhouse, CEO Adam Nelson via email nelson@workhousepr.com or by telephone +1. 212. 645. 8006

Director-Writer Carmen Chaplin directs “Charlie Chaplin, A Man of the World,” a theatrical documentary feature that adds a hardly-explored new facet to the creator of the Tramp, one of the most iconic cinema characters in popular consciousness, plumbing Chaplin’s Romani roots and heritage. 
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Marking the first time that the Chaplin family is involved at a deeply creative and industrial level in a movie about Charles Chaplin, grand-daughter Carmen Chaplin is also co-writing the documentary’s screenplay with Amaia Remírez, a co-writer and lead producer on “Another Day of Life,” a European Film Awards best-animated feature winner, and Isaki Lacuesta, twice awarded with Gold Shell in San Sebastian International Film Festival, a multi-awarded Spanish filmmaker whose work includes documentary, fiction and video installations exhibited worldwide.

A documentary that “radically reinterprets Chaplin’s oeuvre from a Romani perspective and examines the persecution of gypsies through his lens,” “Charlie Chaplin, A Man of the World” is produced by Madrid-based Wave of Humanity’s Stany Coppet, Dolores Chaplin and Ashim Bhalla, Amaia Remírez at San Sebastian’s Kanaki Films, and Nano Arrieta at Madrid’s Atlantika Films.

In addition, attached to the movie Fabien Westerhoff from UK Film Constellation playing as coproducer and international sales agent, B-team pictures as Spanish distributor, with the determining participation of RTVE. Worldwide known gypsy artist Lita Cabellut portrays Chaplin's birth and childhood through animated sequences produced by L.A-Amsterdam based Submarine´s Femke Wolting and Bruno Felix, coproducers of "Charlie Chaplin: A Man of the World". Submarine produces Amazon Undone animation series or Netflix Apollo 10 ½ directed by five Academy Awards nominated Linklater.

CHARLIE CHAPLIN, A MAN OF THE WORLD is a feature-length cinema documentary focusing on the gypsy roots of Charlie Chaplin, cinema legend, musician, and Romany. By exploring Charlie’s birth and childhood (animation), foregrounding distinct gypsy elements in his work (film clips), and by documenting Roma gypsies (cinema verité and interviews), the movie offers a new and unique perspective on Charlie’s life and films as well as celebrating the vibrancy of Romany culture.

Following Charlie’s death in 1977, his daughter Victoria Chaplin discovered a letter addressed to her father which he had kept locked away in his bedside table for years. Michael Chaplin muses, “...my father received thousands of letters from all over the world, why would he keep that one unless it meant something to him?... And why was it a secret?”

The Romany author of the letter recounts the night Charlie Chaplin was born: not in London as widely believed but in a gypsy camp in the English Midlands, “...you don’t know where you were born or in fact who you really are...” taunts Jack Hill.

To more profoundly understand Charlie we must understand what it meant to be gypsy when he was born in 1889: life was arduous and often tragic. But the startling reality is that gypsies have been persecuted across Europe for centuries and continue to be victimized even today.

"20 years ago I made a movie in Bucharest, on my days off I wandered the austere post-communist city and became fascinated by the stray dogs and Romany children. The dogs and the children lived a life distinct from and parallel to the rest of the city: ignored and persecuted. As they scavenged for food whilst hiding from the cops, the Romany children struck me as being straight out of my grandfather’s film THE KID. On returning to the film set, I recounted what I’d seen to the Romanian people closest to me. To my total shock they condemned these children as criminals and low-lifes. This encounter with anti-gypsy stigma stayed with me; I saw that otherwise pleasant people could also view other individuals as worthless and in fact barely human.

This is the first film on Charlie by members of his family, and several of Charlie’s children will participate. I wish to uncover the role that Romany heritage plays in the culture of our family. What did this mean to them growing-up, what do their gypsy roots mean to them now?

CARMEN CHAPLIN (Director, Co-Writer) is a British and Irish multi-racial actress and director. Born in London, Carmen grew-up in France. As an actress, she worked extensively in Europe and also in the U.S. with several eminent directors including André Téchiné, Wim Wenders, Sydney Pollack, and Philippe Rousselot.

In 2012 Carmen directed a visual poem on the theme of time for luxury Swiss watch brand Jaeger- LeCoultre. A Time for Everything was selected for the acclaimed SHOOT New Directors Showcase at the Directors Guild of America Theatre in New York and is hosted online by Vogue; the film screened at the Saatchi Gallery in London and at Lincoln Centre in New York.

In 2014 Carmen wrote and directed a short science-fiction comedy for French car manufacturer Renault: The Innovators screened at Soho House in West Hollywood, Lincoln Center in New York, the Academy Awards qualifying festival Hollyshorts in Los Angeles, and enjoyed a successful festival run through 2015/16.

In 2016 Carmen completed narrative short drama Tryst in Paname starring Dolores Chaplin, Bambou Gainsbourg, and Stany Coppet. The film — showcased worldwide by UniFrance — began its festival run at Chelsea Film Festival in New York and screened at international film festivals through 2016/17 including Manchester International Film Festival and Shorts on Tap in London.

Carmen has two feature film projects in development at her production company Kwanon Films in London. She wrote the feature film screenplay Photocall — described by New York’s A24 Films as “extremely emotional and gripping” — and is also attached to direct the movie; Carmen is currently packaging the film with producing partner Ashim Bhalla.

In 2019 at the San Sebastián Film Festival, Spanish film production companies Wave of Humanity, Atlantika Films, and Kanaki Films announced that Carmen Chaplin is to direct feature documentary on her cinema legend grandfather Charlie Chaplin, a Man of the World.

W O R K H O U S E is one of the country's leading public relations and integrated creative agencies. Celebrating 20 years of service, the agency provides forward thinking public relations, social media, brand promotion, creative consulting and modern day marketing. Clients have included Lou Reed, The Rolling Stones, Hugh Jackman, Francis Ford Coppola, David LaChapelle, CBGB, Max's Kansas City, Interview Magazine, Galleries Lafayette, Porsche, Ford Motor Company, Virgin, Jazz at Lincoln Center, International Emmy Awards, Assouline Editions, Rizzoli International Publications, Tony Shafrazi Gallery, Chase Contemporary, Versace and Avroko. Workhouse offers untraditional service across a broad spectrum of entertainment, culture, fashion and lifestyle spheres. Visit workhousepr.com