Lana Kim says she's not one to quote the Bible, but on a cool January morning that's precisely what she's doing. "There's this one verse about having a calm and quiet spirit," says the 33-year-old music-video producer, sitting between her two dogs at her Frogtown office. "And I sometimes think that sounds so nice. Really, though, I always feel a little crazy."
How could she not? Best known in industry circles for her seven-year stint at the Directors Bureau -- a production company that's home to such A-list auteurs as Mike Mills and Sofia and Roman Coppola -- Kim recently founded her own company, Hundreds + Thousands, through which she continues to represent Bureau stars along with a host of younger directors. And that's in addition to her other new-media pursuits, including videos Kim has helmed herself (for Stephen Malkmus, Bleached and Blouse, among others) and The Lana Show, an Internet talk show built around her endearingly awkward interviews with the likes of St. Vincent and Will Oldham. Of her seriously hyperactive streak, Kim says with a laugh, "I just get so excited about good creative work." Indeed, her close friends include members of her favorite bands (No Age and Bleached), and proprietors of her favorite stores (Ooga Booga and Family).
That unbridled enthusiasm helped power Kim through countless film production jobs following her move from Las Vegas, where she was born and raised. (One gig involved transporting rolls of film every night from a movie set to the nearest airport, two hours away.) And today it's what keeps her hunting for fresh opportunities even beyond her ample workload. "Yesterday I was helping Doug Aitken out on his next project, this huge film installation for the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C.," she says with a gleeful little-kid grin. "It's gonna be amazing."
