Directing
A cinematic version of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet's adaptation of Bram Stoker's gothic novel Dracula. Filmed in a style reminiscent of silent Expressionist cinema of the early 20th century (complete with intertitles and monochrome photography), it uses dance to tell the story of a sinister but intriguing immigrant who preys upon young English women.
Pure fantasia, a race to save the world from a fatal heart attack, juxtaposed against a love rivalry between two brothers - a mortician and an actor playing Christ - for the heart of a scientist studying the earth's core.
Deco Dawson uses rare audio recording and film footage taken from Jean Benoit's studio in Paris to whimsically illustrate the life of the last official member of the hugely influential Surrealist group.
With the use of rapid cutting and lyrical movement, FILM(luster) concentrates on a young man who is foiled into choosing his fate by force of habitual nature.
Using archival footage, newsprint images, text and an innovative use of audio, award winning filmmaker Deco Dawson has fashioned a sensitive yet harrowing collage account of the 1947 Black Dahlia murder. Created exclusively using crude digital technology, the film presents a human side to the murder, focusing on the victim Elizabeth Short and not the often-sensationalized aspects of the murder and unknown murderer.
Men live in a mine.
Inspired by fragments of Gus Van Sant's LAST DAYS, DUMB ANGEL features 17 year-old preternaturally talented rock drummer Anders Erickson, the undisputed incarnation of the Who's Keith Moon. Equal parts short film, improvised performance, documentary, music video, experimental film and audio composition, DUMB ANGEL presents an odd examination of fame, talent and television celebrity.
A group of drowned men arise from Lake Winnipeg to individually visit the homes of lonely women. home. After various passionate trysts, the men grab trinkets and jewellery from the women's homes and and return to the waters of the lake.
After a near-death experience, retired machinist Lorne Collie started making whimsical stringed instruments. His DIY inventiveness transformed lawn rakes, stop signs, and bent pitchforks into fully playable banjos, fiddles and violins.
A man polishes his shoe.
Summer passings observed the enigmatic West Nile malady steal its way into the minds and forests of Winnipeg wanderers, casting its feverish amnesia spell; immobilizing wooded creatures collectively pleading to be cured and released of their infirmity. A cautious wanderer disregards her own ailment to aid the others as best she can; however the forest hosts its own fevers.
Filmmaker Deco Dawson has created an entirely fictional biography of the internationally celebrated visual artist Marcel Dzama. FILM(dzama) is motivated by the sheer magic, humour and disobedience of Marcel Dzama's work, coupled with the the stylistically obstinate themes common to dawson's work. FILM(dzama) is an attempt to rekindle the surrealist cinema made popular in the 1920's by Dali and Bunuel and Man Ray.
With the use of expressionist cutting and lyrical movement, KNOUT concentrates on a young woman who sets down to the task of tying rope. She meets a doppelganger version of herself, and a vicious confrontation of self occurs.
A captivating portrait of a young woman's temporal test of fate and purity. Thrown into a vaguely familiar yet unkind world, the beautiful, virginal, young anima must cope and endure as best she can, striving to exude her purity upon the cold, immoral universe
Arriving in Winnipeg's North End in search of a better life, young Ukrainian immigrant Eva finds a city filled with rundown, outdated establishments and a disproportional number of other immigrants all too in search for a new life, all desperately holding onto their language and cultural, creating a neighborhood of miscommunication, apathy and growing alienation.
Over 98% of the living world on Earth is smaller than a bee. Yet humans view the planet as a world centered around themselves. Landscapes are deconstructed to suit human needs, often with little regard for the natural systems that sustain the food web. The Extraordinary Caterpillar follows the scientists and community activists with this peek into the dazzling world of nature’s tiniest superheroes.
The movie captures the Canadian synth-rock superstars in action at a Fall 2006 Montreal stop on their Live It Out tour. Concert tracklist: 01. Live it Out 02. Glass Ceiling 03. Wet Blanket 04. Too Little Too Late 05. Poster of a Girl 06. Patriarch on a Vespa 07. Monster Hospital 08. Handshakes 09. The Police and the Private 10. Hustle Rose 11. Combat Baby 12. Dead Disco 13. Love is a Place
This short film profiles Jean Giguère, a lifelong volunteer and champion for the arts. Giguère has witnessed the transformative power of the arts in our society—an experience that’s enriched her life immeasurably.
