Named one of the top 25 young independent filmmakers in North America by New York’s Filmmaker Magazine in 2002, and one of the top 10 Canadian Industry Trailblazers by The Reel World Film Festival, Deco Dawson has been achieving international acclaim for his body of short film work for a number of years.
Having directed and produced 14 short films, including FILM(dzama) the winner of the Toronto International Film Festival’s 2001 BEST SHORT FILM AWARD, and The Ann Arbor Film Festival’s 2002 BEST TECHNICAL INNOVATION AWARD, Dawson has screened his films in festivals across the globe. Of late, Dawson has received several survey retrospectives of his films in Canada, at the Royal Cinema, Cinematheque Ontario, the Metro Cinema, the Pacific Cinematheque, the Winnipeg Cinematheque, the Canadian Film Institute, the Plaza Theatre in Calgary and the Calgary International Film Festival, Internationally at La Enana Marron in Madrid, Spain, La Club Pipa in Barcelona, Spain, Le Collectif Jeune Cinema in Paris, France and a complete 15 film retrospective hosted by the Northwest Film Forum in Seattle, Washington.
As well as forming a body of solo film work, Dawson associate co-directed and edited the dance feature film Dracula: Pages from a Virgin’s Diary with cult filmmaker Guy Maddin. The film won the GOLDEN PRAGUE AWARD at the 2002 Golden Prague International Television Festival, and an International Emmy Award for Best Performing Arts. From 2000-2003 Dawson and Maddin created a handful of short films with Maddin directing and Dawson both filming and editing, including the 2001 winner of the BEST EXPERIMENTAL FILM OF THE YEAR AWARD, handed out by the Critics of Lincoln Centre to The Heart of the World.
Dawson is presently in development on his first solo, feature script entitled Lost Angels in Hollywood about the forgotten, Hungarian, Hollywood, film director, Dr. Paul Fejos. Dawson is also in production on a three part short film trilogy about Jean Benoit (of Paris), the last remaining member of the most influential art movement of the 20th Century, the French Surrealists.
In 2005 Dawson completely reinvented his filmmaking style, with DUMB ANGEL a vibrant, one take short film featuring drumming phenom Anders Erickson, winner of the BEST 16MM FILM AWARD at the 2006 Ann Arbor Film Festival. In 2006 Dawson emerged with yet another breakout film; Elizabeth Short a sensitive yet evocative portrait of the 1947 Black Dahlia murder victim, Dawson’s first foray into video.
In 2007 Dawson completed his most stunning and accomplished film to date THE LAST MOMENT a 29 minute short film chronicling the last moments of a man’s life, as told through five styles of film history.
In 2008 Dawson completed METRIC: Live at Metropolis a commercially released DVD for Indie rock band METRIC. In 2009 Dawson created the music video for METRIC’s internationally celebrated track Help I’m Alive. The video has been shown on nearly every international incarnation of MTV and presently has over 600 000 hits on YouTube. 2009 also found Dawson directing two music videos each for both Inward Eye and Flying Machines.
In the fall of 2010 Dawson released his most recent film Sluice Box and a Rocker, an experimental documentary short on the ruins of Dawson City, Yukon. In 2010 Dawson completed HYDRO: Tergus/Viscus, an experimental portrait of Hydro Place, one of the most eco-friendly skyscraper in North America.
In 2011 Dawson was commissioned by the Festival du Nouveau Cinema to create a four minute film for the festival’s 40th Anniversary. Dawson took this opportunity to create the idiosyncratic Sins of the Father, a four minute retelling of Charles Laughton’s 1955 masterpiece, The Night of the Hunter. Sins of the Father uses minuatres to recreate key-iconic scenes from the Laughton thriller.
After 8 years, in 2012 Deco Dawson has finally completed his long awaited short Ne Crâne Pas Sois Modete (Keep a Modest Head) on Jean Benoît, the last member of the French Surrealists Filled with much visual vivaciousness, NCPSM is truly Dawson’s most accomplished film to date.
