Deco Dawson's Influence

"Coda in G Minor" began as a spark of an idea during a Director's Eye Talk when I saw Deco Dawson's "Knout" for the first time. The high contrast black and white imagery and the surreal subject matter captivated me. I knew I had to make a film in that style.

In case you aren't familiar with the 29-year-old surrealist Winnipeg filmmaker Deco Dawson, he's "the Enfant Possible of Canadian Cinema" (FFWD Magazine). From 2000-2003 Deco collaborated with fellow Winnipeg cult-filmmaker Guy Maddin, acting as Editor and Co-Cinematographer of such projects as "The Heart of the World" and the feature film "Dracula: pages from a virgin’s diary," on which Deco also served as Associate Co-Director. Selected for the prestigious 2005 Berlin Talent Campus, the 2004 Talent Lab at the Toronto International Film Festival, named one of the top 25 young independent filmmakers in North America by New York's Filmmaker and one of the top 10 Canadian Industry Trailblazers by The Reel World Film Festival, Deco Dawson has been achieving international acclaim for his film work for many years. Deco Dawson is currently completing post-production on two new full-length projects and a feature film script. (I don't know about you, but I'm pretty impressed by all that!)

In the fall of 2007, Deco was the artist-in-residence at the Calgary Society of Independent Filmmakers. Being in the process of completing a short film inspired by one of his films made it especially exciting for me. I participated in Deco's editing workshop and even had an opportunity to sit down with Deco one-on-one in an editing suite and have him offer feedback and suggestions on the editing of "Coda."

It very satisfying to come full circle on this project, starting with the films of Deco Dawson and finishing with Deco Dawson himself. The cherry on top for me was Deco's passing comment that "Coda" reminded him of the work of Maya Deren. The appropriateness of that comment will come clear when I blog about the development of the narrative in this film.