DECO DAWSON
Writer, Director, Editor
Deco Dawson is a multimedia artist and filmmaker like no other; his 20 unique short films have garnered international awards at festivals worldwide, including two Best Short Film Awards at the Toronto International Film Festival for his films Keep a Modest Head and FILM(dzama) and a Canadian Screen Award nomination.
Deco is known for his oft surreal, highly art-directed, archaic and visually stunning film work, as well as his transcendent, multi-dimensional, mesmerizing projection work in theatre. The New York Times called his work on the Off-Broadway show Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under the Sea “jaw dropping”. Having been shortlisted for the Cannes Cine Foundation, Cannes Director’s Fortnight and Critics week, Deco’s singular work is revered by many, and includes collaborations with Guy Maddin, Jim Jarmusch, visual artists Marcel Dzama, Rebecca Belmore, Adam Pendelton and Jean Benoit, the last member of the historic Surrealist movement in Paris.
Equal parts FW Murnau, David Lynch, Ulrich Seidl and Wim Wenders, Deco’s uncompromising style remains in a category all unto its own. Tirelessly pushing boundaries and genres, Deco Dawson’s long-awaited debut feature film DIASPORA unpacks decades of Winnipeg history, perpetual immigrant loneliness and pushes European slow cinema into compelling new directions while displaying the same fearlessness found in his two decades of short film work.
