Daniel Nearing

Daniel R. Nearing

Daniel Nearing
Born Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada
Nationality Canadian
Citizenship American
Alma mater University of Toronto
Notable work Hogtown, Chicago Heights
Awards 2015 Fellow, John Simon Guggenheim Foundation

Daniel Nearing (born December 21, 1961) is a Chicago, Illinois-based director, screenwriter, and independent filmmaker. Hogtown, his 2015 "period-less" American film, has been called "the most original film made in Chicago about Chicago to date."[1]

His earlier breakthrough film, the micro-budget production Chicago Heights (2010) garnered rave reviews, especially among fans of the original source material, Sherwood Anderson’s influential collection of short stories, Winesburg, Ohio, a book long thought impossible to be adapted as a film. Noted film critic Roger Ebert included Chicago Heights in his list of the Top Art Films of 2010.[2]

Nearing’s storytelling style tends to be more circular than linear. He views plot as a veneer that ties together the more important, character-centered aspects of any story. Nearing is known for building sequences of vignettes and using powerful imagery to focus on the isolation and humility of human life. He works primarily in black and white, with moments of what he refers to as "ecstatic color" and with heavily shadowed, "idiosyncratic" shot compositions.[3] Michael Phillips of The Chicago Tribune says that "Nearing's chosen way of telling a story is poetic, elliptical and sometimes unhelpfully indirect... with a true artist's eye."[4]

Nearing is also a professor at Governors State University in University Park, Illinois, where he is a three-time winner of faculty excellence awards and founded the MFA in Independent Film and Digital Imaging program.[5]

Life and career

Nearing studied for his MA in modern and contemporary literature at the University of Toronto, and went on to earn an MFA in film from Toronto’s York University, and served as producer resident at the Canadian Film Centre. He has studied under Northrop Frye (Anatomy of Criticism) and Michael Ondaatje (The English Patient).

He began his film career as a documentary filmmaker, making narrative-driven documentaries for both Canadian and U.S. outlets such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Discovery Networks, The Sports Network and Bravo. His subjects have included juvenile homicide, the longest bridge in the world over ice-forming waters, Russians playing in the National Hockey League, and the stagecraft of some of the world's finest writers. He shifted his focus to dramatic projects and founded 9:23 Films in 2008, feeling that documentary filmmaking "does not allow such direct access to deeper truths."

After several attempts at a faithful adaptation of Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio, with collaborator Rudy Thauberger, the script and its production finally clicked when Nearing decided to set the rural period piece in a contemporary city. Chicago Heights was shot for just $1,000 in 2009. Chicago Heights premiered in competition at the Busan International Film Festival, was named Best Film in a Fine Arts Discipline at the Berlin Black Film Festival and received an Honorable Mention at the Columbus International Film Festival. A short version, Nobody Knows, was placed in the Cannes Film Festival’s Short Film Corner.

In 2011 Nearing adapted Rudy Thauberger’s Goalie, a widely anthologized Canadian short story about hockey and obsession. The film had its world premiere at the Vancouver International Film Festival in Fall 2011.

Nearing followed those projects up with his original script Hogtown, a murder mystery set against the backdrop of the 1919 Chicago race riots. This film reveals the collective influence the works Sherwood Anderson, EL Doctorow and Michael Ondaatje have had on Nearing’s work. Hogtown was filmed on location in Illinois, Indiana, Ontario and Paris. The film stars Herman Wilkins, Diandra Lyle, McKenzie Chinn, Pete Giovagnoli, Dianne Bischoff, Alexander Sharon and Marco Garcia. The film made its US debut at Chicago's Gene Siskel Film Center. Bill Stamets of The Chicago Sun-Times has called it "the most original film made in Chicago about Chicago to date."

Nearing is presently (2015) in development with Raphaël Berdugo of Cité Films (Paris) on Petit Monde, an experimental narrative set in Paris in 1909, involving Marcel Proust, Henri Bergson, and Albert Kahn, and Archives of the Planet, a documentary about Albert Khan and the birth of color in photography. He is also developing The Peerless Film Manufacturing Company, a multiracial film about the birth of the American film industry in Chicago.

A Chicago resident since 2001, Nearing has been married to graphic designer Lisa Klein since 2009. Their vintage Chicago bungalow has been profiled in American Bungalow [6] and appears in Chicago Heights, Goalie and Hogtown.

Filmography

Feature films

Documentaries

Short films

Awards and recognition

Reviews

[9] [10]

References

  1. ↑ Stamets, Bill. "A Highly Original Vision of 1919 Chicago". The Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 7 March 2015.
  2. ↑ Ebert, Roger. "The Best Art Films of 2010". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 4 October 2013.
  3. ↑ Hendrickson, Paula. "Daniel Nearing and The Last Soul on a Summer Night". Creative Screenwriting. Retrieved 4 October 2013.
  4. ↑ Phillips, Michael. "Hogtown: Review". The Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 7 March 2015.
  5. ↑ "MFA IFDI website". Governors State University. Retrieved 4 October 2013.
  6. ↑ Hendrickson, Paula. American Bungalow "Treasure Hunting" Check |url= value (help). Retrieved 4 October 2013.
  7. ↑ Best Art Films of 2010 - Roger Ebert
  8. ↑ Ebert, Roger. "Chicago Heights". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 12 October 2013.
  9. ↑ Koziarski, Ed. "Winesburg, Ohio, in Chicago Heights". Chicago Reader. Retrieved 4 April 2014.
  10. ↑ Marz, Megan. "Chicago Heights". The Point.

External links

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