About your teacher
getting a fake wound during my Concordia Special Effects class
with Production Assistant Jade and “FrankenTurkey,” on Little Girl Blue
Hi!
I was a student at Champlain College just a year after it opened, in 1973. I was in the Literature program, thinking idly of a career in journalism, when a film course turned my head. I finished my two years at Champlain completely immersed in film and filmmaking, and never looked back!
I carried on at Concordia’s Communication Studies program, and while there I had the good fortune to get a job part-time at a repertory movie theatre where I could indulge my passion for watching movies! After I graduated, I worked as a writer, director and producer of corporate communications, advertising, and music videos. But then I was hired to teach at Champlain in 1992, and the minute I walked into the classroom I felt at home. I loved teaching, and understood pretty quickly that it was what I was destined to do.
I went back to school at night in 1999, earning my Masters degree in Film Studies. I was also hired by my old university department – the Communication Studies program at Concordia. In addition to the teaching, I participate in occasional film activities outside – acting as “host” of Cinema du Parc’s Hitchcock Festival, introducing director Jean-Jacques Annaud and acting as moderator during the Quest for Fire anniversary screening, organizing screenings and speaking as a guest at film clubs around the city. And I still get involved in filmmaking projects, including the occasional music video.
The cinema is no longer the dominant art form of our times, as it was during the 20th century, but it has influenced almost all our visual culture. And during its 125 years of history, the cinema has helped create and shape our values.
It will be my great pleasure this semester to introduce you to a more detailed and knowledgeable way to appreciate movies!
Dan
downtown Montreal, during a night shoot for Little Girl Blue