THE FILMS OF DECO DAWSON

Synopsis

With the use of rapid cutting and lyrical movement, FILM(luster) concentrates on a young man who is foiled into choosing his fate by force of habitual nature.

NOTES:

Upon the completion of the Knout script Dawson realized that with Emend and Luster he was completing a trilogy of sorts,  each film sharing similar stylistic identifiers in regards to photography and editing, while also being umbilically connected in terms of theme, repetition and a universal struggle of hopelessness.    
 
Jenovia Tretiak’s birth name is Sharon A. Johnson.   Dawson and Johnson would collaborate many times over the next few years, including the “sequel” to Knout; The Fever of the Western Nile, an uncompleted project entitled The hunter and the Belle Rose, and The Last Moment.
 
FILM(knout) won the Best Experimental Film Award at the 2000 Chicago Underground Film Festival and the Best Experimental Film Award at the 2001 MMPIA Blizzard Awards.  Knout became Dawson’s first official “break-out” film, screening internationally in France, England, Germany, South America, USA and Canada while still in University.