Daniel Nearing

Daniel Nearing studied for his MA in modern and contemporary Literature at the University of Toronto, received an MFA in Film from York University, and was a Producer Resident at the Canadian Film Centre. He has studied under Northrop Frye (Anatomy of Criticism) and Michael Ondaatje (The English Patient). Nearing is a 2015-16 Fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation and 2016 Fellow of the MacDowell Colony. In 2015 he completed Hogtown, the second film in a trilogy of multi-ethnic, ensemble period features shot in black and white and "ecstatic color." The film looks at the emergence of a multicultural America through the prism of Chicago. The Chicago Sun-Times calls it "the most original film made in Chicago about Chicago to date" (Bill Stamets). The Chicago Reader has named Hogtown the best film set in Chicago, and the best film made in Chicago, "period," for 2015 (J.R. Jones). Hogtown was named Best Feature Film at the 2015 International Black Film Festival (Nashville), Best Film in a Fine Arts Discipline at the 30th Black International Cinema Berlin, Best Picture at the 2015 Los Angeles Black Film Festival, and winner of the 2015 Independent Film Playoff (a consortium of seven Los Angeles festivals with over three hundred films in competition). The first film in the trilogy, Chicago Heights, is an adaptation of Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio. The "period-less" observation on exurban and small town life played at festivals around the world, and Roger Ebert named it to his list of the Best Art Films of 2010. Nearing has worked as producer, director, writer and editor for numerous films on several networks. His documentary subjects have ranged from juvenile homicide (CBC) to the longest bridge in the world over ice-forming waters (Discovery) to Russians playing in the National Hockey League (The Sports Network) and a look at the stagecraft of some of the world's finest writers (Bravo). He moved from documentaries to dramatic projects and founded 9/23 Films in 2008. Nearing is in development (2016-2017) on an adaptation of Sister Carrie, an adaptation of Theodore Dreiser's controversial 1900 novel about a young woman's American dream. The film takes place in 1909 Chicago, Montreal and Paris.