Boise State professor Darius Dawson and his creative team earned a coveted spot in New York University Production Lab’s flagship artistic incubator, the Feature Film Development Studio. Dawson, who teaches in the Department of Theatre, Film and Creative Writing, will work with his team over the next nine months to develop their feature-length film.
The Feature Film Development Studio gives filmmakers the opportunity to work with NYU Production Lab staff and industry professionals to workshop feature-length scripts, and create business plans and pitch materials. The program culminates with a pitch session in September before a live audience and film professionals. “The work has always been the reward for me,” Dawson said. “Still, it feels good to develop this project at such a prestigious Lab and to know that there’s room for my voice out there.”
A small story about big love
Dawson will write and produce the film, “Father and Son’s Discount Meats.” Selected from a competitive pool for the NYU Lab, the film focuses on an apathetic son who decides to sell his family’s floundering East Oakland discount grocery store, though first he must whip the place into shape to pass the annual subsidy inspection. Inspired by Dawson’s time in Oakland, the film touches on issues of food deserts, family, community and what we owe to each other. “I went down a little bit of a rabbit hole and I ended up learning a lot about food deserts and government subsidies that are meant to combat them,” Professor Dawson said. He learned that the government incentivizes small grocery stores in underserved communities to sell fresh foods. To renew their subsidy, these stores must undergo regular subsidy inspections. From this, the seed of “Father and Son’s Discount Meats” grew.
At first, Dawson harbored trepidations about applying for the NYU Lab. “Labs always seemed like they were full of folks doing extremely serious dramas about some huge issue,” Dawson said. “While food deserts are a huge issue that I think we’ll see exacerbated in the coming years, the story for me is really a small one about a father, a son and their love for each other and their community.”
About Professor Darius Dawson
An award winning director and film educator, Darius Dawsons’s film, A RODEO FILM, won the 2020 DGA Student Directing Grand Prize, the Golden Tadpole at Camerimage 2020. HBO purchased the film to stream on HBOMax. Additionally, he directed for Peter and Bob Farrelly for their Quibi show, THE NOW, currently on the Roku Channel, and served as 2nd Unit on THE GREATEST BEER RUN EVER, currently on Apple TV +. Before embarking on his journey as a director, Dawson worked several years as a cinematographer lensing branded and short form content extensively in Southeast Asia, China and Japan. On the State side he’s shot out of helicopters for the National Guard, explosions in the high desert and drug runners on the mud flats outside of Anchorage, Alaska.
Outside of filmmaking, Dawson teaches Directing and Visual Storytelling for Sundance’s online learning platform, The Sundance Collab Classes. He hails from North Carolina and attended NYU and the AFI Conservatory for cinematography and directing, respectively.