Michael Dana,an artist-in-residence at the Denmark Arts Center, is a Fryeburg resident and video-cinematographer with both documentary and independent film experience. Mike was part of a major collaborative project with visual artist and educator Tim Rollins from New York City in the spring of 2006 at the Denmark Arts Center. The Partners in Arts and Learning project gave a group of Molly Ockett Middle School and Fryeburg Academy students an opportunity to work with professional artists Tim, Mike and photographer Sean Harris. Mike and his students created a film documenting the creative process and interviewing students about the experience. "We're interested in the thought process that goes into making art; how that process becomes artistic expression is at the heart of filmmaking," says Michael.
Michael has directed four short films that have won many Best Director and Audience Choice awards at film festivals around the US. As director of photography, he has filmed many other short films and several features. He has had outdoor screenings of his work projected on buildings in NYC, as well as in Lincoln Center, and The Julliard School of Music. He has also worked on major motion pictures from Once Upon A Time in America to Requiem For a Dream.
Michael also worked as a 2nd unit camera operator during the first season of the hit HBO show, The Sopranos.
As Creative Director of the Rivertown Film Society in Nyack, NY, Michael produced and directed a popular series of short films about 16 residents from town. That project sparked Michael’s ongoing interest in the concept of building social capital in communities by using creative video production and screening techniques. As Artist in Residence at the Denmark Arts Center in Maine, he has utilized a grant from the Maine Arts Commission to help explore this work. Other grant proposals are currently being prepared to help fund this important project on a larger scale. Michael has also worked on numerous music videos at the beginning of his career including artists such as Bruce Springsteen, The Rolling Stones and Michael Jackson. Having an eye for capturing emotional moving images for the big screen, Michael has also begun exhibiting many of his still photographs for galleries in New York and Maine. Michael attended the BFA Film Program at SUNY College at Purchase in New York.
To see Michael's work, visit www.mikedanastudio.com