MJD was one of four professionals on hand at the annual Film 101 Festival in Chatham Ontario. Teachers from local high schools were invited to bring their communications / arts students to St. Clair College, Thames Campus for the one-day workshop series.

The festival combines a student film competition with a series of film production workshops, and screenings of selected films from the National Film Board of Canada archives. The festival was presented by TVCOGECO in partnership with the Chatham-Kent and Sarnia-Lambton regional Boards of Education.

The Windsor International Film Festival has invited MJD to speak at their "No Dreaming Aloud! The Facts and Future of Filmmaking in Windsor" panel discussion. Co-moderated by the Windsor Star’s Craig Pearson and WIFF programmer Otto Buj (Primordial Ties, The Eternal Present), the panel gathers ten filmmakers together to dismiss myths and to discuss the realities of what it will take to create a sustainable regional film industry. The discussion begins at 11:00AM at the Capitol Theatre & Arts Centre, in Windsor Ontario on Saturday, November 14th.

Coincidentally, WIFF screens Lester Alfonso's NFB doc Twelve at the Capital Theatre the same day starting at 2:40PM. MJD worked camera department on one leg of the film's production and will be in attendance to reunite with the director.

Just announced, three of MJD's films are Official Selections at the London Short Film Showcase, happening November 6th to 8th, 2009 in London, Ontario, Canada.

On Saturday, November 7th at 1:30PM, directors Colin Thomas Campbell and Brandon Frank's short film Down By the River Lived screens. Synopsis: After a mysterious stranger comes to a quaint farmland, he commits an atrocity that will be sung about for years to come.

On Saturday, November 7th at 3:00PM it's MJD's cult-classic zombie film Run Like Hell. Shot in super 16mm, the film stars Christina Notto (Max Payne, Saw V) and Robert Nolan (Eyes Beyond, Lucky 7, Cold Blood 2). Come on out for a bloody-good time!

Also screening, the teaser trailer for the upcoming feature film Burning Amber, written and directed by Paul Roberts, co-produced by Roberts, MJD, and Jeremy Shell, and starring Veronika London (Lingerie). Time and date TBA. MJD is scheduled to lens the feature in 2010.

For tickets and more information, visit LSFS by clicking HERE.

Writer / director Sam Catalfamo has brought Michael onboard to lens his upcoming 35mm film, Teen Getaway. Reminiscent of Tarkovsky, the film follows two nouveau-riche teens Jamie and Zack, bored with their hazy, drug-induced scene, as they escape in search of something real and pure. Teen Getaway goes to camera in Brampton, Ontario on September 4, 2009.

Zee Films brought Michael onboard to shoot the music video for punk band Last One Out's new single "Loser with the Snake Bite" in Waterloo, Ontario. Fun times had by all, especially operating in handheld mode during the onstage mosh pit! The video is now in post. Visit Last One Out online for more information by clicking HERE.

UPDATE! Video released September 2009. View it by clicking HERE.

Michael has been selected to lens the upcoming psychological thriller Fallen Before Falling from Toronto based writer / director James Dubbeldam.

The film follows Anastasia, a successful actor left feeling unsettled as her turbulent past resurfaces, and her move to a rented farm in the country to deal with her personal demons. Anastasia's journey becomes complicated as chemistry develops between her and the landholder Matthew and with the sudden appearance of her mother Susan. Past events reveal that all is not as it seems in the present.

Principal photography on Fallen Before Falling begins March 17th, 2009 in Barrie, Ontario, Canada. 

Writer/director Jonathan Wright has brought Michael onboard as cinematographer to lens his upcoming horror feature NOSTRUM.

Synopsis: After a grisly heroin induced suicide of a friend, a group of 18 year old heroin addicts barricade themselves in an abandoned farm house in order to kick the habit, but first they have one last party. The heroin they shoot is tainted (planted by a doctor who created a suicide cocktail to rid the streets of junkies) and turns one of them into a psychotic, monstrous killer.

With former THINKFilm VP Michael Baker executive producing and handling sales, and editor Ron Wisman Jr. onboard, NOSTRUM is shaping up to be one wild ride. Principal photography kicks off in Toronto February 9th. Stay tuned to michaeljaridavidson.com for exclusive updates.

Michael spent this past weekend in Windsor, Ontario working in collaboration with Gavin Michael Booth and Mimetic Productions shooting dual music videos for INO/Columbia Recording artists The Afters. The tracks shot were "Never Going Back to Ok" and "Ocean's Wide" from their latest album.

This Texas-based band was propelled into the national spotlight with their INO/Sony Music Label Group debut I Wish We All Could Win. The project spawned the swirling, melodic hit "Beautiful Love," earning the band an enthusiastic following when the song was selected as the theme track for MTV's "8th and Ocean". The band won an MTV music award for this song.

To find out more, visit The Afters on the web by clicking here.

Michael's super16 short horror film Run Like Hell received multiple screenings in March and April. The film first debuted at the 2008 Western Film Festival, March 14-15, Rainbow Cinemas Galleria, London Ontario.

Subsequently, Nicholas A. Longstaff who played Jean Laslow in the film and now CFC New Media lab resident, invited Michael to do a private screening at the Canadian Film Centre in Toronto.

And finally on April 19th, in association with Vagrancy Films, Run Like Hell was paired with Lucio Fulci's 1979 cult classic Zombie for a midnight screening, again at Rainbow Cinemas Galleria, London Ontario.

The fifteenth annual HotDocs documentary film festival and conference in Toronto invited Michael to attend DocU. Through a competitive selection process that was open to emerging filmmakers from across Canada, Michael was among a group of fifteen invitees to be mentored by award-winning filmmaker Min Sook Lee (Tiger Spirit) for the week. Participants gained valuable knowledge through a series of workshops and intimate meetings with leading doc professionals and filmmakers.

On April 8, Michael filled the roles of cinematographer and project manager on the team that brought home gold in the first annual Fanshawe College / EK3 Technologies multimedia competition. The competition pit eighteen teams of five against each other over thirteen weeks to devise three components of a mobile communications marketing campaign: a website, a web-traffic driving strategy, and a digital in-store solution.

Michael shot a broadcast spec spot for the campaign on 16mm film and some SD / HD green screen work for the website and the digital in-store solution, respectively. You can view samples of the work in the ‘Cinematography’ section of this website.