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 Fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation.

He recently completed HOGTOWN, the second film in a trilogy of multiethnic, 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, and has been called "the most original film made in Chicago about Chicago to date" (Bill Stamets, The Chicago Sun-Times).

The first film in the trilogy, CHICAGO HEIGHTS, is an adaptation of Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio. The film, a "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 currently in development on PETIT MONDE, a film set in 1909 Paris, THE PEERLESS FILM MANUFACTURING COMPANY, another Chicago feature, and an untitled adaptation of another well regarded American novel. Nearing is also in development on a documentary about Albert Kahn, one of the progenitors of color photography, called ARCHIVES OF THE PLANET. Nearing coordinates an MFA program in Independent Filmmaking at Governors State University, in the South Chicago area.