Join One World Arts for the final program of the 27th Annual One World Film Festival on Sunday, October 1st from 1:30PM to 4PM at Club SAW (67 Nicholas St.) for the Ottawa premiere of Searching for Dragons and a free Master Class with local filmmaker Dan Gainsford.

Thanks to the generous support of our funders – the Community Foundation of Ottawa, the City of Ottawa and the Ontario Arts Council, an agency of the Government of Ontario – this event is FREE.

Click here to register for this special presentation. Due to the limited number of spots available, advance registration is required.

Searching for Dragons is a feature documentary about filmmaker Dan Gainsford’s five-year pilgrimage from the high Arctic to the Panama Canal. What begins as a search for meaning in the face of unhappiness despite apparent “success”, evolves into an exploration of humanity’s increasingly precarious relationship to the natural world. The film seeks to understand the invisible line separating our significance and insignificance as human beings on this planet.

Throughout the film, Gainsford pairs stunning landscapes and dream-like imagery with the voices of contemporary visionaries he encountered upon his journey. These individuals offer their perspectives on the challenges civilization confronts as we move beyond the industrial age. How will we overcome barriers erected by the human ego and societal complexity in order to arrive at a new story, – one which examines our own personal values in order to replace our destructive relationship to nature with a restorative one.

Though Gainsford’s departure was driven by his belief that he could detach himself from his role in society by rejecting it, his final conclusions are driven by the realization that a new story can only happen when we accept that we all have a part to play in its creation – or be destined to endlessly repeat our destructive cycle.

Dan Gainsford is an award winning producer, filmmaker, and media artist. His films explore ideas of the sacred and display human patterns – questioning whether they are in or out of sync with nature or society. His recently completed feature documentary, Searching for Dragons, continues to explore these themes alongside a larger exploration of the current cultural narrative we continue to support and believe in.

Dan is currently president of Windpath Media Inc. Over the years he has also served as a board member of The Independent Filmmaker’s Cooperative (IFCO), The Available Light Screening Collective, Kaz Media Arts, and Etre et Devenir.

When not engaged in artistic endeavours, he spends time working on his family farm as a permaculture designer and beekeeper.