Filmmaker Statement

As a kid, most of my film intake was from my dad's home taped VHS collection - Indiana Jones, Star Wars, Mad Max and A Fistful of Dollars are among the films that most shaped my imagination growing up. I also have a great love for the physical storytelling of pioneer action filmmakers Buster Keaton and later Jackie Chan, along with an equal love for the literary works of early science fiction adventure authors such as Jules Verne and H.G. Wells. That nostalgia is all somewhere at the root of The Ballad of Maddog Quinn. It's a little bit of a love note to those classics, while still being it's own world and story. At its core, Maddog is a story about perseverance and looking on the bright side. I initially wrote it at a time when my father had become unwell, and although he passed away before the film was completed, an important way of dealing with it was to always find light and humour in what can be a lot of darkness and isolation. These themes are at the heart of Maddog.