Today we’d like to introduce you to Nick Dugan.
Hi Nick, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I was born and raised in Washington, D.C. I hit the jackpot with my family. My mom is my best friend and personal hero. My dad, who passed away in 2012 after an intensely fought battle with lung cancer, was everything you could ask for in a parent. And my three siblings are the most wonderful humans alive. I am, however, the proverbial black sheep on steroids.
My dad was a brilliant litigator. My mom was a college professor. My older brother is an astrophysicist. My younger sister is a lawyer. And my little brother is in his first year of law school himself. My path has been… different.
I was born with a hemangiopericytoma, a malignant tumor, in my arm. It was safely removed. But, as is the case with all forms of cancer and subsequent remission, several years of intrusive check-ups were to follow. I suspect that those five years of persistent medical attention (and the confusion that ensued) prematurely awakened me to a sense of existentialism that no child is suited for. That might sound self-aggrandizing in a roundabout way, but it was a nightmare. A child psychologist would later inform my parents that I had internalized the ordeal as being a function of something I had done wrong. I became consumed by thoughts of death, judgment, whether or not I deserved to go to heaven or to hell, etc. Shame. Guilt. Fear. All that fun stuff.
Needless to say… I was a weird kid. And as I grew older, I got weirder. I devolved as a student. The only relief I found was through expressions of creativity. Drawing. Designing. Building.
It wasn’t long before I found myself incessantly fooling around with my dad’s camcorder. Eventually, he got fed up with me “borrowing” his camera and graced me with a Digital Blue Movie Creator (shoutout 2001) for Christmas. An insatiable appetite for filmmaking was permanently seared into to the walls of my cranium from there on out.
As a child and as a teenager, however, I wasn’t educated in an environment that energized or encouraged creativity. It took a lot of soul-searching to break free from traditional academic and professional trajectories, and to excavate my passion for filmmaking.
After graduating from Georgetown University (only took me 4.5 years), I mistakenly presumed that I was all geared up to apply to law school. I was woefully underqualified, but more importantly: I realized that I’d be a fool not to muster up the courage to pivot into film. I began to understand that watching films was critical in helping me reconcile my own personal litany of idiosyncrasies and imperfections. My mission onward was to make films that do the same for others.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It has not been a smooth road. But I wouldn’t have it any other way.
After graduating from college, I was rudderless. I found myself on the the Caribbean island of St. Thomas, where I procrastinated by teaching youngsters at a tiny Montessori school; a fullfilling experience in its own right. When I returned home, my mom nudged me in the right direction.
I crammed what few belongings I had into my car (that beautiful vessel is still kicking to this day) and drove from Washington D.C. to Los Angeles. When I arrived, I knew no one. I had no connections. I was on my own.
I ended up on the PA circuit, thinking that there was some invisible industry ladder to climb. It took four years of stagnation and grunt work to realize that no one was going to hand me a directing gig. In order to be a filmmaker, I actually needed to go out there and create. I shot my first short film in 2017, applied to grad school, and graduated with an MFA in Directing from Chapman University this past summer.
I feel it’s worth noting that for the better half of my seven years out here in LA, I struggled with a drinking problem that developed into something more severe. Today, I am proudly 468 days off the bottle. And that process, as challenging as it was, has been instrumentally intertwined with my evolution as a filmmaker.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am a writer and a director. I’ve directed eight short films. I’m profoundly grateful for what I learned throughout each of them. But I am most proud of my two latest projects (both short films as well): “Into the Honeycomb” and “You’re Now Beyond Hope, Arizona”.
I specialize in raw, unflinching narrative films that traffic heavily in darker tones and that are thematically centralized in influencing more empathetic attitudes towards mental illness, alcoholism, and substance abuse. I find myself the most at home when telling stories within the drama, crime, contemporary melodrama, and Neo-Western genres.
It is my belief that I provide a unique lens into what some may consider ubiquitous subject material (who wants to be bummed out by alcoholics and broken protagonists anymore?). But, I’d like to think I bring a refreshing brand of honesty and hope into broader dialogues about our intrinsic defects as humans.
Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs or other resources you think our readers should check out?
As far as apps go, I’m as boring as they come. “Notes” and “Spotify” are all I need. Using the former to document thoughts that will hopefully evolve into cohesive narratives and the latter to provide a soundtrack along the way.
Talk about basic… “The Director’s Cut – A DGA Podcast” is my go-to listening. I’m also a sucker for excavating hidden gems among true crime podcasts.
While the usual suspects “Save the Cat” and “Story” have been as critical to me as they have been to other writers and directors, I have leaned heavily on the “The Courage to Be Disliked”, by Ichiro Kishimi & Fumitake Koga; “Against Everything: Essays”, by Mark Greif; “Originals”, by Adam Grant; and “On Writing”, by Stephen King.
But frankly, there is no greater resource to me than watching films.
Contact Info:
- Email: npdugan@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nick_dugan_/?hl=en
