Daniel Nearing

Daniel Nearing was named the inaugural Filmmaker in Residence for the City of Chicago (2016), and Chicagoan of the Year for film (2017) by The Chicago Tribune. "Hogtown," his 2016 feature, was named to Ben Kenigsberg's (The New York Times) list of the 10 Best Films of 2016, and Bill Stamets of the Chicago Sun-Times calls it "the most original film made in Chicago about Chicago to date." The largely black and white film looks at the emergence of a multicultural America through the prism of Chicago. The Chicago Reader named "Hogtown" the best film set in Chicago, and the best film made in Chicago, "period," in 2015. Kenigsberg of the New York Times says that "Daniel Nearing has carved out an original and boldly unfashionable niche. 'Hogtown' plays like a find from a forgotten archive." "Hogtown" was named Best Feature Film at the 2015 International Black Film Festival (Nashville), Best Film in a Fine Arts Discipline at the 30th Black International Cinema Berlin, Best Picture at the 2015 Los Angeles Black Film Festival, and winner of the 2015 Independent Film Playoff (a consortium of seven Los Angeles festivals with over three hundred films in competition). "Chicago Heights," Nearing's 2010 adaptation of Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio, is a "period-less" observation on exurban and small town life. Roger Ebert called it "brilliant and beautiful" and named it to his last list of Best Art Films (2010). Nearing has worked as producer, director, writer and editor for numerous films on several international 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) Nearing is now completing with "Sister Carrie" (2022), an epic love story that takes place in 1909 Chicago, Montréal and Paris. Nearing is a fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation and MacDowell.