Review Fix Roxy Underground Short Film Festival Coverage: Don Cato Talks ’Dead Man Rides Subway’

August 1, 2018 Patrick Hickey Jr. Film 0

Review Fix chats with Don Cato, Artistic Director of the Queens World Film Festival, who discusses his film, ”Dead Man Rides Subway,” currently appearing at the Roxy Underground Short Film Festival.

Review Fix: How did you get involved in film?

Don Cato: While I  was a Landscape Architect working in Cambridge, Massachusetts I attended the Orson Welles Film School. I had been interested in film since I was a kid in Fredonia, but had pursued a more mainstream occupation. When I was able to start doing both I moved to Oregon to earn Masters Degree in Landscape Architecture and study Film & Motion Graphics in Fine Art at the University of Oregon

Review Fix: What was the inspiration for this project?

Cato: I was one of a few filmmakers approached to make a short film of a poem from the book Token Entry: New York City Subway Poems, Edited by Gerry LaFemina. I chose the poem Dead Man Rides Subway by the Pulitzer nominated poet Cornelius Eady. Of course…there was no budget. So what.

Review Fix: What’s your creative process like?

Cato: I studied the poem. How they were phrased and ultimately, what they sounded like in the air. Once I felt the rhythm of the poem and had cast my lead we began shooting. My focus was capturing little moments. I shot in the subways about 10 hours over several weeks all the while ruminating on the idea. From those raw images and the voices, I worked to discover rhythms and crafted images to compliment, support and counterpoint those visual sounds.

I remained focus on one thing: words = poetic essence.

I craved the right score, I was thinking a Harry Parch/Glenn Gould mash up and finally found the perfect piece through Marco Oppedisano, a Queens composer and performer whose music I have long admired.

I felt I had the tonal soul of the piece in Marco’s music and once I laid down the track I went about the job of work to compose the piece. The process was about six or seven months.

Review Fix: What makes this different or special?

Cato: Hmmmm…..it is an audio-visual poem which is open to interpretation.

Review Fix: What did you learn about yourself through this process?

Cato: Not a goddamn thing….every film is focused hard work.

Review Fix: What was the feeling like on set?

Cato: Inspired playfulness.

Review Fix: What are your ultimate goals for this production and for the future?

Cato: I just want people to experience the work.

Review Fix: What’s next?

Cato: I am remastering some of my old work with DuArt and teaching at the Digital Film Academy. Right now I am screening submissions for my festival, the Queens World Film Festival so I am very focused on the incredible work that we are getting.

Review Fix: Anything else you’d like to add?

Cato: I am thrilled to be part of the Roxy Underground Short Film Festival with right other terrific films. Roxy is fine venue and screenings are always crisp and clear.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14316 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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