Drayden DeCosta

Drayden DeCosta is a filmmaker and scholar currently pursuing a PhD in Screen Cultures and Curatorial Studies at Queen's University. Prior to attending Queen's, he earned his BFA (2018) and MFA (2020) in Film, Fine and Media Arts at NSCAD University.

I grew up in Welland, Ontario, Canada. Many of my films take place there. My work is often personal, semi-autobiographical, deadpan and poetic. Recurring themes within my films include; small-town life, inexplicable melancholy, post-industrial aftermath, disillusionment and longing.

Within the SCCS Program at Queen’s, I plan on continuing my research into "personal cinema". By engaging in a formal, narrative and thematic analysis of films considered highly subjective and experientially driven, while creating my own similarly styled cinematic works, I hope to determine what constitutes "Personal Cinema" in a fictive context (sensibility or genre), what idiosyncratic and reflective forms of cinema contribute to the artistic endeavour and what renders films derived from the experiences of their maker as capable of resonating with others. It is my hope that this research will yield a provisional theory and guide surrounding Personal-Cinema, contributing new knowledge and alternative practices/frames of viewing that may assist other filmmakers and artists who seek to create while looking inward.

At what point does the personal become the interpersonal?