Don Edward Cook
- Director
- Writer
- Composer
Don Edward Cook, an eclectic man who decided late in life to embark
upon the path of a filmmaker, has always had a love for film and
television that always went beyond that of the mere moviegoer or TV
viewer. Indeed, this man who was born in Stratford, Ontario, Canada in
1962 always seemed to have wisdom beyond his years --- a wisdom that
has also given him a much rougher-than-average childhood. Having grown
up in the nearby, mainly rural Mitchell Ontario area but spending his
adult life in London, Ontario an hour south from there has given him a
worldview that could be only classed as eclectic, with a heavy emphasis
on classical Hollywood and television. Cook's motion picture influences
are quite wide and varied. These influences eclectically range from:
average-life/family-oriented television comedies/teen dramas such as
The Brady Bunch, Happy Days, Touched By an Angel, and 7th Heaven;
through crime dramas such as Dragnet, Adam-12, and the Law & Order
franchise; westerns such as Gunsmoke, Bonanza, and The Magnificent
Seven; war films such as Patton, Midway, and Sink The Bismarck!;
biblical films such as The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur, and Quo Vadis;
and a cosmos' worth of science fiction films spanning historically from
the silent-era classic Metropolis all the way through to the
techno-dazzling 1990's offering Independence Day, with a deep love and
reverence for the "classic" Star Trek, The Invaders, the 1980's version
of "V", Gerry Anderson's UFO, and a "recently re-acquired cheesy
fondness" for the first season of Space:1999. He struggled for several
years trying to secure "typical" employment, with little success.
However, he more or less "found himself" while attending workshops at
Nokee Kwe, a somewhat "holistic", Native Canadian-based
career-educational-vocational directions agency located in London,
Ontario that also took in non-Native Canadians as clients. Since then,
he concluded that filmmaking --- his true passion --- was where his
life-path resided. After four years studying at Fanshawe College - one
in General Arts & Sciences, two in Broadcasting-Television, and one
final three-semester Advanced Filmmaking program (which he has
completed recently) - and a few short films under his belt, he now
embarks on a "mission" to deliver insightful yet thrilling
brain-teasing films that will get audiences to use their minds while
watching. His best example of motion picture mind-prodding is "The Last
Atlantean" (2009), a science fiction student short film. Along with
this unusual short film, Don has made four others: two comedies ("A Big
Mistake!", '"Go!""); a comedic satire on the media
("Technopopculturophilia"); and a dark thriller/parody of 1950s/early
1960s TV ("The Shrink Files starring Dr. Frank N. Steiner") .