Michael Dominic (born June 18, 1970) is an American

filmmaker Filmmaking or film production is the process by which a Film, motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, beginning with an initial story, idea, or commission. Production then continues through screen ...

and

photojournalist Photojournalism is journalism that uses images to tell a news story. It usually only refers to still images, but can also refer to video used in broadcast journalism. Photojournalism is distinguished from other close branches of photography (suc ...

who grew up in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. He is best known for his documentary '' Sunshine Hotel'', which won three awards for best documentary.

Early life

Dominic was born in Washington D.C., the son of Stephanie and Joseph Dominic. In 1971 his family moved to the Riverdale section of the Bronx, New York. He studied film at School of Visual Arts in New York City from 1990 to 1993.

Career

Dominic has made several films, most notably the feature-length documentaries ''Sunshine Hotel'' and ''Clean Hands'', and the narrative short "Tulips for Daisy". ''Sunshine Hotel'', a documentary about

one 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

of the last flophouses on New York City's

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, won three best documentary awards and was nominated for another dozen or so. After its festival run of almost 30 film festivals it aired on the Sundance Channel from 2002 to 2004. "Tulips for Daisy", a

narrative film Narrative film, fictional film or fiction film is a motion picture that tells a fictional or fictionalized story, event or narrative. Commercial narrative films with running times of over an hour are often referred to as feature films, or featur ...

set in Amsterdam, was also nominated for several awards, most notably in the Akira Kurosawa Memorial Short Film Competition. As a photojournalist Dominic has traveled to places including Haiti, Honduras, Guatemala, and Nicaragua. His photography has appeared in dozens of outlets including ''

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'', ''Tribune De Geneve'', '' France-Amérique'', ''

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'', ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

'', ''

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'', ''

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'', '' Redbook'', ''

Le Figaro () is a French daily morning newspaper founded in 1826. It was named after Figaro, a character in several plays by polymath Pierre Beaumarchais, Beaumarchais (1732–1799): ''Le Barbier de Séville'', ''The Guilty Mother, La Mère coupable'', ...

'', ''

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'', ''Bilan'', ''Chåtelaine'', and '' L'actualité''. In July 2012 Dominic was recognized as a finalist for The New York Foundation for the Arts 2012 fellowship. In January 2019 Dominic completed the feature documentary ''Clean Hands'', about the Lopez family surviving against the backdrop of

Central America Central America is a subregion of North America. Its political boundaries are defined as bordering Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. Central America is usually ...

’s largest garbage dump, La Chureca in

Managua Managua () is the capital city, capital and largest city of Nicaragua, and one of the List of largest cities in Central America, largest cities in Central America. Located on the shores of Lake Managua, the city had an estimated population of 1, ...

Nicaragua Nicaragua, officially the Republic of Nicaragua, is the geographically largest Sovereign state, country in Central America, comprising . With a population of 7,142,529 as of 2024, it is the third-most populous country in Central America aft ...

. The film debuted at the 29th Annual Cinequest Film Festival April 9, 2019, where it won Best Documentary Feature. It went on to win a total of 11 awards.

Filmography as director

* ''Soup & the Dead'' (1994) * ''Sunshine Hotel'' (2001) * ''Tulips for Daisy'' (2006) * ''Clean Hands'' (2019)

References

External links

Official website

''Clean Hands''

''Sunshine Hotel''

"Tulips for Daisy"
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dominic, Michael Living people Artists from New York City Filmmakers from Washington, D.C. 1970 births