Exclusive Interview for "Survival/Humanity/Mortality" With Dale Loon
- Madrid Film Awards
- Jun 25
- 5 min read
Dale Loon is an emerging Indigenous Canadian independent film producer, director, and writer based in Toronto, Ontario. He is an Ojibwe from the Grassy Narrows First Nation in Northern Ontario and grew up in Kenora.
Background and Personal Journey
Before entering the film industry, Loon spent most of his life working in the restaurant industry and faced severe personal hardships, including an 11-year battle with homelessness and alcohol dependency. At the age of 35, while completing his grade 12 education, he saw media program prompts and made a spontaneous decision to completely change his life. He relocated alone to attend the Toronto Film School to study Cinematography and Film/Video Production, turning his focus toward storytelling and maintaining sobriety.
Filmmaking Career and Works
Loon's work focuses on short films that explore profound human themes, cultural viewpoints, and dramatic narratives. Notable details about his projects include:
Waking Conundrum (2024): His debut short film, which he co-directed and wrote under a strict four-hour deadline for a class assignment. Loon has stated that he crafted the narrative to contrast traditional Ojibwe values—where women are treated as sacred—with his critiques of Western societal dynamics.
Diary of a Survivor (2025): A short film for which he served as a writer and producer, earning an Honorable Mention for "Best Student Film" at the Athens International Monthly Art Film Festival.
Rachel's Correction: A short film he directed and wrote, which received a March Award nomination for "Best Student Film" at the same festival.
King Castling (2025): A short film he co-directed and wrote.
Survival/Humanity/Mortality (2025): A production where he served as producer, writer, and director.
Loon continues to look for independent project funding and has secured a mentorship contract with a veteran executive producer to expand his upcoming film slate.
Film synopsis: Deep within a subterranean research community managed by Strata Research, life is a calculated, artificial routine. Pepper, the pragmatic Head of the Nuclear Medicine Division, and Leti, an idealistic researcher in her Research & Development team, share more than just a professional bond. Beneath the sterile hum of the underground facility lies a deeply private, passionate love story.
Their routine is shattered at the end of a long shift. Just as they prepare to head home, emergency notifications flash across their monitors warning of severe, anomalous seismic activity in the sector. Following strict safety protocols, Pepper and Leti enter the heavy, airtight clean room to undergo a mandatory decontamination sweep, ensuring no radioactive material escapes with them. Then, disaster strikes. A violent earthquake convulses the subterranean complex, collapsing the surrounding infrastructure and completely sealing the chamber's electronic and manual escape hatches. The air-tight clean room, designed to protect the outside world from radiation, becomes an impenetrable tomb.
As the facility's backup power flickers, the harsh reality sets in: the ventilation system is dead, and they have less than an hour of breathable oxygen left. What begins as a desperate, collaborative effort to signal for rescue slowly degrades as the physical effects of hypoxia take hold. Love and humanity are stripped away by the primal instinct to survive. With time rapidly running out, the confined space transforms into a psychological crucible, forcing Pepper and Leti to choose between sacrificing themselves for the woman they love, or fighting each other for the very air they breathe
WATCH IT!
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In order to undertand the value of your piece, we would like to know more about the mind behind the process. How would you define your personal experience with cinema as a director? Could you tell us an experience or moment that change or challenge you?
Growing up in this world is the experience. Living on both sides of the spectrum of good and bad gives you a very different perspective. Whether it be in a very good caring home or behind the bars in Kenora jail. Living this kind of experience really does add to being a director and explaining it to crew members that followed one path really is challenging. I like it.
We would like to know more about the how and why of this interesting approach for this film. If you had to name three key concepts to help everyone understand and enjoy more this film, what would they be?
1. Key concept or question would be: Would you be willing to kill your best friend whom you love so you can live?
2. Returning back to where you did such a horrible thing to relive those feelings and reflect. You need to grow in order
to live.
3. How much do you really know about who your favourite person is?
How has the process of creating the characters been?
It was very simple for me. I loved Enid and Wednesday when I watched the first season.
So, i placed Enid and Wednesday in a small room with limited air. Pepper a girl who is strong, wanting love but does not want to show it. Leti a girl whom literally glows love and shows it.
Can you tell us any difficulties you had during the filming? And what was the most valuable thing you learned making this movie?
The only difficulty I had was the DOP and her crew. I was wanting to use a wide-fish-eye lens for more distortion when the gurlz in the room had barely any air left. But the camera crew protested against it. So I lost one of my visual effects and had to rely on the editor to bring in the effects I wanted.
The most valuable thing I could take away from this was only a few key people I could really rely on to make a film.
How has your team's synergy influenced the project's outcome?
Camera Crew strained the synergy. They did not get along with me or the on-set editor and refused to eat with the rest of us. With tension on set we still got the shots completed and we finished.
You combine production, directing and screenwriting! Could you tell us more about your experience in film? And about the challenge of playing different roles in the same project?
There is no challenge when you are the creator. You have the vision, you have the story-
and you know the world and the characters. The only challenge is getting people to understand them all.
A great portion of the youtube videos on my channel are done by only me. Lighting, Camera, Editing, Sound Design, Boom and wireless mics, directing, and working with actors. Toronto Film School taught me all that I needed to do what I want.
Did the film meet your expectations? Share your thoughts on the production, the competition area, their reach, and how you achieved them!
The film did not reach my expectations as the Camera Crew did not fully co-operate to get things done. I completed what I could with my crew and relied on my few loyal key humans to back me up and carry forward to complete this film.
Can you tell us something about your next job?
Currently I am working with well established professionals on "Bound to Singularity". I am the producer, Director, and Writer once again. I created a sci-fi world that inloves a ship, 2 man crew, and a black hole that introduces einsteins theory of relativity. A full CGI/VFX film that involves "IME VFX Productions" whom worked on "Star Trek: Starfleet Academy".
Exciting step with big names and a bigger budget. But I am confident that my crew will fully understand what I want and what will be done.
Thank you.
Know more about his amazing works!
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Thank you for giving us the opportunity to speak with you!
We will be attentive to your next jobs!
MADFA® I Press Team
Madrid Film Awards®
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