I
t is mid-summer and Dan Murphy is busy. He’s behind the
scenes on the set of
Cairo Time
with director Ruba Nadda,
capturing images on film in the blistering heat of Cairo,
Alexandria and the White Desert in Egypt, where “they say
it’s 95 degrees in the shade and there is no shade.”
The BA Communications ’85 grad is first assistant director in
a movie about unrequited love, starring Patricia Clarkson and set
for release next year. He will spend three months in Egypt before
returning to Windsor, where he relocated with wife Erin Picard PhD
Psychology ’95 and their children in December 2006.
He could just as easily be – and was – in the Yukon for three
months. Or in northern Ontario, helping debut director Sarah Polley
on her award-winning 2006 feature film,
Away from Her.
Then again, Murphy could be in Saskatchewan, busy on the
CBC comedy Little Mosque on the Prairie. Or in Toronto, living with
his old roommate and fellow alumnus Glenn Warner, while working
alongside celebrated director Atom Egoyan on the 2008 film
Adoration
, nominated for the Palme d’Or, the top award at Cannes.
Murphy’s successful film career has taken him to many places
and introduced him to such actors as Julie Christie, Olympia
Dukakis and Keith Carradine, as well as prominent filmmakers,
including Polley, Egoyan and Ken Finkleman. A lifelong student
of film, he decided to work in the industry after taking Eugene
McNamara’s Literature of the Cinema and Jim Linton’s Advanced
Documentary courses.
“If I sort of step back from it and think about it, it’s a pretty
magical profession when the stars are lining up,” he says. “But
the downside is you’re a freelancer. You don’t get Workman’s
Compensation. [You] don’t get Employment Insurance.”
In an industry that has been severely tested recently because
of the high Canadian dollar and strikes by the Alliance of Canadian
Cinema, Television and Radio Artists and Writer’s Guild of America,
Murphy still counts his blessings. By early spring, the number of
films shooting in Toronto fell to about a quarter of the usual volume,
Thank his
Lucky Stars
By Paul Riggi
Assistant Director Dan Murphy keeps finding work
in one of the toughest industries around
view . summer 2008
7
Opposite: BA Communications ’85 grad Dan Murphy (Kevin Kavanaugh Photo)
