Donald Thompson

Known throughout the 80s and 90s as a playwright, Don has also made his mark as an award-winning filmmaker, producer, and screenwriter. Since 2000, Don has produced, co-produced, or co-funded over thirty feature films through his production company nextPix, including the Sundance award-winning documentary Tibet in Song (2009), Ned Rifle (2014), as well as the internationally acclaimed films Railway Children (2016) and Yomeddine (2018). Films Don has been affiliated with as a producer have premiered and won awards at festivals such as Sundance, Toronto, Cannes, Berlin, and numerous others. Since 2017, his screenplays have also received recognition and awards, including at Worldfest Houston, ISA Fasttrack, Filmmatic Screenplay Awards, New York Screenplay Contest, Los Angeles Film Awards, and the Festigious International Film Festival.

First released in 2000, my film CLOUDS is both a look back at the art films of the 1960s and a look forward into an evolving American Culture. I believe the film showcased some of the tensions in the United States between the impulse to create a new kind of society and worldview, while simultaneously showing how creating that future is also an act of destruction. It does seem we are at a point in history where what that destruction means is on many minds today. I do believe the film was ahead of its time when it was released, and may be more appreciated by audiences today.