QAIS Staff Profile of the Week - Dan North, Film, English Language & Literature Teacher

What is your favorite film or TV show and why?

This question is too stressful for me. I like to watch as many different kinds of movies as I can, and so it’s hard to single them out because what I love about films is the range of different sights and sounds they offer from so many times and places. I have favorite filmmakers, whose work always inspires and delights me. The films of Georges Melies are very special to me: he was a magician and artist who was one of the first people to ever make fantastic, magical films over a hundred years ago. I also love Buster Keaton, Jacques Tati, Alfred Hitchcock, Jan Svankmajer, Lynne Ramsey, Jean-Luc Godard, Yasujiro Ozu, Wong Kar-Wai, Charlie Chaplin … don’t get me started because the list will go on and on.

What is your favorite food and why?
I’m writing this close to dinner-time, and I’m quite hungry, so again, I can’t name a favorite food. I love Chinese food, Japanese food, and Indian food, and I’m now enjoying discovering Korean food since I moved to China. I wish I had a big bowl of 咕老肉 (sweet and sour pork) right now. That’s definitely one of my favorites.

What is your favorite museum and why?

I love museums and art galleries. It’s not just the stuff they contain, but the spaces they
give me to relax and think and escape. When I lived in the Netherlands, there were so many great museums to visit, especially the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, or the Mauritshuis in The Hague. The Tate Modern, the British Museum, and the National Gallery (all in London) will always be amongst my favorites in the world. But I used to work in a museum, The Bill Dougl
as Cinema Museum in Exeter, UK, while I was studying for my PhD. That place really developed my love of cinema and my appreciation for its history, and so it has to be my first choice.