Michael Downing (director)
Canadian film director and screenwriter
Michael Downing is a Canadian film director and screenwriter. He is most noted as director of two Genie Award nominees for Best Live Action Short Drama, receiving nods for Clean Rite Cowboy at the 21st Genie Awards in 2001 and for Why Don't You Dance? at the 24th Genie Awards in 2004.
A former dancer and a graduate of the film program at Ryerson University, Downing began his film career making dance films for the National Ballet of Canada. He subsequently received a scholarship to study at the American Film Institute; during his studies there, he and Philip Svoboda won a bronze medal from the Student Academy Awards in 2003 for their short film Fine.
He now works predominantly as a director of television commercials, although he has two films, The Threeway and a feature version of Clean Rite Cowboy, in development.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Michael Downing (director)” as canadian film director and screenwriter. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as canadian film director and screenwriter. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Nov 26, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q111167845. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2001, 2004 and 2003.
A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Michael Downing (director)”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Michael Downing (director) primary sources, Michael Downing (director) archive and Michael research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Michael Downing (director)”?
- How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
- Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Michael Downing (director)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.