🎥👨🏻🎨🎨✨ I think of him as a kind of Patch Adams meets a backyard Picasso.✨
Happy to share my brand-new musical short film, “The Junk in My House”, about Montreal doctor, sculptor and renaissance man, Michael Dworkind, aka “Dworko”.
Michael, an endlessly creative soul and a dear friend in the neighbourhood, has three distinct passions: medicine, environmental activism and the creation of "junk art": sculptures lovingly crafted from found materials.
"The Junk in My House" is a 5-minute ‘music photeo’ that brings to life photos I've taken of some of the dozens of whimsical sculptures made by Michael in the basement workshop of the Montreal home he shares with his beloved wife Lesley.
These fantastical creations adorn nearly every surface of their colourful home and can now be seen set to music in this short, part 3 of my "Dworko Trilogy” about Michael and his captivating art, which I began in 2021.
Some cool news is that the new film was just written up by Dan Laxer in the Suburban newspaper: https://tinyurl.com/57vtem9j
And what was it that originally drew me to Michael? His almost unbelievably varied and truly accomplished life story.
Dr. Dworkind was senior academic staff at Montreal's Jewish General Hospital and a physician at the hospital's Herzl Family Practice Centre. That's where I first met him in 2013, when I was directing a documentary about that clinic for television.
While working at the JGH for over 30 years, Michael was also the founder of its renowned Palliative Care Division and the director of its training program, where he helped young doctors learn how to compassionately usher patients and their families through the process of dying.
Later in his career, Michael shifted gears and served as Co-Founder and Medical Director of Santé Cannabis, Quebec's leading education and resource centre for the use of medical cannab|s.
If that wasn't enough, on the activist front, two international physician groups Michael worked with to combat nuclear weapons won Nobel Peace Prizes in 1985 and 2015.
Now retired from medical practise, it is as an artist that Michael finds true peace and tranquility, crafting his quirky and unique sculptures. This is what I have focused on in my short film trilogy.
Part 1 of "The Dworko Trilogy" examined the homemade sculptures in his rooftop Zen garden ("The Junk on My Roof", 2021), while Part 2 was a spotlight on the sculptures he created and placed throughout the forest at his wonderland-for-the-senses country cottage up in the Laurentians ("The Junk at My Cottage", 2022).
It now gives me great pleasure to share part 3, "The Junk in My House".
📺✨: The film is now available on YouTube and you can watch it, as well as parts 1 and 2 of the trilogy, at the playlist here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLL2T8qbi87OMWUkxLmDMkMXC1Q4zrQXU4&si=46Dl9me_MZm-13u9
The films were designed to be "stand-alone", meaning you can watch them in any order you like.
Please feel free to share this post and these films with friends, family and fellow art lovers.
Michael sends his best to everyone and thanks you for exploring his work.
Big thanks from me too and I hope you enjoy the new film!
-Ez
Follow Dr. Michael Dworkind's always-inspiring Instagram feed here: http://www.instagram.com/michaeldworkindart
