-Who is Thomas Dimopoulos?

I am a filmmaker from Ontario, Canada primarily operating within the tradition of underground film. All of my movies are made with no-or low- budget and with a guerilla, DIY sensibility. To put it simply, at the current moment Thomas Dimopoulos is a free thinking, experimental and skeptical orb of consciousness using the cinematic art as well as other mediums as a way to subvert expectations and use cognitive dissonance in order to unlock new forms of thought inside of people, make them question, and hopefully make them laugh. 

-Do you remember the exact moment you fell in love with cinema?

There are many moments to choose from, as I have been making projects ever since I was four years old, when I started making stop motion projects. An early memory for me is when I was eight years old and discovered my father’s collection of Alfred Hitchcock films on DVD. I was drawn to “The Birds”, and remember first seeing that particular film as a pivotal moment for me. It also ignited my passion for exploring  Hitchcock’s work . 

Of course, another early moment of my love for cinema was seeing the Chaplin films as a younger child. “The Gold Rush” stands out as an example for me, though I believe “City Lights” is his most powerful work. Furthermore, I have great memories of watching many classic Hollywood Western films with my grandfather, such as “The Fastest Gun Alive”, “The Man Who Shot Liberty Vallence”, “Shane”, and most importantly “High Noon”. I  have probably seen “High Noon” with my grandfather a dozen times, and it remains one of my favourite films. 

Those were some instances of me falling in love with more ‘conventional’ cinema. 

However, the possibilities of film expand well out of the realm of what is ‘conventional’, and there are a couple of moments I can think of where I fell in love with this new type of movie. My first time seeing Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” when I was eight years old in my family’s living room was a seriously important moment for me. It wasn’t until I was about thirteen when I started really discovering more experimental or underground film. I remember watching Guy Maddin’s “My Winnipeg” with my dad, discovering Nick Zedd’s underground masterpiece “They Eat Scum”, and first seeing Stan Brakhage’s “Dog Star Man” as being pivotal moments for me. 

-Tell us about your project.

I have many different projects I have done over the past many years. An endeavor within the past year was putting together a DVD compilation of my work, entitled “The Short Movies of Thomas Dimopoulos Vol. 1”. This compilation includes a good handful of my work, featuring “Pop Goes The Weasel!” (2024), “Big Ronda’s Ointment Surprise!” (2024), “Texas Roadside Pigs!” (2024), “Miss Rabbit & the Devil!” (2024), and “Flower Rat” (2025).I have since done additional films as well. 

“Pop Goes The Weasel!” is a 10 minute examination of a group of obsessive homeless people living in/around a construction site. The project came to fruition when my uncle approached me at Christmas dinner 2023 telling me that he was interested in acting in one of my movies (I had recently just released “Why Go Left When You Can Go Right?”). I left the dinner and went down to the basement with a napkin and a sharpie where I started the script, envisioning my uncle as a homeless man dragging a wrench, which he considers his pet, around on a leash, and wearing cat ears. Once I got that baseline for the work done, the other visions started coming to me (e.g., the demon boy who wishes he was a house, the shadow boxer befriending a child’s doll, etc). 

 “Big Ronda’s Ointment Surprise!” started as a title before anything else. I liked the ring to it. From there, I made it into a song, and characters started to emerge from that. I became highly intrigued with the idea of ointment obsession and really just went from there. I had a pretty loose script and shot the movie in just one afternoon with my aunt being perfect to play the titular character. I was shooting that movie pretty vibe based. It was my notion of a surrealist comedy. 

“Texas Roadside Pigs!” originated as a phrase I made up and became obsessed with using (“it’s hotter than a texas roadside pig outside!”). Eventually I started thinking about what such a thing would look like, and envisioning people dressed up as pigs lying on the sides of roads. Once this image came into my head, I could not get rid of it. I convinced some friends (longtime collaborators Ben Ford and Jiggilin’ Hinzman, who really are good sports) to star in the film, and I ended up being very happy with their performances. “Texas Roadside Pigs!” was made in a different way to my other films, in that it is the only one of my works that I storyboarded. I felt that to most impactfully convey the essence of what I wanted, storyboarding was important. As I shoot my work guerilla style, this film in particular I got into some trouble filming. I was shooting behind a retirement home, and security was called and escorted me off the premises. 

“Miss Rabbit & the Devil!” was a total departure from the other works thus far in that it was more personal. I play every role in the film, and it was really more of an experiment in hallucinations rather than having character or story. I enjoyed playing around with colour, as well as using strobe lights in order to have the viewer experience an altered state of awareness. 

“flower rat” was probably the most fun of my movies to make, despite it maybe being the darkest. I shot the film at a Halloween trail, starring a homeless woman who had tremendous acting talents. She was very easy to direct, got my vision and most of her work in the film was improvisational. When I was editing it, I turned the film into a comment on the culture, as I added in footage that I was seeing in the news. 

“Teenage Pregnant Clown!” also started as a phrase that I became enamoured  with. Overall, it is my idea of a more straightforward comedy without the straightforward part. Similar to my other work, I just started thinking about a pregnant clown who is a teenager, smoking cigars and having conversations with a tree. This film was a lot of fun to shoot. Many people tell me it’s their favourite of my work and for that, I am very pleased. 

“Crushed Cats” is one of my favourite of my films, and I feel that it is also one of my most politically explicit works. The film utilizes a lot of found footage of things I saw on the news, including body camera footage as well as archival interviews with Charles Manson. The work is an extremist, comedic, political film about authoritarianism. I play a little cat boy. I don’t think there is anything else I should write about this film as the best way to experience it is to watch it.

I am now in the process of doing a film called “Playful Planet” which is less concerned with character, and more interested in colour, vibration, and frequency. It features narration from the filmmaker Wigwolf, who is a good friend of mine. 

-Which Director inspires you the most?

Many directors inspire me for different reasons. One of the directors who inspires me the most is the underground filmmaker and creator of the Cinema of Transgression, Nick Zedd. He consistently made both shorts and features in an uncompromising and raw way, and his do-it-yourself ethos resonates greatly with me. He proved that the only thing you need to make a good movie is a good mind. In fact, I have the pleasure of now being close friends with his widow, Monica Casanova, who I am working with in the Nick Zedd archive. Her and I have a lot of exciting things coming up! 

The filmmaker Giuseppe Andrews also serves as a big inspiration to me. The fact that he made over 30 features with little to no money living and shooting in a trailer park, has and will continue to inspire me and my work. I think both he and Nick are true artists.

-What do you dislike about the world and what would you change?

I dislike a lot about the world and there is a lot I would like to change. However, what I and my work are most concerned about now is the continuously increasing gap between the ultra wealthy and the rest of humanity. We are now living in a time where, according to a statistic by Oxfam, the top 1% have more overall wealth than the bottom 95% of the global population. I consider this to be an important statistic showcasing the immensity of human greed. 

I also find myself having problems with the corporatization of our planet and fear that in the years to come the world may be run by a series of large corporations, partially operating through the exploitation of labourers, for their continuous profits. I am concerned about the continuing use of child labor amongst many large corporations. These are things I hope to discuss in my future work. Similarly, I dislike that by the year 2050 it is projected that there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish (by weight). It is evident that our current system has nearly single-handedly destroyed the planet earth and if we wish to keep reproducing on this planet, something must be changed immediately. I fear that in 100 years it is entirely possible that clean air will be taxed by the corporate government elite. 

-How do you imagine cinema in 100 years?

I am excited to think about where cinema will end up in 100 years. I hope that cinema is still alive and flourishing. I do worry about the potential for film to fall victim to total censorship by a global fascist elite with the intention of demoralizing all art. I think there will always be a couple of important individual artists working however. I ponder if in 100 years movies will go further into the realm of virtual reality and I like the idea that movies may be things that you can physically get inside. I hope cinema will be more of a transcendental experience.

-What is your impression of WILD FILMMAKER?

I really appreciate what WILD FILMMAKER is doing, showcasing the lives and works of many different artists, both those who create for the mainstream audience as well as those who do not. I enjoy reading the interviews you do and always learn new things from them, as such a vast array of filmmakers are featured!