Experiencing Interruptions?

Duck Duck Goose

When hiding for your life becomes a frightening game, an elementary school teacher and children cope with the fear and guilt created by lockdown.

(Winner - Best Short - Atlantic Film Festival FIN - Halifax, NS, Canada - Sept 20, 2018)

  • Shelley Thompson
    Director
    Pearls, Dawg, Bats
  • Shelley Thompson
    Writer
    Pearls, Dawg, Bats
  • Sylvia Bell
    Producer
    Grace
  • Francine Deschepper
    Key Cast
    "Annie"
    Hopeless Romantic, Weirdo's, Sex and Violence, Seed, Call Me Fitz and more....
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Runtime:
    6 minutes 54 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    July 30, 2018
  • Production Budget:
    5,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Canada
  • Country of Filming:
    Canada
  • Language:
    English
  • Aspect Ratio:
    2.35
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
  • FIN (Halifax International Film Festival
    Halifax
    Canada
    September 16, 2018
    World
    Best Atlantic Short
  • Charlottetown International Film Festival
    Charlottetown
    Canada
    October 14, 2018
    PEI
  • Silver Wave - Fredericton NB
    Fredericton
    Canada
    November 10, 2018
    New Brunswick Premiere
  • Cinema on the Bayou
    Lafayette
    United States
    January 26, 2019
    US Premiere
  • Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, Telefilm Not Short on Talent Showcase
    Clermont-Ferrand
    France
    February 6, 2019
    European
Director Biography - Shelley Thompson

Writer/Director: Shelley Thompson

Based in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Thompson trained at: RADA (UK), Canadian Film Centre (Screenwriting 2015), Women In The Directors Chair (Story and Leadership 2016/17) and was recently 1of 12 screenwriters selected from over 1000 for the NY Writers Lab 2018 (supported by Meryl Streep/Nicole Kidman) for her feature script DAWN, HER DAD & THE TRACTOR.

She's the recipient of Geminis/ACTRA nominations/awards for film/TV performances: THE CHILD REMAINS (ACTRA Award 2018) TRAILER PARK BOYS (Gemini) and recently received Outstanding Performance by an Actress at FIN (2018) for her role in Thom Fitzgerald’s latest feature - SPLINTERS.

Her short films, DAWG, BATS, PEARLS and DUCK DUCK GOOSE are screening internationally. PEARLS played over 30 international festivals and won several nominations and accolades (Audience Choice, Best Short). Her latest short, DUCK DUCK GOOSE won BEST ATLANTIC SHORT at FIN (2018 Halifax International Film Festival) and was recently selected by Telefilm Canada as one of ten shorts for Not Short On Talent at Clermont-Ferrand (February 2019). It will be playing at festivals in the US, Europe and Canada in 2019.

Shelley is the recipient of the 2018 Women In the Directors Chair Feature Film award for DAWN, HER DAD & THE TRACTOR.

Married to theatre director/screenwriter Ed Thomason, they are proud parents of singer/songwriter T. Thomason.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

“It’s time to stop rehearsing our deaths and start screaming.”
Chicago Tribune, June 19, 2018
Launa Hall, a teacher in Arlington, Va. from The Washington Post

Since Columbine in 1999, the practice of lockdowns in schools across North American has been a regular, and in some schools, monthly practice. Now implemented around the world, these rehearsals deemed necessary for ‘active shooter’ situations, continue to address a phenomenon in its outcome, not its origin.
Many studies have been done on the aftermath of mass shootings; much has been written about the resulting PTSD in survivors.
Little has been said about the impact of a culture of fear created by preparing children, including those in their very first years of schooling, for a real-life horror.
Duck Duck Goose has no answers. It was made from a passion for education, and the need to keep igniting the conversation with questions about how this present reality impacts teachers and children