THE GREAT DAME: 2025 GEEKcon Festival Spotlights Local Film Noir Productions
a collective of area filmmakers swept the festival's audience-voted awards with their black and white, comedic short film
She’s got a secret and he searches for answers. But in this town, the truth sometimes is more comedic than what meets the eye. A team of local filmmakers have channeled the spirit of film noir cinematography right here in Eau Claire, with their completed short film “The Great Dame.”
GEEKcon 2025, hosted on Dec. 6 at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire in the W.R. Davies Student Center (77 Roosevelt Ave., Eau Claire) welcomed gaming enthusiasts, esports competitions, panel discussions and workshops, cosplay and other happenings to celebrate creative culture in the Chippewa Valley.
As part of its packed schedule, GEEKcon continued its annual tradition of hosting a short film competition – this year’s theme centered around “film noir” genres. Each year, area filmmakers submit their work to a jury of audience members and compete for awards, working within a short timeline and a list of on-camera requirements.
“The Great Dame,” one of the dozen short films viewed at the mini film festival, swept the awards for Best Directing, Best Actor, Best Use of Line, Best Costume and Makeup – among other individual categories – and received the Audience Award, voted on by attendees.
“The Chippewa Valley is full of so many amazing creative people; projects like this should be happening more in order to bring more and more (people) together and to create cool, new, beautiful works of art.”
ADAM OSTER
SCREENWRITER AND ACTOR, "THE GREAT DAME"
Tony Duerkop, the director of “The Great Dame,” described the film as a classic noir – inspired by thriller films from the 1940s-50s – featuring a private detective and a femme fatale as leading characters.
Yet, in collaborating with a group of Chippewa Valley creatives, Duerkop found the film's comedic conclusion, achieved through a series of unexpected twists and clever prop use, was a hit with the film festival audience.
“We were just following all the classic film noir things, but then we just wanted to make it funny,” Duerkop said. “It’s (referencing) the classic (noir scene): ‘Tonight was the night like any other night – until she walked in and there was trouble.’ ”
Collaborators in “The Great Dame,” included acting by Adam Oster and Paige Vasel, original scores by Lance Harris and Brian Bethke, directing of photography by Steve Dayton and others.
Oster, who also acted as a screenwriter and graphic designer for “The Great Dame,” said many of the folks who came together for this short film first connected through the Eau Claire Filmmakers Group.
With a time crunch to create the short film – GEEKcon's film competition was announced in early November with a Dec. 1 due date – the group managed to collaborate amidst hectic schedules and produce an exceptional story, he added.
“That’s only due to the sheer talent we were able to easily pull from the local community,” Oster said. “(Noir is) a style that is so ripe for visuals and Tony came up with a fantastically goofy idea that would seem to work in opposition to those visuals, that was just too difficult to resist.”
Oster and company were thrilled by audiences’ reactions and new ideas which came forth from the film festival itself. The group already has its eyes – and cameras – focused to submit the film to various festivals across Wisconsin and has even begun discussions about future projects.
“I think so many of us in the arts find ourselves waiting for something to happen, almost like we’re waiting for permission to create something, whether it’s film, music, theater, or whatever,” Oster said. “The Chippewa Valley is full of so many amazing creative people; projects like this should be happening more in order to bring more and more (people) together and to create cool, new, beautiful works of art.”
To view “The Great Dame,” from GEEKcon’s 2025 film festival, visit the Big Hand Productions YouTube page online (@bighandfilms).
