Misstropolis

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Dawn Morrissey is Ready for Her Closeup

by Rebecca Dorr

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Dawn Morrissey is pumped. It’s 7:59 am, August 19, 2005, and the Irish native stands on Summer Street at Downtown Crossing, waiting for the mayhem to begin. She’s never experienced Filene’s Basement’s venerable “Running of the Brides,” but she’s heard about it. And since a friend needed a backup team to rally around her as she grabbed, pillaged, and bartered for her perfect wedding dress, Morrissey decided to have in on the fun. Besides, the up-and-coming film producer, with an eye for Americana and a knack for finding humanity in the sometimes-absurd traditions of her adopted country, wanted to capture it all on film.

The twice-annual “Running,” as it’s affectionately called, has been a tradition at Filene’s Basement’s original Boston location for going on 60 years. Women storm the store and compete for discounted designer gowns from the likes of Vera Wang and Monique Lhuillier. Morrissey, intrigued by the event’s spunky American spirit, brought 3 videographers with her to the 2005 Running. When Filene’s threw open its doors at 8 am and hundreds of brides-to-be rushed down the stairs, Morrissey’s cameras captured it all: thousand-dollar dresses snatched immediately from rolling metal racks, women stripping down to their skivvies to try on dress after dress, loyal friends carrying signs advertising preferred fabrics and dress sizes, hoping for a trade. It’s a peculiar kind of circus, and one that makes for fascinating, if unsettling, viewing.

And are the women a little crazy? “Oh God, yeah!” says Morrissey, who has seen women kick, bite, and scream at the event. “A lot of women, they go in, and they see somebody has 30 dresses; they’re going to try to grab one. There are fist-fights. It’s unbelievable.”

Nearly two years later, after a second “Running,” one run-in with Tyra Banks (Morrissey graced Tyra’s show to show-off some of her footage), and one reality-TV stint (she will appear as the “Running Guru” on a TLC show that airs later this year), Morrissey is glad she went to that first bridal sale in August 2005. A producer based in Waltham, her documentary on the “Running of the Brides” is currently in post-production. In the end, it will be a snapshot of the event, whittled down from more than 8 hours of footage shot on-site at Filene’s. It will also be a larger look at the wedding culture that drives brides to bare all on the floor of a department store.

Make sure to check out her Running of the Brides short on YouTube!

“The wedding industry is so corrupt, because it plays on women’s emotions,” says Morrissey, “and they want to get the most expensive dress ever.” The unbelievable truth about the sale at Filene’s Basement is that $10,000 dresses might be priced for just $700. For better or for worse, this has made the event into a cult institution in the wedding industry. And while the Running is something endemic to America, Morrissey thinks this country’s wedding bonanza has infected Ireland, too. “It’s what people will do to have that fairytale wedding,” she says. “It’s totally seeped into the whole universe, the American wedding dream, with 15 bridesmaids,” and everything else that comes with it.

Morrissey is drawn to socio-cultural themes, especially if they involve her native Ireland, her adopted America—or both. One of her first shorts was a five minute piece on the Fenway’s El Pelon restaurant and its Hot Chili Eating Competition. And though she juggles her freelance film work with a full-time position managing a research lab at McLean Hospital, it doesn’t slow her down. For the past three years, she has spearheaded production of the Magners Irish Film Festival. She’s helping develop a documentary on the Irish film industry, tentatively titled Going Global; she’s writing her own feature comedy script about her father’s stint as a Gaelic football player in the ‘60s, and she’s producing screenwriter pal Karen Webb’s award-winning short, Green Grass, starring Billy Smith, (The Departed, HBO’s The Brotherhood).

With so much going on, Morrissey’s Running of the Brides documentary is a blip on her busy schedule, but it has yielded more than just good press. Try: A Monique Lhuillier wedding dress all her own. Morrissey had gotten engaged a few months before her first “Running.” She was there, presumably, for her friend. Almost by mistake, she found something for herself, “but I put it aside and never thought any more of it until after [my friend] got her dress.” When Morrissey finally tried it on, it was perfect. “This works!” she remember thinking. “And it’s 100 percent silk and it’s $299. Uh-huh! Yeah, I think that’s good!”

Dawn’s Headshot by Brian Harris
Wedding Photo by Al Abrams