Many years ago Jim borrowed his mother's super-8mm camera and kidnapped his kid brother to make his first film, aptly titled... Kidnap! This was the late 70's in Los Angeles, and every aunt ...Show More
Many years ago Jim borrowed his mother's super-8mm camera and kidnapped his kid brother to make his first film, aptly titled... Kidnap! This was the late 70's in Los Angeles, and every aunt and uncle who ever came to visit the family from back home in Quebec insisted on visiting Universal Studios. Drafted as one of the official tour guides, Jim's life has never been the same ever since.Flash-forward to the mid-nineties: Nirvana is all over the radio. MTV and Muchmusic are the hottest thing on TV. The Internet is still for university professors and Jim, fresh out of Concordia's film school, has been shooting music videos and commercial spots in his home town of Montreal. The work is getting noticed, but still the film bug won't quit, so Jim sets his sights on doing some short films and scores some gigs in TV. Soon he finds himself having to juggle between international spot work for clients such as Y&R, Cossette, Publicis, JWT on gigs for Ford, Budweiser, Saturn and Labbatt's- and riding the wave of TV assignments for networks such as CTV, Fox Family, Nickelodeon, Discovery, Showcase, Animal Planet and Nat Geo to name a few. Montreal is pumping out kids programs and Jim gets to cut his teeth on shows such as Are You Afraid of the Dark, MTV's Undressed , Instant Star, and Mayday. Throughout this journey he earns multiple awards for the spot work, and a nomination for best direction in a comedy series for Naked Josh at the 2006 Geminis.Meanwhile Jim shoots his first independent feature, pure, a film that will earn him a nomination for Best Direction at the 2005 Director's Guild of Canada (DGC) Awards and tours at several international festivals.In 2008, after receiving a development grant from the Canada Council for the Arts, he writes as well as co-produces and directs his next feature film project, 3 Saisons. It premiers at the Festival of New Cinema in October 2008, is invited to over 20 international film festivals where it wins multiple awards, Including The Borsos Award for best Canadian Feature and Best Actress at the Whistler Film Festival in '08, The Best Film and Audience Awards at the 2010 Beverly Hills Film Festival, as well as a triple nomination at the 2010 Genie Awards, for best picture, actress and editing.After moving to Toronto in 2010, Jim is tapped to join the directorial roster for season 4 of CTV/CBS's hit prime-time show Flashpoint, and directs an episode entitled "A Day in The Life" . In 2011 Jim's short film She Said Lenny is nominated at the 2011 DGC Awards. Later, he joins the directorial roster for several CBC prime-time dramas, the popular family drama Heartland, crime drama Cracked and on the hit series Republic of Doyle. In 2013, Jim is awarded the prize for Best Direction in a Dramatic Series at the inaugural Canadian Screen Awards for Flashpoint.In 2014, he is once again nominated at the Director's Guild of Canada Awards for his episode of Cracked, "Ghost Dance", an episode that tackles the sensitive subject of the disappearance and murder of aboriginal women. Recently in 2015-2016, he directs seasons one and two of a new prime-time series for CBC (SRC) entitled Le Clan, (The Clan) a crime-family drama set in Quebec and New Brunswick.Jim has come a long way from those super 8 films made with his little brother, but something of that California sun remains imprinted in his DNA. He is more than ever inspired by the power of creative ideas, captivating stories and the universal appeal of storytelling. Hide
