Quebec My Country Mon Pays

John Walker’s films have been widely broadcast and have appeared at the major international film festivals in Toronto, Vancouver, New York, Los Angeles, Berlin, London and Tokyo. From the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television he has received nineteen nominations and awards including the coveted Donald Brittain Award for best social/political documentary UTSHIMASSITS: PLACE OF THE BOSS; a Gemini for best documentary director THE HAND OF STALIN; and a Genie for best feature documentary STRAND - UNDER THE DARK CLOTH, a personal portrait of his mentor, the photographer/filmmaker Paul Strand. His film on the Cape Breton coal miners choir, MEN OF THE DEEPS, won three Gemini awards including best performing arts, best documentary photography, best sound and a best director nomination. The film garnered three million viewers with its CTV broadcast.

His feature length films include QUEBEC MY COUNTRY MON PAYS, ARCTIC DEFENDERS, A DRUMMERS DREAM, THE FAIRY FAITH, TOUGH ASSIGNMENT, and the critically acclaimed feature drama A WINTER TAN which received seven Genie nominations including Best Motion Picture, Best Director and won Best Actor for Jackie Burroughs.

He co-produced, wrote and directed the provocative feature film PASSAGE, a fiction/documentary for BBC and History Television about the Sir John Franklin search for the fabled Northwest Passage. Martin Knelman of The Toronto Star called it “One of the great triumphs in Canadian documentary film history.” Winning numerous awards Walker was the first Canadian to receive the Organization of American Historians - Eric Barnouw Award.

Walker made several films for British television, tackling some of the foremost tragedies of the twentieth century. He directed and photographed the opening two films in the BBC/October Films trilogy THE HAND OF STALIN, which addressed the devastating human suffering under Stalin's regime. The first film was called a masterpiece and the films were broadcast to general acclaim: "oral history at its most devastating," said London's Daily Mail; "words fail the enormity of what these films reveal," said The Observer. The British Press Guild, Royal Television Society, and the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television nominated the trilogy for best series.

His directorial credits on Great Britain's Channel 4 include HIDDEN CHILDREN, about children who concealed their Jewish identity to survive the Holocaust. ORPHANS OF MANCHURIA, also nominated for the Donald Brittain Award, dealt with the plight of Japanese children orphaned in China at the end of WWII. His groundbreaking film DISTRESS SIGNALS, was the opening film on the Channel 4 series “Channels of Resistance: Global Television and Local Empowerment”. The film received Walker’s fourth nomination for a Donald Brittain Award for best social/political documentary.

With UTSHIMASSITS: PLACE OF THE BOSS he turned his attention to a tragedy on Canadian soil. Juxtaposing the powerful testimony of the Mushuau Innu of Davis Inlet with the vast Labrador landscape, Walker told the painful story of the nomadic Innu.

His passionate commitment to the documentary form led him to co-found the Documentary Organization of Canada. Walker has conducted master classes across the country and mentored numerous emerging filmmakers. He served as guest programmer for the HOT DOCS Canadian International Documentary Festival and current board member since 2011.

SELECTED FILMOGRAPHY

QUEBEC MY COUNTRY MON PAYS writer, director, narrator, producer 2016

The aftermath of Quebec’s Quiet Revolution in the 1960s unleashed dramatic cultural and political changes that led to the separatist movement, the FLQ terrorist crisis and ultimately, the exodus of more than 500,000 English-speaking Quebecers. Montreal-born filmmaker John Walker reveals his own complicated relationship with the province in a film brimming with love and longing. 89min www.quebecmycountrymonpays.ca

• World Premiere Hot Docs 2016

ARCTIC DEFENDERS writer, director, narrator, co-producer, co-cinematography 2013

A radical political movement in the 1970’s lead to the largest land claim in western civilization, orchestrated by young visionary Inuit with a dream - the governance of their territory - the creation of Nunavut. The film reveals Canada’s misguided attempts at sovereignty in the north and finds hope and inspiration from determined people who changed the rules of the game. 90min www.arcticdefenders.ca

• Best Feature Film - Atlantic Film Festival
• Director’s Guild of Canada - Alan King Award Nomination for Excellence in Documentary
• Writer’s Guild of Canada – Screenwriters Award Nomination - Best Documentary Script
• Vancouver International Film Festival - Audience Top Ten Canadian Films
• Focal International Awards – Nomination – Best Use of Footage in a Factual Production

PLAYING A DANGEROUS GAME writer, director 2012

The story of the infamous1969 Grey Cup in Montreal under threat of terrorist attacks from the FLQ.
Part of the TSN series “Engraved on a Nation” the 100th anniversary of the Canadian Football League.

• Director’s Guild of Canada - Alan King Award Nomination for Excellence in Documentary
• Yorkton Film Festival, Golden Sheaf Award Nomination - Best Documentary History

THE STARS AND THE WAVES writer, director 2011

One of the short films made for the National Parks Project - a ground-breaking collaborative film and music project that featured contributions by thirteen of Canada's most acclaimed filmmakers and thirty nine musicians, celebrating the inspirational beauty of Canada's national parks. 7min www.nationalparksproject.ca

A DRUMMER’S DREAM writer, director, co-producer 2010

A rare and unique assembly of some of the greatest drummers in the world. Explosive talent, passion, humour and irresistible personality come together in a magical setting when seven diverse drummers create a profound and unforgettable experience with forty students. 85min www.adrummersdream.com

• FIPA D’OR - Grand Prize Performing Arts - Biarritz, France
• Hot Docs International Documentary Festival - Top Ten Audience Award

BUFFY writer, director 2010
A short film on the passions of singer and songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie. 6min www.nfb.ca

PASSAGE writer, director, narrator, co-producer 2008

"History would be an excellent thing if only it were true," claimed Tolstoy. Filmmaker John Walker takes us on an epic historical adventure that involves cannibalism, a vengeful woman and an historical cover-up by British authorities that credited the wrong man, Sir John Franklin, with the discovery of the Northwest Passage. It was in fact John Rae who found the last link in the Passage and was airbrushed out of history. Stunningly cinematic, the film follows a trail from London to the Orkney Islands to Nunavut, elegantly slipping between past and present, drama and documentary, and observational and self-reflexive cinema. 108min (NFB, PTV co-production)

• Banff World Television Festival - Best Canadian Production
• Grierson British Documentary Awards – Shortlist - Best Historical Documentary
• Canadian Film & Television Producers Association - Indie Award - Best Doc
• Organization of American Historians - Eric Barnouw Award
• Real 2 Reel International Film Festival for Youth – Best Picture
• Atlantic Film Festival – Best Director - Best Cinematography
• Writers Guild of Canada - Screenwriters Award – Best Documentary Script
• Columbus International Film & Video Festival - Silver Chris Award
• Vancouver International Film Festival - Audience Top Ten Canadian Films

MEN OF THE DEEPS writer, director, cinematographer, co-producer 2003

A moving portrait of a group of coal miners gathered together because of their love of song. Through testimonials from both miners and their wives, evocative scenes underground and the hauntingly beautiful voices of the choir, we explore the last days of coal mining in Cape Breton. Featuring sixteen outstanding songs, which exemplify an oral tradition of almost 300 years, the film captures the grace and dignity of a group of men whose livelihood has been lost but their voices inspire and uplift. 52min (NFB, Picture Plant co-production)

• Gemini Awards - Best Performing Arts Documentary, Best Documentary Photography, Best Documentary Sound
• Gemini nomination - Best Documentary Director
• Hot Docs Festival - Top Ten Audience Award
• Canadian Society of Cinematographers - Best Documentary Photography
• Atlantic Film Festival - Excellence in Sound Design
• Tidal Wave Film Festival - Viewers Choice Award - Best Documentary

YEARS FROM HERE co-writer, director, narrator 2002

The story of the Maisin, of Papua New Guinea, on their first trip to visit the indigenous Sto:lo of British Columbia. The film is a follow up to Changing Ground that documented the Sto:lo’s journey the previous year to PNG. Through the observations of the Maisin and the experiences of the Sto:lo in Canada we come to understand the complexity and tragedy of adapting to a foreign way of life. 50 min (CBC broadcast on The Nature of Things)

CHANGING GROUND co-writer, director, narrator 2001

A documentary film shot in Papua New Guinea with the Maisin - the first tribe in PNG to say no to foreign logging in their territory. The film witnesses an extraordinary exchange between two indigenous communities: the Maisin of Collingwood Bay, PNG and the Sto:lo of the Fraser Valley in British Columbia who face the same dilemmas. 50min (CBC broadcast on The Nature of Things)

THE FAIRY FAITH writer, director, narrator, co-producer 2000

Walker takes us on a personal journey into a world of myth and imagination that he learned from his grandmother. He travels from the Moors of Devon and the Highlands of Scotland to the brooding Celtic landscapes of Ireland and the intimate hills of Cape Breton, in his search of this potent “otherworld” of the imagination. 77min www.thefairyfaith.com (NFB co-production. Theatrical release, CBC broadcast.)

• Genie nomination - Best Feature Documentary

UTSHIMASSITS: PLACE OF THE BOSS writer, director, co-producer 1996

The nomadic Mushuau Innu tell their story of how they were settled in the 1960’s on the island of Davis Inlet in Labrador. Within one generation everything changed. 48min (NFB co-production)

• Gemini - Donald Brittain Award - Best Social/Political Documentary
• Gemini nomination - Best Documentary Director
• Hot Docs nomination - Best Cultural Documentary
• Yorkton Film Festival - Golden Sheaf Awards - Best Film of Festival, Best Documentary over 30min and Best Music
• Atlantic Film Festival - Rex Tasker Award - Best Documentary

TOUGH ASSIGNMENT director, cinematographer, co-producer 1996

A feature length documentary following four high school teachers as they struggle through an academic year at a downtown Toronto high school. 88min (NFB co-production, TVOntario broadcast)

• Hot Docs – Best Editing of Festival

THE CHAMPAGNE SAFARI executive producer 1995
Feature length documentary on the industrialist and alleged Nazi collaborator Charles E. Bedaux.

• Genie Award - Best Feature Documentary
• The New York Festivals - International Competition - Gold Medal

HIDDEN CHILDREN director, cinematographer 1994

Shot in Poland, Israel and Canada the film reveals the deeply held childhood memories of those who were forced to hide their Jewish identity during WWII. 52min (October Films, Channel 4 broadcast)

• Chicago Film Festival - Golden Plaque Award
• Gemini nomination - Donald Brittain Award - Best Social/Political Documentary
• New York, San Francisco and Toronto Jewish Film Festivals

ORPHANS OF MANCHURIA director, co-cinematography 1993

Shot in China and Japan this film deals with the plight of Japanese children left in China at the end of WWII. Like the Jews of Europe they had to hide their true identity in Mao’s China. Returning to Japan they faced a new challenge as they tried to adapt to a culture that is now foreign to them. 52min
(October Films, Channel 4 broadcast)

• Gemini nomination - Donald Brittain Award - Best Social/Political Documentary

SHEPHERDS TO THE FLOCK director 1992

An exploration of Protestant ministers with different political points of view and interpretations of the bible. 52min One of a four-part CBC series “God's Dominion” based on the book by Ron Graham.

DISTRESS SIGNALS director, producer 1991

The opening film in the Channel Four series Channels of Resistance: Global Television and Local Empowerment. Inspired by the communication theories of Canadian scholar Harold Innis, the film looks at the economics of global television culture that is dominated by American product. The film explores the public sector opposition in Africa, Europe and Canada to American cultural hegemony. At MIP-TV in Cannes, France we hear from the American CEO’s who challenge the opposition. 55min (NFB co-production, Channel 4 broadcast in the UK and CBC in Canada)

• Gemini nomination – Donald Brittain Award - Best Social/Political Documentary

THE HAND OF STALIN director, cinematographer 1990

Leningradskaya - A Village in Southern Russia and Leningrad - the opening two films of the trilogy use first person accounts to reveal the tragic details of the famine and political persecution suffered under Stalin’s regime. 2 x 58min (October Films, PTV Productions, BBC broadcast)

• Gemini Award - Best Documentary Director
• Earth Peace International Film Festival - Special Merit Award
• Royal Television Society Nomination – Best Series
• British Press Guild Nominatioin – Best Series
• Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television Nomination – Best Series
• Gemeaux nominations – Best Documentary, Best Director of Photography in all catagories.

STRAND-UNDER THE DARK CLOTH director, co-writer, cinematographer, narrator, producer 1989
A personal look at the master photographer and filmmaker Paul Strand who inspired Walker. Their meetings in the late seventies lead to the film looking back at Strand’s lifework, returning to the locations of his art in New Mexico, Scotland, France and Italy. The film includes interviews with Strand’s wives, Hazel Kingsbury and Virigina Stevens, and collegues and friends Leo Hurwitz, Georgia O’Keeffe, Cesare Zavattini, Fred Zinneman and others. 81min (Theatrical release, BBC broadcast)

• Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television - Genie Award - Best Feature Documentary
• Nyon International Documentary Festival - Public Jury Award
• Festival International Du Film Sur L'Art - Best Biography

A WINTER TAN co-director, cinematographer, co-producer 1987

The critically acclaimed feature drama starring Jackie Burroughs was based on the book “Give Sorrow Words - Maryse Holder’s Letters From Mexico” 87min (Theatrical Release)

• Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television - Genie Award - Best Actor
• Genie nominations - Best Picture and Best Director

CHAMBERS - TRACKS AND GESTURES director, cinematographer 1982

Portrait of the celebrated Canadian artist and experimental filmmaker, Jack Chambers who died at the peak of his career from leukemia. 56 min (CBC broadcast)

• Canadian Film & Television Association Award - Best Documentary
• Yorkton Film Festival - Golden Sheaf Awards - Best Film of Festival and Best Human Condition
• American Film Festival - Blue Ribbon
• Houston Film Festival - Bronze Award
• Canadian Film Editors - Best Editing
• Canadian Society of Cinematographers - Best Documentary Photography

CINEMATOGRAPHY AWARDS

• ACCT Gemini – Best Documentary Photography - Men of the Deeps, A Fragile Tree Has Roots
• Canadian Society of Cinematographers – Best Documentary Photography - Chambers Tracks & Gestures, Blue Snake, Men of the Deeps, Winds of Heaven: Emily Carr & the Spirits of the Forest
• Yorkton Film Festival - Golden Sheaf Awards - Best Cinematography of Festival - On To The Polar Sea, Leningradskaya - A Village in Southern Russia, Whalesong, Making Overtures (Oscar nomination)
• Gemini nominations - Best Documentary Cinematography – Making Overtures
• Gemeaux nomination - Best Director of Photography in all Categories - The Hand of Stalin

PUBLICATIONS

Alioff Maurie,“The Fairy Faith : In the Realm of the Little People”, feature article Take One, Volume 10, #32, May 2001.

Alioff Maurie, “Ongoing Passage: John Walker’s Emotional Connection”, feature article, Canadian Cinematographer, Volume 1, #1, April 2009.

Cole Janis, “The Deeps of Doc Directing”, feature article, POV Magazine, Issue 51, Fall 2003.

Crooks Harold, "Vacuuming the Crumbs: The Politics of Film Production", interview with John Walker,
The Canadian Forum, #779 March 1989.

Glassman Marc, “The POV Interview” Part One, POV Magazine, Issue 72, Winter 2008.

Glassman Marc, “Art and the Documentary” Part Two Interview, POV Magazine, Issue 73, Spring 2009.

Hays Matthew, “Minority Report: John Walker explores his family history as an Anglophone in Quebec My Country Mon Pays, feature article, POV Magazine, Issue 101, Spring 2016.

Lederman Marsha, “Turning a Forgotten Figure into a Hero”, feature article on Passage, Globe and Mail, October 1, 2008.

Moscovitch Arlene, "The Filmmaker as Camel: interview with John Walker", Constructing Reality: Exploring Media Issues in Documentary, National Film Board of Canada, 1993.

Knelman Martin, “Passage a Voyage to the Truth”, feature article, Toronto Star, April 23, 2008.

Knelman Martin, “Director Revisits Quebec Exodus”, feature article, Toronto Star, April 28, 2016

Perlmutter Tom, "Tough Assignment: A Film by John Walker", feature article, Take One, Volume 4, #11, Spring 1996.

Perlmutter Tom, Channels of Resistance: Global Television and Local Empowerment, Tony Dowmunt editor, first chapter based on Walker’s film Distress Signals, British Film Institute in association with Channel 4 Television, 1993.

Painchaud Jeanne, "Le Prix de la Liberte" interview with Jackie Burroughs and John Walker on the making of A Winter Tan, 24 Images, #41 Winter 88-89.

Steed Judy, "School daze inspire filmmaker's class act", feature article on John Walker and the film Tough Assignment, Toronto Star, March 20, 1996.

Stevens Peter, The Brink of Reality: New Canadian Documentary Film and Video, Chapter and interview with John Walker, Between The Lines, 1993.

Varga Darrell, John Walker’s Passage, Canadian Cinema Series, University of Toronto Press, 2012.

Walker John, "Location Notes on A Winter Tan", essay on the making of feature film with actor Jackie Burroughs, Descant 64/65, Volume 20, Spring-Summer 1989.

Walker John, "The Big Deal", feature article on the making of A Winter Tan, Cinema Canada, #156 October 1988.

Walker John, review of documentary Manufacturing Consent, POV Magazine, #20 Winter 1992.

Walker John, "In Conversation with John Paskievich", Take One, Volume 6, #18, Winter, 1998.

Wise Wyndam, "Back from the U.S.S.R.", interview with John Walker, POV Magazine, #14 September, 1990.

MEMBERSHIPS

Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television
Canadian Society of Cinematographers
Directors Guild of Canada
Documentary Organization of Canada, Co-Founder, First National President, Honorary Life Member
Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, Board member
Writers Guild of Canada