Chelsea McMullan

Last updated

Chelsea McMullan
Born
Canada
OccupationDocumentary filmmaker
Known for My Prairie Home , World Famous Gopher Hole Museum , Ever Deadly

Chelsea McMullan is a Canadian documentary filmmaker, best known for their 2013 film My Prairie Home , a film about transgender musician Rae Spoon. [1]

Contents

McMullan is non-binary, and uses they/them pronouns. [2]

Early life

McMullan grew up in Langley, British Columbia as an avid basketball player. They received a basketball scholarship to play at Brookswood Secondary School and were scouted to play at the university level in Canada, but eventually decided to pursue an interest in film. [3]

Career

Chelsea McMullan studied film in the Department of Film (now Cinema and Media Arts) at York University in Toronto; graduating with a BFA (Specialized Honours) in 2007.

McMullan's early film credits include the documentary films Derailments (Deragliamenti) and The Way Must Be Tried, and the short films Plume and Bath Time.

McMullan has worked on several projects with the National Film Board of Canada. [4] In addition to My Prairie Home, their prior films Mise en Scène and Deadman were made for the NFB; they first met Spoon when they wanted to secure rights to one of Spoon's songs as background music for Deadman. [5]

My Prairie Home competed in the World Cinema Documentary program at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, [4] and was shortlisted for the Canadian Screen Award for Best Feature Length Documentary at the 2nd Canadian Screen Awards. [6]

McMullan's 2015 film World Famous Gopher Hole Museum was shortlisted for the Canadian Screen Award for Best Short Documentary at the 4th Canadian Screen Awards. [7]

In 2022, McMullan and Tanya Tagaq collaborated on the film Ever Deadly . [8] The film Crystal Pite: Angels' Atlas , profiling a dance work by ballet choreographer Crystal Pite, was also released in 2022. [9]

In 2023, McMullan released Swan Song , a documentary film profiling Karen Kain as she prepares to retire from her career in dance. [10]

McMullan's forthcoming projects include a documentary film, Michael Shannon Michael Shannon John, and a narrative feature film, Swan Killer. [1]

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Crystal Pite: Angels' Atlas is a 2022 Canadian documentary film, directed by Chelsea McMullan. The film profiles choreographer Crystal Pite as she works with the National Ballet of Canada to stage her ballet Angels' Atlas as the company's first new stage production since the COVID-19 pandemic shut down live stage productions in 2020, illuminating her creative process through the depiction of rehearsals until ending with a full, uninterrupted performance of the work.

References

  1. 1 2 "Interview with My Prairie Home Director Chelsea McMullan". Filmmaker , January 19, 2014.
  2. Johanna Schneller, "How Chelsea McMullan produced two of this year’s most startling documentaries". The Globe and Mail , September 30, 2022.
  3. Jacobs, Jonas (May 7, 2016). "POV Profile: Chelsea McMullan – Point of View Magazine". POV Magazine. Archived from the original on September 17, 2016. Retrieved April 8, 2021.
  4. 1 2 "Chelsea McMullan doc to compete at Sundance". Playback , December 4, 2013.
  5. "Chelsea McMullan bends genre, gender in musical-documentary about Rae Spoon" Archived 2014-02-02 at the Wayback Machine . canada.com, September 30, 2013.
  6. "Canadian Screen Awards: Orphan Black, Less Than Kind, Enemy nominated". CBC News, January 13, 2014.
  7. "2016 Canadian Screen Awards Nominees Announced". ET Canada , January 19, 2016.
  8. "Tanya Tagaq film to debut at Toronto festival". Nunatsiaq News , August 15, 2022.
  9. Smith, Janet. "Stir Q&A: Director Chelsea McMullan discovers new ways to shoot dance for Crystal Pite: Angels' Atlas, at VIFF 2022". Stir. Retrieved October 4, 2022.
  10. Manori Ravindran, "Neve Campbell Boards TIFF-Bound Ballet Documentary ‘Swan Song’ as Executive Producer". Variety , July 25, 2023.