John N. Smith

Last updated
John N. Smith
Born (1943-07-31) July 31, 1943 (age 80)
Montreal, Quebec
Occupation(s) Film director, screenwriter
Years active 1974–present

John N. Smith OC (born July 31, 1943 in Montreal, Quebec) is a Canadian film director and screenwriter. [1]

Contents

Career

Smith graduated with a B.A. in political science from McGill University in 1964. He joined the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in 1968 as producer of The Way It Is, and the National Film Board of Canada in 1972 as a producer and director. In 1981 he directed First Winter, a short period drama that went on to be nominated for an Academy Award. He then made a string of feature-length docudramas that earnestly probed issues such as male sexuality (The Masculine Mystique), teen pregnancy (Sitting in Limbo), and immigration (Welcome to Canada). With collaborators such as Giles Walker, Smith made economic use of non-professional actors and documentary techniques. In 1993, he filmed The Boys of St. Vincent, a powerful and controversial television two-part drama depicting the sexual violation of children in a Catholic orphanage. Excellent reviews and ratings in the United States led to Hollywood assignments.

His work has been nominated in the Academy Awards, Genie Awards, and Gemini Awards, but has only won the latter. He is best known for the 1995 drama Dangerous Minds , starring Michelle Pfeiffer, the TV movie The Boys of St. Vincent , and his work on the TV miniseries The Englishman's Boy . Smith was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2008. [2] He is married to filmmaker Cynthia Scott. [3]

Selected filmography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Douglas Rain</span> Canadian actor and narrator (1928–2018)

Douglas James Rain was a Canadian actor and narrator. Although primarily a stage actor, he is perhaps best known for his voicing of the HAL 9000 computer in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and its sequel 2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lauren Lee Smith</span> Canadian actress (born 1980)

Lauren Lee Smith is a Canadian actress. She is known for her television roles, including Emma DeLauro in the syndicated science fiction drama Mutant X, Riley Adams in the CBS forensics drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, police Sergeant Michelle McCluskey in the CTV fantasy drama The Listener and Frankie Drake in the CBC detective series Frankie Drake Mysteries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David James Elliott</span> Canadian actor

David William Smith, known professionally as David James Elliott, is a Canadian actor. He was the star of the series JAG, playing lead character Harmon Rabb Jr. from 1995 to 2005.

Cynthia Scott is a Canadian award-winning filmmaker who has produced, directed, written, and edited several films with the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). Her works have won the Oscar and Canadian Film Award. Scott is a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. Her projects with the NFB are mainly focused on documentary filmmaking. Some of Scott's most notable documentaries for the NFB feature dancing and the dance world including Flamenco at 5:15 (1983), which won an Academy Award for Best Documentary at the 56th Academy Awards in 1984. She is married to filmmaker John N. Smith.

<i>The Boys of St. Vincent</i> 1992 Canadian TV series or program

The Boys of St. Vincent is a 1992 Canadian television miniseries directed by John N. Smith for the National Film Board of Canada. It is a two-part docudrama inspired by real events that took place at the Mount Cashel Orphanage in St. John's, Newfoundland, one of a number of child sexual abuse scandals in the Roman Catholic Church.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clement Virgo</span> Canadian film director

Clement Virgo is a Canadian film and television writer, producer and director who runs the production company, Conquering Lion Pictures, with producer Damon D'Oliveira. Virgo is best known for co-writing and directing an adaptation of the novel by Canadian writer Lawrence Hill, The Book of Negroes (2015), a six-part miniseries that aired on CBC Television in Canada and BET in the United States.

Orest Sushko is a Canadian re-recording mixer working in the fields of film, television, and music. He holds a Bachelor's Degree from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario and an M.A. degree in media production from Ryerson University in Toronto.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Docufiction</span> Film genre

Docufiction is the cinematographic combination of documentary and fiction, this term often meaning narrative film. It is a film genre which attempts to capture reality such as it is and which simultaneously introduces unreal elements or fictional situations in narrative in order to strengthen the representation of reality using some kind of artistic expression.

Giles Walker was a Scottish-born Canadian film director.

The Canadian Screen Award for Best Actor in a Continuing Leading Dramatic Role is an annual Canadian television award, presented by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television to the best leading performance by an actor in a Canadian television series. Previously presented as part of the Gemini Awards, since 2013 it has been presented as part of the Canadian Screen Awards.

The Canadian Screen Award for Best Actress in a Continuing Leading Dramatic Role is an annual Canadian television award, presented by the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television to the best leading performance by an actress in a Canadian television series. Previously presented as part of the Gemini Awards, since 2013 it has been presented as part of the Canadian Screen Awards.

Sitting in Limbo is a 1986 Canadian docudrama film directed by John N. Smith. Developed through interviews and improvisational work with a group of Black Canadian youth in Montreal, the film stars Pat Dillon as Pat, a young woman who moves in with her boyfriend Fabian after getting pregnant.

Saverio "Sam" Grana is a Canadian Academy Award-nominated television and film producer and screenwriter, most noted for the film Train of Dreams and the television miniseries The Boys of St. Vincent.

The Masculine Mystique is a Canadian docufiction film directed by Giles Walker and John N. Smith and released in 1984.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dylan Smith (actor)</span> Canadian actor

Dylan Scott Smith is a Canadian actor known for his portrayal of the characters Sepp on TNT's I Am the Night, Jasper in Maze Runner: The Death Cure, Daniel in Lemonade, and Largo Brandyfoot in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Minds Eye Entertainment</span> Canadian entertainment production company

Minds Eye Entertainment is a Canadian film and television production and distribution company headquartered in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. The company produces television and film projects in Canada and the United States as well as internationally. Minds Eye Entertainment was founded by Kevin DeWalt and Ken Krawczyk in 1986. The company has produced more than sixty films and television series and has received over fifty national and international film awards.

The Canadian Screen Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series or Program is an annual Canadian television award, presented by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television to the best supporting performance by an actor in a Canadian dramatic television series or television film. Previously presented as part of the Gemini Awards, since 2013 it has been presented as part of the Canadian Screen Awards.

The Canadian Screen Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series or Program is an annual Canadian television award, presented by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television to the best supporting performance by an actress in a Canadian dramatic television series or television film. Previously presented as part of the Gemini Awards, since 2013 it has been presented as part of the Canadian Screen Awards.

James Purcell is an American actor and filmmaker, who has worked predominantly in Canadian film and television. He is most noted for his starring role as Hector Stone in the television drama series Counterstrike, for which he won the Gemini Award for Best Actor in a Drama Series at the 8th Gemini Awards in 1994.

References

  1. ↑ "John N. Smith - Northern Stars". Archived from the original on 2010-11-27.
  2. ↑ "Order of Canada: John N. Smith". The Governor General of Canada . Retrieved 13 March 2017.
  3. ↑ "Cynthia Scott". The Film Reference Library. Toronto International Film Festival Group. Archived from the original on March 27, 2022.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.