Secret Cinema with John Paizs

In Secret Cinema, our all-celluloid film series, films from our own archive of 16mm film prints are selected by guest curators. The film titles are kept secret until the night of the screening.

This month’s selection was made by filmmaker John Paizs!

John Paizs began his filmmaking journey as an animator while still in high school. After graduating from the University of Manitoba School of Art with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1980, he shifted his focus to live-action filmmaking. He embarked upon a series of ultra-low-budget comedies—culminating in his first feature, Crime Wave—which would earn him, in the mid ‘80s, the reputation as one of Canada’s leading independent filmmakers.

These works have screened at such prestigious venues as the Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the Boston Museum of Fine Art, the Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio, and the Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume in Paris, France.

A second chapter in Paizs’s directing journey opened in 1990 when he was invited to direct for the hit television series The Kids in the Hall. It was his first professional directing engagement. Many more were to follow, including helming the 1999 festival hit Top of the Food Chain (aka Invasion!), starring Campbell Scott and Tom Everett Scott.

A third chapter in Paizs’s directing journey opened in 2000, when he joined the Canadian Film Centre as their Director Mentor. He remained vigorously engaged there for the next 20 years, mentoring Canada’s brightest filmmaking lights of tomorrow.

Admission is free and the event will take place at the Winnipeg Film Group’s Black Lodge Studio (3rd floor of 100 Arthur St).

Generously sponsored by IATSE 856 Manitoba