B. P. Paquette

B. P. Paquette is a Canadian film director, screenwriter, film producer and academic.

Background

Born in London, Ontario, Paquette spent his childhood and adolescence in Greater Sudbury. Shooting his first film at age 10,^[1] and after having made over a dozen student shorts (including the award-winning An Uneven Scroll^[2]), Paquette produced, wrote and directed two features while still a high school student, Maxwell’s Silver Hammer (1993) and A Descent Into Darkness (1994), and a third as a university student, Raining Angels (1997).^[3][4] Paquette then established his Montreal-based film production and distribution company Ourson Films in 1998.^[5][6]

Education

Paquette graduated from Concordia University’s Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema in Montreal, Quebec with B.F.A. and M.F.A. degrees, respectively, in Film Production^[7][8] In 2007, Paquette was accepted into the inaugural class of the Ph.D. program in Film Theory at the Université de Montréal, the first program of its kind in Canada.^[9][10]

Academia and Professional Skills Development

Academia

Paquette is the director of, and a professor in, the Motion Picture Arts curriculum within the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree program at Thorneloe University, a federated partner of Laurentian University.^[11] He was recruited in 2009 to lead the establishment of an eventual film, TV and digital media program, the only one of its kind in Northern Ontario.^[12][13] Since 2011, Laurentian University offers an Academic minor in Motion Picture Arts, while an Academic major was established in 2013.^[14]

Paquette started his academic career in the Film & Television Production Program at Trebas Institute, a private, post-secondary college based in Montreal. From 2001 to 2009, he gave practical courses, including those regarding screenwriting and production. From 2001-2005, he also served as program director. In his capacity as such, Paquette lead the creation, development, and implementation of its current, competency-based, four-session program, which received accreditation from the Quebec Ministry of Education in 2005. Before relocating back to Greater Sudbury, Paquette taught filmmaking at the University of Montreal during the 2009-2010 academic year.

With his film Perspective, Paquette began to directly integrate his film-making pursuits with his academic interests. In effect, the film serves as a teaching tool for Paquette's film production students at Laurentian University.^{[15][15][16][17]}

Professional Skills Development

In his capacity as both a filmmaker and educator, Paquette has been a juror at international film festivals,^[18] a guest filmmaking instructor at various professional skills development institutions, including acclaimed Cree filmmaker Shirley Cheechoo's Weengushk Film Institute, and Music and Film in Motion. Furthermore, he has been a special guest speaker at various public events, like the Sudbury Symphony Orchestra's An Intimate Evening of Film & Music hosted by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation ^[19], and he gave acting-on-screen workshops for the Sudbury Theatre Centre ^[20][21], the material of which led to his feature-length docufiction Your Name Here (2015 film).^[21] Like Perspective, Your Name Here directly integrates Paquette's cinema experiments with his interests in education.^[22]

In 2011, Paquette and fellow producer Jason Ross Jallet co-founded the Greater Sudbury-based not-for-profit company Northern Ontario Motion Picture Culture and Industry Development Corporation (NOMPCIDC, pronounced Nomp-see-dik), whose mandate is to develop and promote the film & television industry in Northern Ontario.^[23] In 2012, NOMPCIDC launched Xanadu Studios, an equipment rental depot and post-production facility that services professional film and TV projects in Northern Ontario. Sound stages, for professional and training purposes, are currently in development.^[24][25][26]

Since 2012, NOMPCIDC has partnered with Thorneloe University to offer unique film and TV production workshops for students. In 2016, the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund corporation (NOHFC) announced that it had partnered with NOMPCIDC and Thorneloe to offer these workshops. Students enrolled in the Motion Picture Arts (MPArts) curriculum within Thorneloe's Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) degree program can register for the workshops, which are a comprehensive, practice-based educational supplement. "It's to encourage students that they don't need millions of dollars, big movie stars and huge crews to make films," said Paquette. The general outcome of the production workshops is that students experience working under the guidance of professional filmmakers in a professional context, which will allow students to further develop and gain more confidence in their practical work skills, receive credit for their work that they can add to their resume, network with professional filmmakers, and receive a reference letters from a professional filmmakers under whom they shadowed and/or assisted.^[27]

Filmmaking

Often criticized for being too complex, cerebral, and unpolished, Paquette’s films receive extremely mixed reviews. Yet like the films of Jean-Luc Godard or Guy Maddin, Paquette’s films aren’t meant to appeal to a large audience. Uncompromising, he seeks in every new film to challenge and unsteady audiences, to muddy the lines of reality. “I just curl up in a ball whenever the term 'target audience' comes up... You can't make a film for anyone but yourself,” said Paquette.^[28][29]

In 2008, Paquette and fellow producer Jason Ross Jallet founded the Greater Sudbury-based production and distribution company Nortario Films.^[30][31] In addition to producing films written and directed by Paquette, Nortario Films also produces films by other filmmakers, including Nadia Litz's dramatic thriller The People Garden, and Darwin (2015 film), a science fiction family film.^[32][33]

Acclaimed Bulgaria-born Canadian cinematographer Ivan Gekoff has collaborated with Paquette on all five of his feature films, three as cinematographer and two as visual consultant.

"The Psychology of Romantic Love" Triptych

Paquette made his professional filmmaking debut with the international award winning and critically polarizing A Year in the Death of Jack Richards, the first part of his triptych on "the psychology of romantic love." This was followed with The Woman of Ahhs: A Self-Portrait by Victoria Fleming, and concludes with The Anonymous Rudy S.

Perspective

In 2012, Paquette unveiled the first of the nine chapters that comprise Perspective, his most innovative and experimental film to date.^{[15][15][16][17]} The first five of the nine chapters, titled, respectively, Chapter 1: Salt & Soda (2012), Chapter 2: Chris and Other Beards (2013), Chapter 3: Hush, hsuH (2014), Chapter 4: Reflecting (2015), and Chapter 5: Triangulation (2016) have been completed. The ninth, and final chapter, will be completed in 2020.^[34] The duration of the film thus far is 80+ minutes.^[35]

Your Name Here

Set in a movie theatre as a workshop for amateur actors, Your Name Here (2015 film) is Paquette's feature-length docufiction that examines the art and craft of movie acting, and the desire for movie stardom. Your Name Here features various aspiring actors who reveal their true selves while simultaneously reenacting the Oscar-winning Hollywood classic A Star is Born (1937 film).^[22]

Filmography

Recognition

Awards and Nominations

• 2004, Nomination, Best Canadian Feature Film at Cinéfest Sudbury International Film Festival for A Year in the Death of Jack Richards
• 2005, Won Best Independent Feature Award at the Festival of Fantastic Films (UK) for A Year in the Death of Jack Richards
• 2005, Nomination, FIPRESCI Prize for Best First Feature Film at the Transylvania International Film Festival for A Year in the Death of Jack Richards
• 2005, Won Grand Jury Award at The DeadCENTER Film Festival for A Year in the Death of Jack Richards
• 2008, Nomination, Grand Prix Focus at the Festival du nouveau cinéma for The Woman of Ahhs: A Self-Portrait by Victoria Fleming
• 2009, Won Bronze Palm Award at the Mexico International Film Festival for The Woman of Ahhs: A Self-Portrait by Victoria Fleming
• 2009, Nomination, Best Canadian Feature Film at Cinéfest Sudbury International Film Festival for The Woman of Ahhs: A Self-Portrait by Victoria Fleming
• 2009, Nomination, Best Non-European Dramatic Feature at ÉCU The European Independent Film Festival for The Woman of Ahhs: A Self-Portrait by Victoria Fleming

References

External links

• B. P. Paquette at the Internet Movie Database