Douglas Arrowsmith is a Canadian film director and writer. He has produced award-winning documentaries for

CBC Television CBC Television (also known as CBC TV) is a Canadian English-language broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster. The network began operations on September 6, 1952. Its French-l ...

, music videos, and feature-length films for

BBC Four BBC Four is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002

The Movie Network Crave (formerly The Movie Network or TMN) is a Canadian premium television network and streaming service owned by the Bell Media subsidiary of BCE Inc. Launched in 1983 as the national service First Choice, early difficulties and a subsequent ...

and

HBO Canada HBO (previously known as HBO Canada, and still referred to as such on social media) is a Television in Canada, Canadian premium television network from Crave (TV network), Crave (formerly The Movie Network), which is owned by Bell Media. The chan ...

Personal background

Arrowsmith received his Ph.D. in Social and Political Thought in 2001 from

York University York University (french: Université York), also known as YorkU or simply YU, is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's fourth-largest university, and it has approximately 55,700 students, 7,0 ...

, Canada. His doctoral thesis examines technologies of the self founded in Montaigne's self-essays,

Shakespeare's William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

self-dramatisations in the historical plays, and Freud's self-analysis. Part of the research involved a series of field interviews with writers, actors, and singer/songwriters including with

Timothy Findley Timothy Irving Frederick Findley Timothy Findley's
entry in

Peter O’Toole Peter Seamus O'Toole (; 2 August 1932 – 14 December 2013) was a British stage and film actor. He attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and began working in the theatre, gaining recognition as a Shakespearean actor at the Bristol Old Vic ...

, and

Steve Earle Stephen Fain Earle (; born January 17, 1955) is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, author, and actor. Earle began his career as a songwriter in Nashville and released his first EP in 1982. Initially working in the country music g ...

, each of whom discussed the concept of ‘mastery’. Arrowsmith’s doctoral supervisor was the renowned Canadian sociologist, phenomenologist, and social theorist John O’Neill, F.R.S.C, who would become a friend and mentor for life.

Film & Television

Arrowsmith began his television career in 2001 as a producer on '' CBC News: Sunday'', a current affairs program on CBC's main network. During his 10 years as a staff producer he worked on everything from quick-turnaround video features to network specials and documentaries, including ''As the Towers Fell: Moment by Moment with the Journalists'' (2002), ''Deadline Iraq: Uncensored Stories of the War'' (2003, nominated for Canada's

Donald Brittain Award The Donald Brittain Award is a Canadian television award, presented by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television to honour the year's best television documentary on a social or political topic. Formerly presented as part of the Gemini Awards, s ...

for Best Social/Political documentary), and ''Tsunami: Untold Stories'' (2006, nominated for a

Gemini Award The Gemini Awards were awards given by the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television between 1986–2011 to recognize the achievements of Canada's television industry. The Gemini Awards are analogous to the Emmy Awards given in the United States ...

, Best Direction). He also produced ‘live’ show and video story segments for CBC’s flagship Sunday program in the early-mid 2000s with singer/songwriters including

Serena Ryder Serena most commonly refers to: * Serena Williams (born 1981), professional tennis player Serena may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Serena (genre), 13th-century Occitan poetic genre * ''Serena'' (1962 film), a British crime th ...

Kathleen Edwards Kathleen Edwards (born July 11, 1978
) is a Canadian singer-songwriter and musician. Her 2002 debut album, ''

Derek Miller,

Daniel Lanois Daniel Roland Lanois ( , ; born September 19, 1951) is a Canadian record producer, guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter. He has produced albums by artists including Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Peter Gabriel, Robbie Robertson, Emmylou Harris, Willie ...

Henry Rollins Henry Lawrence Garfield (born February 13, 1961), known professionally as Henry Rollins, is an American singer, writer, spoken word artist, actor, and presenter. After performing in the short-lived hardcore punk band State of Alert in 1980, Rolli ...

Bruce Cockburn Bruce Douglas Cockburn ( ; born May 27, 1945) is a Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist. His song styles range from folk to jazz-influenced rock and his lyrics cover a broad range of topics including human rights, environmental issues, po ...

Barenaked Ladies Barenaked Ladies is a Canadian rock band formed in 1988 in Scarborough, Ontario. The band developed a following in Canada, with their self-titled 1991 cassette becoming the first independent release to be certified gold in Canada. They reach ...

, and

William Shatner William Shatner (born March 22, 1931) is a Canadian actor. In a career spanning seven decades, he is best known for his portrayal of James T. Kirk in the ''Star Trek'' franchise, from his 1965 debut as the captain of the starship USS Enterpri ...

. In 2008, Arrowsmith was honored with a

, for the short documentary "The Girl Sings Carnegie" that he produced and directed for CBC television about

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

singer

Nikki Yanofsky Nicole Rachel "Nikki" Yanofsky (born February 8, 1994) is a Canadian jazz-pop singer from Montreal, Quebec. She sang the CTV Olympic broadcast theme song, " I Believe", which was also the theme song of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. She also p ...

. The award was presented by the

Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television is a Canadian non-profit organization created in 1979 to recognize the achievements of the over 4,000 Canadian film industry and television industry professionals, most notably through the Canadian Scre ...

. In 2009, he produced and directed a feature-length documentary, entitled ''Memory & Desire: 30 Years in the Wilderness with Stephen Duffy & The Lilac Time'', about Stephen (Tin Tin) Duffy, founding member of

Duran Duran Duran Duran () are an English Rock music, rock band formed in Birmingham in 1978 by singer and bassist Stephen Duffy, keyboardist Nick Rhodes and guitarist/bassist John Taylor (bass guitarist), John Taylor. With the addition of drummer Roger ...

. The film was nominated for the "Sound & Vision Award" at CPH:DOX in Copenhagen. In 2010, he wrote, produced, and directed a feature-length film, entitled Love Shines, about Canadian songwriter,

Ron Sexsmith Ronald Eldon Sexsmith (born January 8, 1964) is a Canadian singer-songwriter from St. Catharines, Ontario. He was the songwriter of the year at the 2005 Juno Awards. He began releasing recordings of his own material in 1985 at age 21, and has ...

. Love Shines won the 2011 Audience Choice Award at SXSW in the "24 Beats per Second" category, and an Audience Choice Award at the 2011 Maui Film Festival. The film also won two

Canadian Screen Awards The Canadian Screen Awards (french: link=no, Les prix Écrans canadiens) are awards given for artistic and technical merit in the film industry recognizing excellence in Canadian film, English-language television, and digital media (web series) p ...

: Best Performing Arts Documentary and for Best Direction in Performing Arts. In the film, “Love Shines”, Arrowsmith draws an in-depth essay of Sexsmith’s elements of character and gift for songwriting, achieved through an extraordinary encounter with Ron’s (at the time) estranged son and a series of impactful interviews with some of Sexsmith’s biggest fans including:

Kiefer Sutherland Kiefer William Sutherland (born 21 December 1966) is a British-Canadian actor and musician. He is best known for his starring role as Jack Bauer in the Fox drama series '' 24'' (2001–2010, 2014), for which he won an Emmy Award, a Golden Glo ...

Elvis Costello Declan Patrick MacManus Order of the British Empire, OBE (born 25 August 1954), known professionally as Elvis Costello, is an English singer-songwriter and record producer. He has won multiple awards in his career, including a Grammy Award in ...

Leslie Feist Leslie Feist (born 13 February 1976), known mononymously as Feist, is a Canadian indie pop singer-songwriter and guitarist, performing both as a solo artist and as a member of the indie rock group Broken Social Scene. Feist launched her solo mu ...

, and

Bob Rock Robert Jens Rock (born April 19, 1954) is a Canadian record producer, sound engineer and musician, best known for producing rock bands and music artists such as Metallica, Mötley Crüe, Bon Jovi, Aerosmith, The Tragically Hip, the Cult, 31 ...

. In 2014 Arrowsmith wrote and directe
“The Klondike Gold Rush”
a one-hour television documentary that examines the existential range of challenges faced by the women and men who set off to discover gold in the Klondike. It was filmed in 10 days at locations in Dawson City Yukon, Whitehorse, and Dyea, Alaska. The documentary was broadcast on all

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

platforms in America. In 2020 Arrowsmith produced and directed the feature length documentary “Picture My Face: The Story of Teenage Head”. The film is about Canada’s notorious punk rock band

Teenage Head (band) Teenage Head is a Canadian punk rock group from Hamilton, Ontario, that was popular in Canada during the early 1980s. The group was formed in Hamilton, Ontario in 1975, by Frankie Venom (Frank Kerr), Gord Lewis, Steve Mahon, and Nick Stipanitz ...

, from Hamilton Ontario, (commissioned and broadcast as a TVO Original film) and explores founding member and guitar legend Gordie Lewis’s struggle with depression following the loss of their frontman Frankie ‘Venom’ Kerr. It features interviews with

Marky Ramone Marc Steven Bell (born July 15, 1952) is an American drummer. He began playing in hard rock bands in the New York City area, notably Dust and Estus. He was asked to drum for punk rock band Richard Hell and the Voidoids. He replaced drummer Tommy ...

, English writer

Jon Savage Jon Savage (born Jonathan Malcolm Sage; 2 September 1953 in Paddington, London) is an English writer, broadcaster and music journalist, best known for his history of the Sex Pistols and punk music, ''England's Dreaming'', published in 1991. ...

(England's Dreaming: Sex Pistols and Punk Rock; Teenage: The Creation of Youth Culture) and author

Nina Antonia Nina Antonia (born Nina Antonia Benjamin in 1960) is an English author who has chronicled the lives and misadventures of Johnny Thunders, the New York Dolls, Peter Perrett, and the elusive Brett Smiley. Antonia's later work has explored decade ...

(New York Dolls; Johnny Thunders…In Cold Blood) and

The Tragically Hip The Tragically Hip, often referred to simply as the Hip, were a Canadian rock band formed in Kingston, Ontario in 1984, consisting of vocalist Gord Downie, guitarist Paul Langlois, guitarist Rob Baker (known as Bobby Baker until 1994), bassi ...

’s Rob Baker.

Stephen Duffy & The Lilac Time

Between 2018-2020, while basing in Cornwall, UK, and during ongoing filming of an upcoming new documentary release about

Stephen Duffy Stephen Anthony James Duffy (born 30 May 1960 in Alum Rock, Birmingham, England) is an English musician, singer and songwriter. He was a founding member, vocalist, bassist and then drummer of Duran Duran. He went on to record as a solo perform ...

and

The Lilac Time The Lilac Time is a British alternative folk-rock band, originally formed in Herefordshire, England by Stephen Duffy, his brother Nick Duffy and their friend Michael Weston in 1986. The band's name was taken from a line in the Nick Drake son ...

, Arrowsmith produced music videos to support albums and songs that were released for BMG UK, “The Needles” (2019) holiday single release; “Return To Us” (2019); “The Story of Return To Us” (2019 EPK); “I’m A Believer” (2019); and the single “The Hills of Cinnamon” (2020) which was completed partially during the pandemic and filmed in northern Ontario.

Lloyd Cole

In 2019 Arrowsmith was approached by English singer/songwriter

Lloyd Cole Lloyd Cole (born 31 January 1961) is an English singer and songwriter. He was lead singer of Lloyd Cole and the Commotions from 1984 to 1989 and subsequently worked solo. Early life Cole was born in Buxton, Derbyshire, England. He grew up in ne ...

about video work to support tracks from his album Guesswork. “Night Sweats” (2019

earMusic Edel SE & Co. KGaA is a German independent media company based in Hamburg. As a label and publishing group, it also operates marketing and sales for artists and smaller music labels. The repertoire of the Edel labels includes dance, rock and po ...

) features Cole’s hands writing, cutting up, and reassembling strips of lyrics on a black background. “Violins” (2019

) features repurposed video installation work from Scottish artist Douglas Gordon’s “The End of Civilisation” an exhibition commissioned by Great North Run Culture and Locus+ and the Arts Council of England.

Cherry Red Records

Nicky Haslam

In 2013 Arrowsmith was commissioned by UK celebrity designer

Nicky Haslam Nicholas Ponsonby Haslam (born 27 September 1939) is an English interior designer and socialite, and founder of the London-based interior design firm, NH Studio Ltd. Early life and education Haslam was born at Great Hundridge Manor, Amersham, ...

to direct a series of music videos to support the release of the LP "Midnight Matinee, a collection of Haslam's favourite cabaret songs, performed and recorded by Haslam and special guest artists for Cherry Red Records. The videos were designed to capture biographical pieces from Haslam's life and were shot in the UK for the tracks "Total Control", "Illusions" and "Real Live Girl". The video for “Total Control” features Haslam driving across London’s Albert Bridge as well as footage of Haslam gaining access to a derelict Romanian ball room in the city of Cluj. "Illusions" (feat.

Bryan Ferry Bryan Ferry Order of the British Empire, CBE (born 26 September 1945) is an English singer and songwriter. His voice has been described as an "elegant, seductive croon". He also established a distinctive image and sartorial style: according to ' ...

) is filmed on 16mm (b/w) at Haslam’s famous Hunting Lodge near the ancient Hampshire village of Odiham, previously the home of John Fowler. "Real Live Girl" was shot with cast and crew in London’s Soho district with the performance sequences taking place on stage at the Shadow Lounge, Brewer Street. The video was the final of the series and produced by Sonya Sier with cinematography by Jake Scott.

Lawrence - Felt

In 2017 Arrowsmith was commissioned by English singer, songwriter, and guitarist

Lawrence Lawrence may refer to: Education Colleges and universities * Lawrence Technological University, a university in Southfield, Michigan, United States * Lawrence University, a liberal arts university in Appleton, Wisconsin, United States Preparator ...

(

Felt Felt is a textile material that is produced by matting, condensing and pressing fibers together. Felt can be made of natural fibers such as wool or animal fur, or from synthetic fibers such as petroleum-based acrylic or acrylonitrile or wood ...

Denim Denim is a sturdy cotton warp-faced textile in which the weft passes under two or more warp threads. This twill weaving produces a diagonal ribbing that distinguishes it from cotton duck. While a denim predecessor known as dungaree has been pr ...

and

Go Kart Mozart Mozart Estate, formerly known as Go-Kart Mozart, are an English indie pop band founded by Lawrence, previously of the bands Felt and Denim. Lawrence formed the group as a reaction to his previous bands' lack of commercial success. He has calle ...

) to produce and direct the first video authorized by the artist since the days of Felt. The video for the track "Depressed" was shot over a period of time at locations in the UK and edited in Toronto, Canada, and officially released in February 2018 by Cherry Red Records.

Margaret Atwood & the Ursula K. Le Guin Tribute

In March 2018 Literary Arts of Portland, Oregon commissioned Arrowsmith to produce and direct Margaret Atwood's tribute to fantasy/science fiction writer, feminist, and essayist

Ursula Le Guin Ursula Kroeber Le Guin (; October 21, 1929 – January 22, 2018) was an American author best known for her works of speculative fiction, including science fiction works set in her Hainish universe, and the ''Earthsea'' fantasy series. She was f ...

(

Earthsea ''The Earthsea Cycle'', also known as ''Earthsea'', is a series of high fantasy books written by the American writer Ursula K. Le Guin. Beginning with ''A Wizard of Earthsea'' (1968), ''The Tombs of Atuan'', (1970) and ''The Farthest Shore'' ( ...

series and

The Left Hand of Darkness ''The Left Hand of Darkness'' is a science fiction novel by U.S. writer Ursula K. Le Guin. Published in 1969, it became immensely popular, and established Le Guin's status as a major author of science fiction. The novel is set in the fictiona ...

). In the video Atwood reads selected portions from Le Guin's works and states, among other things, that she could always count on her colleague, Le Guin, to "get it." The video was screened as part of a tribute gala on June 13, 2018 at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, Portland Oregon.

Witness to a City: David Miller’s Toronto (Book)

Arrowsmith is also the co-author of the book '' Witness to a City: David Miller's Toronto'', which presents stories of Toronto citizens who act for the greater public good, following personal loss and hardship. The book was co-authored with former Toronto mayor, David Miller and was nominated for the Heritage Toronto Award in 2011. Arrowsmith conducted in-depth field interviews with each subject who appears in the book, the list includes a group of extraordinary individuals whose stories affected Miller as both a citizen of Toronto and as a vocal leader for social and environmental justice.

Published works

* Arrowsmith, Douglas; and Miller, David. ''Witness To A City: David Miller's Toronto'',

Cormorant Books Cormorant Books Inc is a Canadian book publishing company."Two houses under ...

, 2010. * Arrowsmith, Douglas. ''Topia: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies'', "Melancholy in the Field of Self-Mastery: Memory, Desire and Lost Objects", 17, pp. 143–149. * Arrowsmith, Douglas; David Levinson, ed. ''The Encyclopedia of Human Emotions'', "Literature", New York: MacMillan Press, 2000.

References

External links

*
The Lilac Time – “The Needles” (Official)

The Lilac Time – “Return to Us” (Official)

The Lilac Time – “The Story of Return to Us”

The Lilac Time – “(I’m) A Believer” (Official)

The Lilac Time – “The Hills of Cinnamon” (Official)

Lloyd Cole – “Night Sweats” (Official)

Lloyd Cole – “Violins” (Official)

Nicky Haslam – “Total Control” (Official)

Nicky Haslam – “Illusions” (Official)

Nicky Haslam – “Real Live Girl” (Official)

Go-Kart Mozart – “Depressed” (Official)

"Love Shines"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Arrowsmith, Douglas 1968 births Living people Film directors from Toronto Canadian screenwriters Canadian Screen Award winners York University alumni Canadian documentary film directors Canadian music video directors