James Motluk born in

Brockville Brockville, formerly Elizabethtown, is a city in Eastern Ontario, Canada, in the Thousand Islands region. Although it is the seat of the United Counties of Leeds and Grenville, it is politically Independent city, independent of the county. It i ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, Canada, is a filmmaker of

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...

descent. After studying philosophy at

Trent University Trent University is a public liberal arts university in Peterborough, Ontario, with a satellite campus in Oshawa, which serves the Regional Municipality of Durham. Trent is known for its Oxbridge college system and small class sizes.

he travelled to

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

and worked for the

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (french: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a federal Crown corporation that receives funding from the government. ...

as an assistant director on a television show called '' Seeing Things''. He wrote and directed his first feature film called '' Nasty Burgers'' which was released to cinemas in 1993. ''Nasty Burgers'' gained him entry into the

Writers Guild of Canada The Writers Guild of Canada is an organization representing more than 2,500 professional writers working in film, television, radio, and digital media production in Canada. Members of the Guild write dramatic TV series, feature films, Movies of th ...

. For much of the 1990s he worked as a writer for television. His credits included a season on the hit show ''

Road to Avonlea ''Road to Avonlea'' is a Canadian television series first broadcast in Canada between January 7, 1990, and March 31, 1996, as part of the ''CBC Family Hour'' anthology series, and in the United States starting on March 5, 1990. It was created b ...

''. In 2000 he released a documentary funded by American film director

Michael Moore Michael Francis Moore (born April 23, 1954) is an American filmmaker, author and left-wing activist. His works frequently address the topics of globalization and capitalism. Moore won the 2002 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for ' ...

called ''

Life Under Mike ''Life Under Mike'' is a political documentary film directed and produced by Canadian filmmaker James Motluk. It was released to theaters in September 2000 to generally positive reviews. The movie takes a critical look at the government of then O ...

'' which took a critical look at then Ontario Premier

Mike Harris Michael Deane Harris (born January 23, 1945) is a Canadian retired politician who served as the 22nd premier of Ontario from 1995 to 2002 and leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario (PC Party) from 1990 to 2002. During his time ...

. In 2001 the film earned him a Media Human Rights Award. He released a second documentary in 2003, co-directed with Mark Wright, called '' Whose University Is It?''. This work used Trent University as a case study and argued that any corporate connections with higher learning are negative - though notably ignoring that the entire Trent University campus was donated by

General Electric Canada GE Canada (or General Electric Canada) is the wholly-owned Canadian unit of General Electric, manufacturing various consumer and industrial Electrical industry, electrical products all over Canada. GE Canada was preceded by the company Canadian ...

, and its library by the

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Corporation. In 2009 he released a documentary called Jajo's Secret which revealed the internment of Ukrainians by the Canadian government during World War One. This movie was broadcast on OMNI TV in Canada and was invited to screen in New York at Columbia University in 2011 and at the Ukrainian Museum in Manhattan the following year. In 2018 James Motluk and J.B. Sugar created Mezcalero, a crime drama following a Canadian transgender detective operating out of

Oaxaca City Oaxaca de Juárez (), also Oaxaca City or simply Oaxaca (Valley Zapotec languages, Zapotec: ''Ndua''), is the capital and largest city of the eponymous Administrative divisions of Mexico, Mexican state Oaxaca. It is the municipal seat for the surr ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

. It is based on a series of novels by Canadian author T.E. Wilson and developed through

No Equal Entertainment No Equal Entertainment is a Canadian television and film production company owned and operated by producer/director J.B. Sugar based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. No Equal develops and produces both scripted and documentary projects. In addition to ...

and Out TV. In 2020 he developed an original one hour science fiction drama, Magpie, set in Sault Ste Marie and framed against the little-known but true history of Canada's internment operations during WW1. His movies tend to sympathize with the left, encouraging grass roots social change. He produces independently through the Toronto-based production company Guerrilla Films.

Filmography

References

*
Guerrilla Films website
* ''

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'' * ''

Eye Weekly ''Eye Weekly'' was a free weekly newspaper published in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was owned by Torstar, the parent company of the ''Toronto Star'', and was published by their Star Media Group until its final issue on May 5, 2011. The following ...

'' * The Necrofiles *

members information * ''Who's Who in Canadian Film and Television'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Motluk, James 1964 births Film directors from Ontario Canadian screenwriters Canadian people of Ukrainian descent Living people People from Brockville Trent University alumni Canadian documentary film directors