B. P. Paquette

Benjamin Paquette (born March 17, 1975) is a Canadian film director, screenwriter, producer and academic.

Background

Born in London, Ontario, Benjamin Patrick Paquette spent his childhood and adolescence in Greater Sudbury. He 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^[1]^[2] In 2007, Paquette was then accepted into the inaugural class of the Ph.D. program in Film Studies at the Université de Montréal, the first of its kind in Canada.

Career

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.^[3] 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.^[4] Since 2011, Laurentian University offers an Academic minor in Motion Picture Arts, while an Academic major was created in 2013.^[5]

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 supervisor. 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.

In his capacity as both a filmmaker and educator, Paquette has also acted as a juror on competitions at international film festivals,^[6] and has been a guest filmmaking instructor at various training and developmental institutions, including acclaimed Cree filmmaker Shirley Cheechoo's Weengushk Film Institute, Music and Film in Motion, and the Sudbury Theatre Centre (where he gave acting-on-screen workshops).^[7]^[8]

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.^[9] 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.^[10]^[11]^[12]

With his film Perspective, Paquette started to directly integrate his film-making pursuits with his academic interests. In effect, the film served, and continues to serve, as a teaching tool for Paquette's film production students at Laurentian University.^[13]^[13]^[14]^[15]

The majority of the material used in Paquette's feature-length docufiction Your Name Here (2015 film) was taken from an acting-on-screen workshop that he gave for the Sudbury Theatre Centre.^[16] Like Perspective, Your Name Here directly integrates Paquette's cinema experiments with his interests in education.^[17]

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.^[18]^[19]

After having made over a dozen student shorts (including the Cinefest award-winning An Uneven Scroll^[20]), Paquette produced, wrote and directed three student features: Maxwell’s Silver Hammer (1993), A Descent Into Darkness (1994) and Raining Angels (1997).^[21] Paquette then established his Montreal-based film production and distribution company Ourson Films in 1998.^[22]^[23]

He made his professional filmmaking debut with the international award winning and critically polarizing A Year in the Death of Jack Richards (2004), 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 (2008), and will conclude with The Anonymous Rudy S. (2016).

In 2008, Paquette and fellow producer Jason Ross Jallet founded the Greater Sudbury-based production and distribution company Nortario Films.^[24]^[25] In addition to producing films written and directed by Paquette, Nortario Films also produces films by other filmmakers, including Nadia Litz's upcoming dramatic thriller The People Garden (2015), and Darwin (2015 film) (2015), a science fiction family film.^[26]^[27]

In 2012, Paquette unveiled the first of the nine chapters that comprise Perspective, his most innovative and experimental film to date.^[13]^[13]^[14]^[15] The first four of the nine chapters, titled, respectively, Chapter 1: Salt & Soda (2012), Chapter 2: Chris and Other Beards (2013), Chapter 3: Hush, hsuH (2014), and Chapter 4: Reflecting (2015), have been completed. The ninth, and final chapter, will be completed in 2020.^[28] The duration of the film thus far is 70+ minutes.

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).^[29]

Filmography

Title	Year	Director	Writer	Producer	notes
A Year in the Death of Jack Richards	2004	Yes	Yes	Yes	feature fiction
The Woman of Ahhs: A Self-Portrait by Victoria Fleming	2008	Yes	Yes	Yes	feature fiction
Perspective	2012-2020	Yes	Yes	Yes	feature fiction
Your Name Here (2015 film)	2016	Yes	Yes	Yes	feature docufiction
The Anonymous Rudy S.	2016	Yes	Yes	Yes	feature fiction

Recognition

Awards and nominations

2005, Won 'Best Independent Feature Award' at Festival of Fantastic Films (UK) for A Year in the Death of Jack Richards
2005, Won 'Grand Jury Award' at The Dead Center Film Festival for A Year in the Death of Jack Richards
2009, Won 'Bronze Palm Award' at Mexico City International Film Festival for The Woman of Ahhs: A Self-Portrait by Victoria Fleming

References

External links

B. P. Paquette at the Internet Movie Database

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