Michael Jones
Directing
Biography
Michael Jones was a Canadian film director and screenwriter based in Newfoundland, known for his films which depicted the island's culture and humour. He was the sibling of filmmakers Andy and Cathy Jones.
Born: March 28, 1944
Place of Birth: St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada
Known For
Secret Nation
A graduate history student returns to her native Newfoundland, searching for proof of a conspiracy surrounding the referendum that saw Newfoundland join Canada.
Westray
In this feature documentary, filmmaker Paul Cowan offers an innovative, moving account of the Westray coal mine disaster that killed 26 men in Nova Scotia on May 9, 1992. The film focuses on the lives of three widows and three miners lucky enough not to be underground that day when the methane and coal dust ignited. But their lives were torn apart by the events. Meet some of the working men, who felt they had no option but to stay on at Westray. And wives, who heard the rumours, saw their men sometimes bloodied from accidents and stood by them, hoping it would all turn out all right. This is a film about working people everywhere whose lives are often entrusted to companies that violate the most fundamental rules of safety and decency in the name of profit.
Understanding Bliss
Elizabeth Sutton, a lecturer from Toronto and Peter Breen, a professor of cultural studies from St. John's, Newfoundland, come together in his town for a secret liaison. All is bliss. But within twenty-four hours, the affair has collapsed. A clash of languages, cultures, and values force them to come to terms with each other's sense of morality.
Buried at Sea
This documentary chronicles ocean disposal of surplus World War II chemical weapons by Canada, Germany, Great Britain, the Soviet Union and the United States. Through a well edited combination of interview footage and still photographs this film outlines the serious problem that awaits us now that hundreds of thousands of tons of chemical weapons have been disposed of off our coastlines. The exact location of dumps was not always recorded on navigation charts. Sixty years later, containers that were designed to last for fifty years have started to disintegrate, posing substantial danger to both marine life and coastal communities.
White Thunder
A riveting account of the tragic adventure of filmmaker Varick Frissell and his filming of "The Viking" (1931) and the tragic events that befell that adventure into early film-making.
The Story of Faustus Bidgood
This is the story of The Adventure of Faustus Bidgood, a surreal comedy about a lowly bureaucrat and his fantasies of becoming president of an independent Newfoundland, that was released in 1986. A cult classic in Canadian cinema, the film is well known for the marathon it took to even get made. Principal photography on the film began eight years earlier, in 1978. Written and directed by comedy legend Andy Jones and his brother, Mike Jones, the movie was made on a shoestring budget, is packed with familiar faces and helped pave the way for Newfoundland and Labrador's vibrant film industry. And it was the first film ever both filmed and produced, from start to finish, in Newfoundland.
Congratulations
Mike Jones and his siblings Andy and Cathy travel by helicopter from rural Newfoundland to a gala to make speeches congratulating TIFF on its anniversary.
Pegi Nicol: Something Dancing About Her
Something Dancing About Her is an affectionate portrait of Pegi Nicol MacLeod, a charismatic yet relatively unknown painter. Shedding fresh light on her place in Canadian art history, director Michael Ostroff chronicles the life of this remarkable creative spirit who threw herself into painting, left-wing politics and love affairs with equal enthusiasm.
Filmography
as archive footage
as Narrator (voice)
as Narrator (voice)
as Narrator (Voice)
as Narrator (voice)
as Himself
as Leo Cryptus (voice)
as Tom (Archive Footage)