A selection of James’s work curated for the NFB’s Western Canada Documentary Producer Application.
Daily TLJ Forest Mixer
Roles: Producer, DOP, Photography, Editor.
A documentary & photo series produced for Montreal based installation artists Daily tous les jours, founded by Mouna Andraos & Melissa Mongiat. Initially released on design boom.
Deep in the coastal Douglas-fir forest of Hornby Island, home to the rarest and most fragile ecosystems in Canada, art and design studio Daily tous les jours installs Forest Mixer, an artwork that turns spoken messages into evolving harmonies, vibrations, and finally a kind of sonic mulch. The piece serves as an encounter with the living systems of the forest, and translates human presence into an acoustic cycle of growth and decay, echoing how trees, soil, and fungi exchange information beneath the forest floor.
Portrait: Geneva Haley
Roles: Producer, Editor, Colorist
We were incredibly lucky to be asked to produce a documentary for Gravity Pope x Blundstone on our friend and incredible person and artist Geneva Haley. To get the feedback “Thank you so much, it truly feels like me” from her is a great feeling and a sign that we’ve done our job well. The score was created by Alberta Musician Mark Webber as well.
Portrait: Swinkels Signs
Roles: Producer, DOP, Editor, Colorist.
A independent short documentary of a project from Vancouver based sign painter and our friend Cody Swinkels, with music from juno nominated artist Jairus Sharif.
The goal for this documentary was to give an honest portrait of what being a sign painter in Vancouver entails, while showcasing the city through a cinematic lens.
Here & There Documentary
Roles: Producer, Editor, Interviews, Sound, Colorist.
A documentary that follows Tom Randall as he takes climbing from the outdoor realm into the city streets of Berlin. This documentary was made between Berlin, London and western Canada (post production). Made in Collaboration with George Phillips, I took a mentor role and guided him along as he navigated making his first documentary. I’m very proud of how it turned out. It premiered at SHAFF (Sheffield Outdoor Film Festival). We worked with a few independent musicians through our collective networks to score the film as well.
Screener available upon request.
Bruce McCullogh’s YDP
Roles: Producer, DOP, Editor, VFX, Creative Direction, Music Direction
A fun project producing a supporting online series of 13 webisodes that was an extension of Canadian Treasure (his words) Bruce Ian McCulloch’s (of Kids in the Hall fame) TV Show Young Drunk Punk.
Working under Bruce and 24/7 films creative direction, we were asked to create a mini-series of fifteen ‘home videos’ through the eyes of the show’s two main characters, Ian and Shinky. Produced in a campy DIY B-horror movie style, similar to some of the movies that were coming out around that time (1980).
Project Wild Series
Roles: Producer, DOP, Editor, Colorist.
A series of 20+ episodes we produced in collaboration with Wild 95.3 and Alberta Music for Project WILD - a professional development program following designed to educate, promote, develop and launch the careers of some of Alberta’s up and coming country and roots artists. We followed 12 bands and artists as they completed an intense one week career changing music and music industry boot camp, where they were pushed to the very limit of what they could achieve as artists.
More Vids: Ken Stead, The Dungarees
Camp Festival Recap Doc
Roles: Producer, DOP, Editor, VFX, Creative Direction, Music Direction
A film produced with the intent of capturing and reflecting the spirit of Calgary’s Camp Festival, where a curated selection of creatives come and share an abundance of new ideas, experience and knowledge.
‘A Seat at Our Table’ Series
We produced 26 episodes for ATB’s year long series that showcased Alberta’s farmers and chefs working together to create something distinctly Albertan, while bringing people with shared values and passion together to engage in conversation around our Alberta table.
Thanks for the consideration.
Feel free to browse more of my work on this site to see some of the other projects I’ve had the pleasure of working on.
James Barry