Bruce McDonald | |
|---|---|
 McDonald at the2010 Toronto International Film Festival | |
| Born | (1959-05-28)May 28, 1959 (age 66) Kingston, Ontario, Canada |
| Alma mater | Ryerson University |
| Occupations | Film director, writer, producer |
| Years active | 1989–present |
| Known for | Roadkill (1989) Hard Core Logo (1996) Pontypool (2008) |
Bruce McDonald (born May 28, 1959) is a Canadian film and television director, writer, and producer.[1] Born inKingston, Ontario,[2] he rose to prominence in the 1980s as part of the loosely-affiliatedToronto New Wave.[3]
McDonald has since directed more than a dozen features films over the course of his four-decade-long filmmaking career.The Hollywood Reporter has called him an "iconoclastic filmmaker".[4] Several of his films, ranging frommockumentaries tohorror films, have attractedcult followings.[4]
His most notable films includeRoadkill (1989),Highway 61 (1991),Hard Core Logo (1996),Pontypool (2008),Trigger (2010), andHellions (2015).[4][5][6]Hard Core Logo has been frequently ranked amongst thegreatest movies ever to come out of Canada.[7]
McDonald was born inKingston, Ontario,[2][8] and later moved toToronto, where he graduated fromfilm school atRyerson University.[9] At Ryerson, he made the short filmsMerge (1980) andLet Me See... (1982), the latter of which won theNorman Jewison Award for best student film at the 1982Canadian National Exhibition and screened at theToronto International Film Festival.[8] Jewison has mentored McDonald throughout his career.[8]
McDonald began his filmmaking career in the 1980s. He started outproduction assistant and driver, and was an assistantcameraman and editor on films byAtom Egoyan,Ron Mann,Peter Mettler, andAmnon Buchbinder.[8] He also directed the 1985 short filmKnock! Knock!,[10] and episodes ofThe Ray Bradbury Theatre.
Hisfeature-length directorial debut,Roadkill, won the award for Best Canadian Film at the Toronto International Film Festival and McDonald earned some notoriety and media attention when he quipped, while accepting his $25,000 prize from TIFF forRoadkill, that he planned to spend the money on "a big chunk ofhash".[11][12][13]
Roadkill was the first of a trilogy of road movies—includingHighway 61 (1991) andHard Core Logo (1996)—the film launched his reputation as a maverick independent.Roadkill was a success with audiences and critics.[11]Highway 61 (1991) was named Best Canadian Feature at theVancouver International Film Festival and won awards at festivals inBrussels andSan Sebastiàn.[8] In 1996,Hard Core Logo won the award for Best Canadian Feature atSudbury's Cinefest and at the Vancouver International Film Festival, marking his second win at the latter.[8]
Hard Core Logo has been frequently ranked amongst thegreatest movies ever to come out of Canada,[7] and is considered to be McDonald's breakthrough film.[7] The film won theGenie Award for Best Achievement in Music — Original Song for the track "Who the Hell Do You Think You Are?" and was nominated for five other awards including Best Film and Best Direction.[14] It won the Best Canadian Feature at theSudbury Cinéfest and, at the Vancouver International Film Festival, it received the $10,000CITY-TV award for Best Canadian Film, with Baker winning theRogers prize for Best Canadian Screenplay.[15]
Since the late 1990s, McDonald has directed dozens of film and television productions. His 2006 film,The Tracey Fragments, premiered at the57th Berlin International Film Festival, where it was awarded the Manfred Salzgeber Prize for innovative filmmaking.[16]The Tracey Fragments was chosen as one of the top 10 best Canadian films of 2007 by Toronto International Film Festival.[17][18] He then directed the horror filmPontypool, which was also selected as one of the top 10 best Canadian films of the year, this time 2008, by the Toronto International Film Festival.[19]
In 2009, McDonald directed three short films for the cross-platform projectCity Sonic. McDonald, along with six other directors, shot 20 short films about Toronto musicians and the places where their musical lives were transformed. McDonald directed films starringDie Mannequin, theCancer Bats, andGeddy Lee of Rush.[20]
His 2010 filmTrigger was the first film ever screened at Toronto's newTIFF Bell Lightbox.[21] The film was originally planned in the late 1990s as a companion film to McDonald'sHard Core Logo, which would have starredHugh Dillon andCallum Keith Rennie.[21] However, work on the film remained dormant until McDonald and screenwriterDaniel MacIvor decided to rewrite their original screenplay to be about two women instead; these roles were ultimately played byTracy Wright andMolly Parker.[21] Wright, who McDonald had frequently worked with throughout his career, was undergoing treatment forpancreatic cancer during the film's production.[22] It was the last film she completed before her death.[22]
This Movie Is Broken, a concert film onBroken Social Scene was released on June 25, 2010.[23]
Hard Core Logo 2 premiered at theWhistler Film Festival on December 4, 2010, with the members of Die Mannequin and McDonald walking the red carpet.[24] Expectations were set high for Bruce McDonald when he released the second instalment ofHard Core Logo. This caused the film to receive mixed reviews;Postmedia News wrote that it is a film about "artistic inspiration, maintaining a pure creative heart and connecting with others through honest expression"[25] whileThe Globe and Mail referred to the feature as giving the audience "no sense of urgency, desire, or necessity" to continue watching.[26]
In 2011, he produced the documentary television seriesYonge Street: Toronto Rock & Roll Stories, focusing on the history of theYonge Street music scene in Toronto in the 1960s, forBravo.[27]
In 2014, he directed the horror thrillerHellions (2015) starringChloe Rose, which premiered at the2015 Sundance Film Festival and later screened at the2015 Toronto International Film Festival.[28][29][30] His subsequent filmWeirdos, was released in 2016.[31]
McDonald's most recent feature film isDreamland, which was released on June 5, 2020.[32]
Early in his career, he was referred to as a "bad boy" of Canadian cinema.[33] Several of his films, ranging frommockumentaries tohorror films, have attractedcult followings.[4]
Variety described his films as containing a "mash up humor with adventure, music, or horror".[34]The Hollywood Reporter has called him an "iconoclastic filmmaker".[4]
McDonald currently resides in Toronto with his wife, Dany Chiasson, who works as a cinematographer and filmmaker, and their daughter.[35]
