Michael Mackenzie (filmmaker)


Michael Mackenzie is a Canadian film director, screenwriter, theatre director, playwright and dramaturge. He has directed two feature films, both theatrically released in Canada. His plays have been staged in Europe and North America and variously published in English, French, German and Hungarian.
He has a Ph.D in the History of Science from L'Université de Montréal. Past academic appointments include Visiting Fellow at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and consultant at the United Nations.

Theatre career

Mackenzie is a writer-in-residence at the 2B Theatre in Halifax and teaches at the National Theatre School of Canada in Montreal.
His plays have been produced in Germany, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Israel, France, Portugal, England, across Quebec, and in Toronto and Vancouver. Productions since 2010 include Frankfurt, Upper Franconia, Prague, Antigonish and Montreal. His most recent play "Instructions to Any Future Government Wishing to Abolish Christmas" was a finalist for the 4th International STAGE Competition
He has directed for the professional theatre in Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal and New York City.
He has worked with Robert Lepage on a number of occasions, starting as dramaturge for 'Elseneur' in 1997 and most recently on the English translation/adaptation of Lepage's 'Dragon Bleu'. Michael was dramaturge for the Cirque du Soleil show Ka, directed by Lepage and playing at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

Film career

Michael's first feature film as a writer/director was The Baroness and the Pig, an adaptation of his play, and was produced by Media Principia. It was selected for the Toronto International Film Festival, Festival du Nouveau Cinema where it was the closing film, Sundance Film Festival and San Francisco Film Festival. It starred Patricia Clarkson and Colm Feore and was nominated for "Best Direction", "Best Cinematography" and "Best Editing" for the Quebec Jutra Awards. It was theatrically released in Canada in 2003.
His second feature film as director was Adam's Wall. Co-written with Dana Schoel, it was produced by Couzin Films. It premiered at the Festival du Nouveau Cinema and went on to a number of international festivals including Zlin IFF 2009, Stony Brooke IFF 2009, Skip City IFF 2009, Troia IFF, 2009. It was theatrically released in Canada in 2008.
The screenplay for Le Polygraphe 1996, directed by Robert Lepage and which Mackenzie co-wrote/adapted with Robert Lepage and Marie Brassard, was nominated for a Genie Award for best adapted screenplay.

Other

Mackenzie's scholarly publications on science policy and related topics include 11 papers in scholarly journals and a book with the late Jorge Sabato.
In 1993 he co-authored and co-directed Archeology of a Mother Tongue with Toni Dove at the Banff Virtual Reality Seminar.
In 1995 he created "Dark Practice Scarring", an interactive installation as author and director at the 6th International Symposium on Electronic Art, Montreal.

Theater

Directing

Directing