Jacqueline Castel is an American-born French and Canadian film director, screenwriter, and curator based in New York City. Her debut feature film, '' My Animal'', starring

Bobbi Salvör Menuez Bobbi Salvör Menuez (born 1993) is an American actor and model. They have appeared in films including ''Something in the Air'', '' The Breakup Girl'', and '' White Girl'' and appeared in the Amazon Prime Video series ''I Love Dick''. They have b ...

and

Amandla Stenberg Amandla Stenberg (born October 23, 1998) is an American actress. She began her career as a child and received recognition for playing List of The Hunger Games characters#Rue, Rue in the action film ''The Hunger Games (film), The Hunger Games'' ( ...

, world premiered at the

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023. The festival has acted ...

in 2023 and was released theatrically by

Paramount Paramount (from the word ''paramount'' meaning "above all others") may refer to: Entertainment and music companies * Paramount Global, also known simply as Paramount, an American mass media company formerly known as ViacomCBS. **Paramount Picture ...

. Castel has written for and directed such established auteurs as

John Carpenter John Howard Carpenter (born January 16, 1948) is an American filmmaker, composer, and actor. Most commonly associated with horror film, horror, action film, action, and science fiction film, science fiction films of the 1970s and 1980s, he is ...

and

Jim Jarmusch James Robert Jarmusch ( ; born January 22, 1953) is an American film director, screenwriter and musician. He has been a major proponent of independent film, independent cinema since the 1980s, directing films such as ''Stranger Than Paradise'' ...

, and has collaborated with

David Lynch David Keith Lynch (January 20, 1946 – January 16, 2025) was an American filmmaker, visual artist, musician, and actor. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, Lynch was often called a "visionary" and received acclaim f ...

. She is the in-house director for the record label

Sacred Bones Records Sacred Bones Records is an American independent record label founded in 2007 and based in Brooklyn, New York. The label has released recordings from artists including Zola Jesus, David Lynch, John Carpenter, Spellling, Blanck Mass, Crystal S ...

, and has directed music videos for

Alan Vega Alan Bermowitz (June 23, 1938–July 16, 2016), known professionally as Alan Vega, was an American vocalist and visual artist, primarily known for his work with the electronic proto-punk duo Suicide. Life and career Alan Bermowitz was raise ...

Zola Jesus Nika Roza Danilova (born Nicole Rose Hummel; April 11, 1989), known professionally by her stage name Zola Jesus, is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. Her music has been noted for combining elements of electronic, industrial, ...

The Soft Moon Jose Luis Vasquez (May 30, 1979 – January 18, 2024), known professionally as the Soft Moon, was an American musician and record producer. Vasquez was the lead vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and sole official member of the Soft Moo ...

, and

Pharmakon In critical theory, pharmakon is a concept introduced by Jacques Derrida. It is derived from the Greek source term φάρμακον (''phármakon''), a word that can mean either remedy, poison, or scapegoat. In his essay "Plato's Pharmacy", Der ...

Early life

Castel moved to New York City to attend

NYU Film School The New York University Tisch School of the Arts (commonly referred to as Tisch) is the performing, cinematic, and media arts school of New York University. Founded on August 17, 1965, as the School of the Arts at New York University, Tisch i ...

and worked at

Kim's Video and Music Kim's Video and Music was a video and music retail store in Manhattan, New York City; the retailer was described as the "go-to place for rare selections," and was "widely known among the cognoscenti of new, experimental and esoteric music and film ...

in the East Village. She met

founder Caleb Braaten while hosting a show at WNYU Radio, and began directing music videos for the label.

Career

In 2011, ''Fader'' magazine named Castel a "Video Director to Watch," for her music video work. In 2012, she released early short film ''Twelve Dark Noons'' as the first film release on the Sacred Bones imprint, which premiered at South by Southwest. Her 2014 short documentary ''13 Torches For A Burn'' focused on the contemporary underground Danish music scene, and spotlighted the punk band

Iceage Iceage is a Danish punk rock band from Copenhagen. The band was formed in 2008 and has released the albums '' New Brigade'' (2011), '' You're Nothing'' (2013), '' Plowing Into the Field of Love'' (2014), '' Beyondless'' (2018), and ''Seek She ...

. Castel's short film ''The Puppet Man'' world-premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2016 and featured the acting debut of fashion model

Crystal Renn Crystal Renn (born June 18, 1986) is an American model and author. Personal life Renn started her modeling career in high fashion at the age of 14 after being spotted by a professional scout in her hometown in Clinton, Mississippi. Renn was tol ...

. In 2016, Castel began work as director on the feature-length documentary ''A Message from the Temple'', about Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth, featuring English experimental singer and performance artist

Genesis P-Orridge Genesis Breyer P-Orridge (born Neil Andrew Megson; 22 February 1950 – 14 March 2020) was an English singer-songwriter, musician, poet, performance artist, visual artist, and occultist who rose to notoriety as the founder of the COUM Transmi ...

. Castel presented footage from the film-in-progress in 2020 at

Anthology Film Archives Anthology Film Archives is an international center for the film preservation, preservation, film studies, study, and film distribution, exhibition of film and video, with a particular focus on independent film, independent, experimental film, ex ...

and in 2022 at "Breyer P-Orridge: We Are But One" at

Pioneer Works Pioneer Works is a Nonprofit organization, nonprofit cultural arts center in the Red Hook, Brooklyn, Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City that was founded by artist Dustin Yellin in 2012. Pioneer Works includes a large exhibition spac ...

, the first posthumous retrospective of the artist's work. In 2017 she co-wrote an erotic thriller with

Sasha Grey Marina Ann Hantzis (born 1988), known professionally as Sasha Grey, is an American actress, model, writer, musician, and former pornographic film actress. She began her acting career in the pornographic film industry, winning 15 awards for h ...

. In 2018 Castel collaborated with David Lynch on short film "Curtains Up," an adaptation of his book, ''

Catching the Big Fish ''Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity'' is an autobiography and self-help guideWilliams, Alex (December 31, 2006), ''The New York Times''. Retrieved February 20, 2012. written by American filmmaker David Lynch. It com ...

'' about Transcendental Meditation. It premiered at Lynch's Festival of Disruption. In 2020, Castel directed the short documentary "The Mother Stone," a portrait of actor and musician

Caleb Landry Jones Caleb Landry Jones (born December 7, 1989) is an American actor and musician, known for his roles as Banshee in '' X-Men: First Class'', Jeremy Armitage in ''Get Out'', and Red Welby in ''Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri''. His accolades ...

. In 2021, she released the short “A Slice of a Dream,” featuring Jones and his partner, artist Katya Zvereva. In 2023, she directed romance horror ''My Animal'', from a script written by Jae Matthews of electronic group

Boy Harsher Boy Harsher is an American electronic music group formed in 2013 in Savannah, Georgia. Currently based in Northampton, Massachusetts, the band consists of vocalist Jae Matthews and producer Augustus Muller. The band has amassed a cult following ...

Personal life

Castel is the granddaughter of French and Canadian law professor

Jean-Gabriel Castel Jean-Gabriel Castel (17 September 1928 – 30 December 2023) was a French and Canadian law professor and Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus at Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Osgoode Hall Law School of York University,Toronto. ...

. She is the partner of writer and historian

Mitch Horowitz Mitch Horowitz (born November 23, 1965) is an American author, publisher, speaker, podcaster, and television host specializing in occult and esoteric themes. A frequent writer and speaker on religion and metaphysics in print and on television, ra ...

Music videos

Castel has directed the following:

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Castel, Jacqueline Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 21st-century Canadian women writers Canadian horror film directors 21st-century Canadian screenwriters Canadian women film directors Canadian women screenwriters