Jacquelyn Mills is a Canadian documentary filmmaker. She is best known for her films ''
In the Waves'' and ''
Geographies of Solitude''.
Early life
Mills was born in
Sydney, Nova Scotia
Sydney is a former city and urban community on the east coast of Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, Canada within the Cape Breton Regional Municipality. Sydney was founded in 1785 by the British, was incorporated as a city in 1904, and dissolv ...
.
Career
In 2008, Mills' short film, ''For Wendy'', won 5 international awards.
Mills' first documentary (60') ''
In the Waves'' is a personal exploratory film made in collaboration with her grandmother. The film premiered at
Visions du Réel
Vision, Visions, or The Vision may refer to:
Perception Optical perception
* Visual perception, the sense of sight
* Visual system, the physical mechanism of eyesight
* Computer vision, a field dealing with how computers can be made to gain und ...
in 2017. ''In the Waves'' won the award for Best Documentary and best editing at the 2017
Atlantic Film Festival
The Atlantic International Film Festival is a major international film festival held annually in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada since 1980. AIFF is the largest Canadian film festival east of Montreal, regularly premiering the region's top films of ...
and was selected as best medium-length documentary at RIDM (
Montreal International Documentary Festival
The Montreal International Documentary Festival () is a Canadian documentary film festival, staged annually in Montreal, Quebec.
In English, the festival now goes by the name Montreal International Documentary Festival, while retaining the French- ...
).
It also won Grand Jury Prize at New Hampshire International Film Festival. The film was a shortlisted nominee for the
Vancouver Film Critics Circle Award for
Best Canadian Documentary at the
Vancouver Film Critics Circle Awards 2017.
''
Geographies of Solitude'', Mills second documentary (103'), premiered at Berlinale Forum in 2022 winning three awards. The film centers on environmentalist Zoe Lucas and her life on
Sable Island
Sable Island (, literally "island of sand") is a small, remote island off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada. Sable Island is located in the North Atlantic Ocean, about southeast of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Halifax, and about southeast of the clo ...
.
The film won the award for
Best Canadian Feature Documentary at the 2022
Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival
The Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival is the largest documentary festival in North America. The event takes place annually in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The 27th edition of the festival took place online throughout May and Jun ...
.
[Sadaf Ahsan]
"Jacquelyn Mills’ ‘Geographies of Solitude’ wins Hot Docs’ best Canadian film award"
''Toronto Star
The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part of Torstar's Daily News Brands (Torstar), Daily News Brands division.
...
'', May 7, 2022. Mills was also awarded Outstanding Artistry in Filmmaking at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. (2023). ''Geographies of Solitude'' went on to garner over 35 international awards, was nominated for an IDA as well as a Canadian Screen Award, has a permanent place in Harvard Film Archives and was a Critic's Pick in the New York Times.
In addition to her own films, Mills has also worked as a cinematographer and editor on many internationally acclaimed films.
Personal life
Mills currently lives in
Montreal
Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...
.
References
External links
*
*
Canadian documentary film directors
Canadian women film directors
Film directors from Nova Scotia
Living people
People from Sydney, Nova Scotia
Year of birth missing (living people)
Canadian women documentary filmmakers
Canadian cinematographers
Canadian women cinematographers
{{Canada-film-director-stub