Nik Sheehan (born 17 March 1960) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

documentary filmmaker, who established an international reputation with ''No Sad Songs'' (1985), the first major documentary on AIDS. The film cited by world-renowned specialist Dr.

Balfour Mount Balfour M. Mount, (born 14 April 1939) is a Canadian physician, surgeon, and academic. He is considered the father of palliative care in North America. Born in Ottawa, Ontario, he received his medical degree from Queen's University in 1963 and ...

as "the best film on the planet this year". In 1995, he produced and directed ''Symposium'', inspired by

Plato Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institutio ...

’s classic and featuring multiple views of gay love as performed by Canadian artists and writers including Brad Fraser, Stan Persky, Patricia Rozema,

Tomson Highway Tomson Highway (born 6 December 1951) is an Indigenous Canadian playwright, novelist, and children's author. He is best known for his plays '' The Rez Sisters'' and ''Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing'', both of which won the Dora Mavor Mo ...

, Daniel MacIvor and others. Premiering at the

Montreal World Film Festival The Montreal World Film Festival (WFF; french: le Festival des Films du Monde) was one of Canada's oldest international film festivals and the only competitive film festival in North America accredited by the FIAPF (although the Toronto Interna ...

, it was broadcast extensively by the CBC, and created national headlines. ''God’s Fool'' (1997), shot in Morocco, tells the story of

Scott Symons Hugh Brennan Scott Symons (July 13, 1933 – February 23, 2009), known professionally as Scott Symons, was a Canadian writer.Essaouira Essaouira ( ; ar, الصويرة, aṣ-Ṣawīra; shi, ⵜⴰⵚⵚⵓⵔⵜ, Taṣṣort, formerly ''Amegdul''), known until the 1960s as Mogador, is a port city in the western Moroccan region of Marakesh-Safi, on the Atlantic coast. It ha ...

. It premiered at the

Toronto International Festival of Authors The Toronto International Festival of Authors (TIFA), previously known as the International Festival of Authors (IFOA), is an annual festival presented in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. History Since 1974, the mission of TIFA programming has bee ...

, where artistic director Greg Gatenby judged it "the best film biography of a writer I have ever seen". God’s Fool was broadcast nationally in primetime on Bravo TV. In 2002, the film opened "Freedom to Read Week" on the BookTelevision digital channel, where it remains in the rotation. Following Symons' death in February 2009, Sheehan wrote and published an obituary in '' Xtra!'' '' FLicKeR'' (2008), written and directed by Sheehan, is based on the book

Chapel of Extreme Experience A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common type ...

by John G. Geiger about the work of artist

Brion Gysin Brion Gysin (19 January 1916 – 13 July 1986) was a British-Canadian painter, writer, sound poet, performance artist and inventor of experimental devices. He is best known for his use of the cut-up technique, alongside his close friend, the ...

and his Dreamachine. The film features interviews with

Marianne Faithfull Marianne Evelyn Gabriel Faithfull (born 29 December 1946) is an English singer and actress. She achieved popularity in the 1960s with the release of her hit single " As Tears Go By" and became one of the lead female artists during the British I ...

, DJ Spooky,

Iggy Pop James Newell Osterberg Jr. (born April 21, 1947), known professionally as Iggy Pop, is an American singer, musician, songwriter and actor. Called the " Godfather of Punk", he was the vocalist and lyricist of proto-punk band The Stooges, who w ...

, Lee Ranaldo,

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

John Giorno John Giorno (December 4, 1936 – October 11, 2019) was an American poet and performance artist. He founded the not-for-profit production company Giorno Poetry Systems and organized a number of early multimedia poetry experiments and events, i ...

Floria Sigismondi Floria Sigismondi (, born 1965) is an Italian-Canadian film director, screenwriter, music video director, artist, and photographer. She is best known for writing and directing ''The Runaways'', for directing music videos for performers includin ...

, and

Kenneth Anger Kenneth Anger (born Kenneth Wilbur Anglemyer, February 3, 1927) is an American Underground film, underground experimental filmmaker, actor, and author. Working exclusively in short films, he has produced almost 40 works since 1937, nine of which ...

. ''FLicKeR'' premiered in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most pop ...

in 2008 at the international documentary film festival Hot Docs and received the festival's Special Jury Prize for the best Canadian Feature Length Documentary. It then went on to win in the Best Film on International Art category at the 2009 Era New Horizons Film Festival in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is divided into Voivodeships of Poland, sixteen voivodeships and is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union (EU), with over 38 mill ...

, and was also nominated for a 2009

Gemini Award The Gemini Awards were awards given by the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television between 1986–2011 to recognize the achievements of Canada's television industry. The Gemini Awards are analogous to the Emmy Awards given in the United State ...

in the category of Best Performing Arts Program or Series or Arts Documentary Program or Series, and best original score by composer Edmund Eagan. Sheehan was also nominated for a Canadian screenwriting award by the

Writers Guild of Canada The Writers Guild of Canada is an organization representing more than 2,500 professional writers working in film, television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication Media (communication), medium for transmitting mov ...

. His essay on the Toronto art group General Idea in the collection '' Queers Were Here'' ( Biblioasis 2016) was acclaimed in the '' Literary Review of Canada''. In 2017, he made a series of video shorts documenting

LGBTQ ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is ...

creators for national ''Xtra!'' After moving from

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the city, up from 631,486 in 2016. Th ...

in 2013, Sheehan produced, co-wrote and directed (with Albert Nerenberg), the climate change documentary feature '' Who Farted?'' for documentary Channel (CBC). It was broadcast June 2020 and began streaming on CBC GEM starting September 2020 in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...

. World distribution rights were sold to Syndicado. Sheehan has worked as a literary critic, essayist, and biographer, publishing in ''Montage'', '' POV'', the ''

National Post The ''National Post'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet newspaper available in several cities in central and western Canada. The paper is the flagship publication of Postmedia Network and is published Mondays through Saturdays, with ...

'', '' Now'', ''

Toronto Life ''Toronto Life'' is a monthly magazine about entertainment, politics and life in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. ''Toronto Life'' also publishes a number of annual special interest guides about the city, including ''Real Estate'', ''Stylebook'', ''Eati ...

'', ''

Quill & Quire ''Quill & Quire'' is a Canadian magazine about the book and publishing industry. The magazine was launched in 1935 and has an average circulation of 5,000 copies per issue, with a publisher-claimed readership of 25,000. ''Quill & Quire'' reviews ...

'', ''Masthead'' and ''

fab Fab or FAB may refer to: Commerce * Fab (brand), a frozen confectionery * Fab (website), an e-commerce design web site * The FAB Awards, a food and beverage award * FAB Link, a European electricity link * Flavoured alcoholic beverage or alcopop, ...

''.

Films (selection)

* '' No Sad Songs'' (1985) * ''Symposium: Ladder of Love'' (1995) * ''God's Fool'' (1997) * ''The Drawing Master'' (2004) * '' FLicKeR'' (2008) * ''Who Farted? (film)'' (2019)

Awards (selection)

* 2008 Hot Docs, Special Jury Prize – Best Canadian Feature Documentary (''FLicKeR'') * 2009 Era New Horizons Film Festival ( Wroclaw, Poland) – Best Film in the International Films on Art Competition (''FLicKeR'')

References

External links

*
''FLicKeR'' film site

Brion Gysin Tribute

''Who Farted?'' film site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sheehan, Nik Canadian documentary film directors LGBT writers from Canada LGBT film directors Living people Writers from Toronto Film directors from Toronto 1960 births