Director, Screenwriter, Editor

(b. June 6, 1943 Montreal, Quebec)

Skilful Quebec director Jean-Claude Lord established himself in the seventies as a commercially astute filmmaker who deliberately aimed his feature films at a mass audience and dealt with political themes in a mainstream, Hollywood style. He would often base his films on themes ripped straight from the latest headlines and his early knack for baring the consciences of those in power earned him a reputation in some circles as Quebec’s Costa-Gavras.

Lord began his career as an apprentice to Pierre Patry at Coopératio, working as an assistant director on many films before directing his first feature, Délivrez-nous du mal, in 1965 (its release was delayed for four years). His second feature, Les Colombes (1972), explored the anguish surrounding the sacrifice of a child and established the young writer-director as a burgeoning auteur. Lord showed incredible panache in his third film, Bingo (1973), which examined the October crisis through the taut story of a political conspiracy. Parlez-nous d’amour (1976) dealt with the shady side of art, while the thriller Panique (1977) tackled the issues of industrial pollution and the ecology.

Lord began to show an increasing interest in strictly commercial fare with the success of his 1981 English-languagethriller Visiting Hours and he spent the eighties concentrating mainly on direct-to-video entries in this genre. He also directed two delightful family films, Toby McTeague (1985) and La Grenouille et la baleine (1987), and made his first foray into television by creating the beloved series Lance et compte (He Shoots, He Scores) in 1985. He has developed a number of other successful Quebec television series, including Jasmine and Diva, and has focused his work exclusively on the smaller screen since the early nineties.

Film and video work includes

La Corde au cou, 1965 (assistant director)
Délivrez-nous du mal, 1965 (director; co-writer with Claude Jasmin; editor)
Pile ou face, 1971 (production manager) a.k.a. Heads or Tails
Les Colombes, 1972 (director; writer; editor)
Poisson, Jean Salvy; co-editor with Lise Thouin)
Parlez-nous d'amour, 1976 (director; co-writer with Michel Tremblay; co-editor with Lise Thouin)
Panique, 1977 (director; co-writer with Jean Salvy; editor)
Éclair au chocolat, 1978 (director; co-writer with Jean Salvy; editor)
Travelling, 1980 (actor)
Visiting Hours, 1981 (director; co-editor with Lise Thouin) a.k.a. The Fright
Covergirl, 1981 (director) a.k.a. Dreamworld
The Vindicator, 1984 (director) a.k.a. The Frankenstein Factor, a.k.a. Frankenstein '88
Lance et compte series, 1985-1986 (director; TV, thirteen episodes)
Toby McTeague, 1985 (director)
La Mémoire assassinée, 1989 (director)
Mindfield, 1989 (director)
Eddie and the Cruisers II: Eddie Lives!, 1989 (director)
Landslide, 1992 (director)
Farewell to Arms, Sirens series, 1994 (director; TV)
Gunplay, Sirens series, 1995 (director; TV)
Jasmine series, 1996 (director; TV, multiple episodes)
Lobby series, 1996 (director; TV, multiple episodes)
Diva series, 1997 (director; TV, multiple episodes)
Maurice Richard: Histoire d'un Canadien, miniseries, 1999 (co-director with Pauline Payette; TV)
Quadra series, 2000 (director; TV)
Lance et compte - La nouvelle génération series, 2001 (director; TV, ten episodes)
Or, L series, 2001 (director; TV, multiple episodes)
Relativity, Galidor: Defenders of the Outer Dimension series, 2002 (director; TV)
Station nord, 2002 (director) a.k.a. North Station