French-Canadian experimental filmmaker
François Miron (born 1962) is a French-Canadian experimental filmmaker also working in documentary and fiction.
Early life.
Miron was born in Montreal in 1962.
Education.
He obtained a BFA from Concordia University in 1987 and an MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1990 (he received a full merit scholarship).
Filmmaking career.
Miron started making Super-8 Collage films in 1982, inspired by the cut-up technique William S. Burroughs, soon shifting to 16mm and 35mm. His early body of work consists of found footage manipulation through optical printing and abstract cinematography of industrial landscapes. His abstract work has lately been shifting into more "traditional" narrative cinema and documentary, although a strong psychedelic and surreal influence still is present. Miron still makes short experimental films while working on his feature films or in between them. Most of his films have been exhibited worldwide and have won several awards.
His early films are in the tradition of Pat O'Neill who was the pioneer of experimental optical printing films in the 1960s and 1970s and is still active to this day. Other links have been made to Paul Sharits, Stan Brakhage, Norman McLaren and in painting to Jackson Pollock
Selected works.
"At the original screening of the film at The World Film Festival, the sound was so loud that the projection booth window broke; the projectionist stopped the projection but the judges insisted that they see the film again. Documentary filmmaker Peter Wintonick wrote an article about this in "Cinema Canada". He also interviewed Miron about his filmmaking activities (the magazine was defunct in 1989). The Conservatoire D'Art Cinematographique in Montreal requested that the film be put in their archives. There is also a print at The Canadian Film Archives in Ottawa."
Aside from those, Miron has created over 15 films since 1982.
In 2003 he was ranked 4th best filmmaker of Montreal by The Montreal Mirror 14th annual reader's poll
In 2008 he won a Juno Award for his photographic work on the cover of the "Arcade Fire" CD: Neon Bible.
 
In 2007 he started working on a feature-length documentary about avant-garde filmmaker Paul Sharits. The film was completed, and the world premiere took place at The 44th International Film Festival Rotterdam 21 January – 1 February 2015. The film has then been featured in several festivals over the world: Japan, Korea, Israel, France etc. The film won the top award (FILAF D'Or) at FILAF 2015 International Art Book and Film Festival in Perpignan, France.
Teachings.
Since 1993, François Miron has been teaching at The Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema at Concordia University in Montreal, there he created an optical printing course.
With the rise of new technologies and the near death of celluloid-based film, after a near 20-year run, the course disappeared in 2012.
Miron is still very active as a teacher, teaching basic filmmaking and also advanced cinematography among other courses.
References.
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