Neil grew up in Courtenay, BC, and moved to Vancouver in 2009 to study under full scholarship at the Capilano University Film Centre, His final student project, a short doc about BC Labour hero Ginger Goodwin, got him onto the research team of the 2014 Knowledge Network Series, Working People: A History of Labour in British Columbia. This encounter with labour history led Neil to pursue his first feature documentary Goodwin’s Way, which draws parallels between past and present struggles for social justice.