Paul Jay

After three years as a post office truck driver, and five as a railroad Carman mechanic, Jay decided it was time to make films. Years later, he's still at it. Jay completed "Return to Kandahar", a feature-length documentary co-directed with Nelofer Pazira (star of the movie Kandahar). The film follows Pazira's return to Afghanistan in search of her childhood friend. Her first attempt to find Dyana, inspired the fictional movie Kandahar. This film is a documentary account of her second journey. Macleans called it "eye-opening . . .breathtaking". The Globe and Mail called it "wonderful . . . an astonishing story of the personal and political". The Ottawa Citizen called it "shocking, compelling . . . as suspenseful as any drama". Jay's _Lost in Las Vegas (2001)- was a feature-length documentary for A&E. "Equal parts hilarious, heroic and heartfelt . . . often surprising, occasionally inspiring, frequently hilarious . . . You've got to see this thing to believe it. It's so good." (Rob Salem, The Toronto Star) Jay's Hitman Hart: Wrestling with Shadows (1998), a feature-length documentary, was screened in 25 major festivals and won more than a dozen awards. It's been called "one of the most acclaimed Canadian films in years" (Eye magazine), "A tale as bizarre as Kafka and as tragic as Shakespeare" (Ottawa Citizen) and "one of the best films of 1998" (Peter Plagens, art critic for Newsweek). 'Hitman' was produced in cooperation with the National Film Board of Canada, TVOntario, The 'A' Channel, CTV, A&E, BBC's Storyville, and La Sept/Arte. Never-Endum-Referendum, also a feature-length doc, (CTV, SRC, Arte) was called ' a moving, masterful piece of film-making about a tough subject." (Tony Atherton Ottawa Citizen) Jay is the creator and executive producer of CBC Newsworld's flagship debate program counterSpin, now in its sixth season of prime time debate about the news of the day. Other work includes "Justice Denied" (Turner), " The Life and Death of Owen Hart" (TVO, A&E), Albanian Journey:End of an Era (TVOntario, CBC Witness), The Birth of Language (TVOntario and Discovery U.S.), 'Here's to the Cowboy' (CBC, Disney, London Weekend, Central TV). Jay exec-produced 'Through Thick and Thin' (CBCNewsworld), 'Machine Gun' (3x1 Discovery Canada&US), and 'The Famine Within ' (TVO). Jay was the co-creator and co-executive producer of Face Off, a nightly prime time debate program that ran 5 years on CBC Newsworld. A past chair of the Canadian Independent Film Caucus, the main organization of documentary filmmakers in Canada, Jay is the founding chair of Hot Docs!, the Canadian international documentary film festival. Jay was born and raised in Toronto.