Chelsea McMullan
{{short description|Canadian documentary filmmaker}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2024}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Chelsea McMullan
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| birth_place = Canada
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| occupation = Documentary filmmaker
| known_for = My Prairie Home, World Famous Gopher Hole Museum, Ever Deadly
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Chelsea McMullan is a Canadian documentary filmmaker, best known for their 2013 film My Prairie Home, a film about transgender musician Rae Spoon.[http://filmmakermagazine.com/83727-interview-with-my-prairie-home-director-chelsea-mcmullan/#.UtzClfso4dU "Interview with My Prairie Home Director Chelsea McMullan"]. Filmmaker, January 19, 2014.
McMullan is non-binary, and uses they/them pronouns.Johanna Schneller, "How Chelsea McMullan produced two of this year’s most startling documentaries". The Globe and Mail, September 30, 2022.
Early life
McMullan grew up in Langley, British Columbia as an avid basketball player. They received a basketball scholarship to play at Brookswood Secondary School and were scouted to play at the university level in Canada, but eventually decided to pursue an interest in film.{{Cite web|last=Jacobs|first=Jonas|date=2016-05-07|title=POV Profile: Chelsea McMullan – Point of View Magazine|url=http://povmagazine.com/articles/view/pov-profile-chelsea-mcmullan|url-status=live|access-date=2021-04-08|website=POV Magazine|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160917121502/http://povmagazine.com:80/articles/view/pov-profile-chelsea-mcmullan |archive-date=2016-09-17 }}
Career
Chelsea McMullan studied film in the Department of Film (now Cinema and Media Arts) at York University in Toronto; graduating with a BFA (Specialized Honours) in 2007.
McMullan's early film credits include the documentary films Derailments (Deragliamenti) and The Way Must Be Tried, and the short films Plume and Bath Time.
McMullan has worked on several projects with the National Film Board of Canada. In addition to My Prairie Home, their prior films Mise en Scène and Deadman were made for the NFB; they first met Spoon when they wanted to secure rights to one of Spoon's songs as background music for Deadman.[http://o.canada.com/entertainment/movies/chelsea-mcmullan-bends-genre-gender-in-musical-documentary-about-rae-spoon/ "Chelsea McMullan bends genre, gender in musical-documentary about Rae Spoon"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140202160819/http://o.canada.com/entertainment/movies/chelsea-mcmullan-bends-genre-gender-in-musical-documentary-about-rae-spoon/ |date=2014-02-02 }}. canada.com, September 30, 2013.
My Prairie Home competed in the World Cinema Documentary program at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival,[http://playbackonline.ca/2013/12/04/chelsea-mcmullan-doc-to-compete-at-sundance/ "Chelsea McMullan doc to compete at Sundance"]. Playback, December 4, 2013. and was nominated for the Canadian Screen Award for Best Feature Length Documentary at the 2nd Canadian Screen Awards.[http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/canadian-screen-awards-orphan-black-less-than-kind-enemy-nominated-1.2494447 "Canadian Screen Awards: Orphan Black, Less Than Kind, Enemy nominated"]. CBC News, January 13, 2014.
McMullan's 2015 film World Famous Gopher Hole Museum was nominated for the Canadian Screen Award for Best Short Documentary at the 4th Canadian Screen Awards.[https://web.archive.org/web/20160615210251/http://etcanada.com/news/37268/2016-canadian-screen-awards-nominees-announced/ "2016 Canadian Screen Awards Nominees Announced"]. ET Canada, January 19, 2016.
In 2022, McMullan and Tanya Tagaq collaborated on the film Ever Deadly.[https://nunatsiaq.com/stories/article/tanya-tagaq-film-to-debut-at-toronto-festival/ "Tanya Tagaq film to debut at Toronto festival"]. Nunatsiaq News, August 15, 2022. The film Crystal Pite: Angels' Atlas, profiling a dance work by ballet choreographer Crystal Pite, was also released in 2022.{{Cite web |last=Smith |first=Janet |title=Stir Q&A: Director Chelsea McMullan discovers new ways to shoot dance for Crystal Pite: Angels' Atlas, at VIFF 2022 |url=https://www.createastir.ca/articles/crystal-pite-angels-atlas-viff-2022 |access-date=2022-10-04 |website=Stir |date=October 2022 |language=en-US}}
In 2023, McMullan released Swan Song, a documentary film profiling Karen Kain as she prepares to retire from her career in dance.Manori Ravindran, [https://variety.com/2023/film/global/neve-campbell-ballet-documentary-swan-song-toronto-1235679294/ "Neve Campbell Boards TIFF-Bound Ballet Documentary ‘Swan Song’ as Executive Producer"]. Variety, July 25, 2023.
McMullan's forthcoming projects include a documentary film, Michael Shannon Michael Shannon John, and a narrative feature film, Swan Killer.
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{IMDb name|2088107}}
- [http://www.nfb.ca/film/mise-en-scene Mise en Scène] at NFB.ca
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Category:Canadian documentary film directors
Category:Film directors from British Columbia
Category:Year of birth missing (living people)
Category:People from Langley, British Columbia (city)
Category:Canadian non-binary people