John Bolton

John Bolton is an award-winning filmmaker from Vancouver, Canada, and the founder & chief creative officer of Opus 59 Films. As knowledgeable about music, literature and art as he is about film and television, he brings a very particular erudition and sensibility to Opus 59 Films’ portfolio of projects.

John is best known for his “musical docudrama” AIM FOR THE ROSES (for Blue Ice Docs and Monoduo Films, with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the British Columbia Arts Council), about Canadian musician Mark Haney and Canadian daredevil Ken Carter. Exclaim! Magazine called it “enthralling and thought provoking”, the Globe and Mail called it “audacious and outrageous” and POV Magazine called it “bizarre, ambitious and ridiculously entertaining” and “the wildest, craziest, smartest doc in years”. AIM FOR THE ROSES had its world premiere at Hot Docs in Toronto, was the opening night film at DOXA in Vancouver, played in festivals around the world, had its broadcast premiere on CBC / Documentary Channel, and was nominated for 5 Leo Awards and a Vancouver Film Critics Circle Award. It’s available on Apple TV in Canada and Vimeo On Demand worldwide.

John is currently producing and directing KING ARTHUR’S NIGHT, a genre-defying music documentary inspired by a medieval musical play created by an amazing company of artists living with and without Down Syndrome, including award-winning playwrights Niall McNeil and Marcus Youssef and iconic musician Veda Hille. Think “The Green Knight” meets “Crip Camp”, but with songs.

Most recently, John produced and directed the documentary THE LAKE / nx̌aʔx̌aʔitkʷ (for Telus Originals), an inspiring music documentary about an extraordinary friendship between two singers & teachers - Heather Pawsey of Vancouver’s Astrolabe Musik Theatre, and Delphine Derickson of Westbank First Nation - and the groundbreaking cultural collaboration in which they decolonized a historic Canadian opera by incorporating syilx / Okanagan perspectives. It had its world premiere at FIFA in Montreal. The Georgia Straight called it “remarkable, heartfelt and memorable” and the National Observer called it “fascinating” and said that “it’s hard to imagine if there can be many other films like it”.

John’s other films as producer / director include adaptations of short stories by Nancy Lee and Thomas King (both of which won Leo Awards for Best Actress); the cult classic Crazy8s short “Breakdown” (which won a Canadian Comedy Award for Best Actress); a feature documentary about Vancouver lawyer, city councillor and socialist icon Harry Rankin; a short documentary about Michael J. Fox; short films about the artists David Burdeny, Douglas Coupland, Omer Arbel and Pete Clarkson; a series of polyamorous classical music promos for Knowledge Network's Radio City strand; classical music performance pieces featuring Allegra Chamber Orchestra, Borealis String Quartet, City Opera Vancouver, Little Chamber Music, Rachel Kiyo Iwaasa and Rudolf Komorous; and the Golden Sheaf Award winning FLAME / THROUGH WALLS, featuring the UBC Women’s Hockey Team skating to the music of Jennifer Butler and Jordan Nobles.