Bio

Hello. I’m Shane Belcourt.
I like making things.
I like telling stories.
I like being alive. Immensely. Too lucky.
So, the arts – music, film, writing, photography,
hanging out with arresting light, good food and laughter
that feeling that there are fireworks in our hearts
to keep exploring this life and expressing its joys and its sorrows/longings.

I’m going to write about myself in the 3rd person now …

 You can download a recent RESUME here

You can download a recent FILMOGRAPHY here

You can download a HEADSHOT here

Shane Belcourt is an award-winning filmmaker, writer, and musician based in Toronto. His feature film, Tkaronto, has played many international film festivals, sold to a national distributor (Kinosmith Films) which released the film across Canada during the fall of 2008. Tkaronto has also played on Air Canada and Super Channel. Shane’s three short films, The Squeeze Box, Pookums, and Keeping Quiet have been sold to national Canadian TV networks. Shane was the recipient of the 2007 IFC Mentorship Award and one of 22 filmmakers chosen for the 2007 TIFF Talent Lab. Shane co-wrote and directed Boxed In, a short film produced by the NFB that was included in the Canadian Pavilion at the 2010 Winter Olympics. Shane was selected to Telefilm’s Feature Aboriginal Storytellers Program to further develop his dramatic feature film, A Better Place. In January 2010, Shane was selected to be the Filmmaker in Residence by the Winnipeg Film Group. Throughout 2011-12 Shane created a TV series, Embracing Mason, with his writing partner Duane Murray with the support of NSI’s Totally Television program. In 2013 Shane collaborated with playwright Yvette Nolan to create A Common Experience which still enjoys a strong film festival run, while also being featured in Air Canada’s In-Flight entertainment. In 2014 Shane was chosen to work with acclaimed writer and activist and educator Maria Campbell on a live reading and short film collaboration for the imagineNATIVE Film Festival, the StoryTellers Program – the name of that short film is Apikiwiyak.

A highlight in 2014 was the completion the 48-min performance arts documentary, Kaha:wi – The Cycle of Life, which features the work of acclaimed dance creator Santee Smith. This documentary has won the Best Cinematography Award at the Canadian Cinematographer Society.

Most recently, Shane completed co-creating, writing, direction, and shooting the 13-part documentary TV series Urban Native Girl which features co-creator Lisa Charleyboy. This series is set to air in the Fall of 2015 on APTN.

Should also be noted that Shane makes films with Duane Murray and Jordan O’Connor under the banner of “The Story Attic” and/or “The Breath Films”. Shane also makes documentaries and video projects for the web under “The Breath Films”. Finally, Shane teaches filmmaking workshops throughout the year with Aboriginal youth and youth at risk through various Aboriginal outreach programs, as well as teaching a directing class at LIFT twice a year in Toronto.

Shane is married to editor and crafter Amanda Greener and they share their home with the stomp stomping of their six year-old daughter Claire. Shane is the son of Metis rights activist Tony Belcourt and Nova Scotian musician/actress Judith Pierce Martin and younger brother to renowned artist Christi Belcourt and graphic artist Suzanne Belcourt. Shane is usually working and creating with childhood best friend Jordan O’Connor and/or high school best friend Duane Murray. Shane played basketball in high school and incessantly watches it today, along with other sports. Thus had to cancel cable TV in the house to get some work done.

Shane was born and raised in Ottawa and went to Roland Mitchner, St. Joe’s, and Notre Dame before moving to Toronto to attend York University. After three years in the Film Production & Screening program, Shane dropped out to be in a rock band full time, while slinging coffee at the Second Cup. Throughout all schooling Shane played music, sports, wrote, and made films.

Shane’s first big band, Woodrow, released a full-length CD and won some song writing competitions – it was a fruitful creative relationship with Marqus Bobesich. Then prior to traveling in Australia Shane began his own solo project, The Shane Anthony Band taking the full reigns in the song writing. That resulted in the release of 3 CD’s which received some radio rotation in Canada and a few songwriting award nominations. That culminated producing the Juno-nominated Digging Roots CD, “Seeds”. Shane then made Tkaronto, making filmmaking the prime focus and songwriting more of a late night in the kitchen affair.

Shane listens to copious amounts of Ryan Adams and recently the City in Colour … basically sing-songwriter stuff, roots, and blues mostly with lots inbetween. Shane watches everything Pixar too many times in a week (thank you Claire), the usual masters (Allen, Spielberg, Scorsese, Malick, etc), the mid-career masters (Mann, Lee, Soderberg, Tarantino, etc), the “can we call them masters” (Anderson’s, Inarritu, Jonze etc), and whatever he has to watch right away because he’s studying it for something he’s working on.

Above all, sitting with friends and laughing so hard the sides hurt and one has to get to their feet to walk it off while still laughing their head off replaying the joke/moment over and over in their head … later waking one up in bed laughing out loud again, and looking crazy walking down the street recalling it once again and laughing some more … Well all of that remains by far Shane’s favourite thing … and equally Shane can go in the total opposite direction when something is so pure, so clean, so truffle that it cuts through to the bone and rattles your core with a wake up call to the Great Spirit of all things, to bow down in praise as it were.