James Douglas
James originally received acting training at the University of Victoria and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York. As a performer he has appeared in stage plays across North America, including The Merchant of Venice, The Comedy of Errors, Hamlet, A View from the Bridge, The Mail Order Bride, Chemin de Fer, Romeo and Juliet, Seven Stories, Filthy Rich, Odd Jobs, The Marowitz Hamlet, Electra, Ion and the Fred Wells Show. He has taken principal roles in a number of independent films and shorts, including X Spots the Mark, My Pyramids, Notaries, Defenseless, Pigboy, Through Blood Like Ice, Stalking and Final Breath - Short Film, as well as written and performed for sketch comedy troupes such as the Acclaim Jumpers, Beg Dirty Nun, the Cariboo Amateur Dramatic Association, and the Sunset Cabaret.
In 2000 James was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from the University of Victoria, and in 2004 completed one year of graduate coursework at the university’s Theatre department before embarking on an internship with renowned avant-garde theatre director and drama critic Charles Marowitz during his historic production of Vaclav Havel’s Pokoŭsení [English: Temptation] at the National Theatre of the Czech Republic.
In 2005 James traveled to the Netherlands to write, produce, and direct The Tulip and the Maple Leaf, a documentary short film celebrating the enduring post-WWII friendship between the Canadian and Dutch peoples, which premiered at Ontario’s Royal Botanical Gardens in 2006. Since then he has been in production of an epic documentary feature about Canada’s theatrical wunderkind Charles Ross and the international mega-One Man Star Wars Trilogy - Charlie Ross, as well as writing dramatic scripts and screenplays for projects funded by the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, Hatley Park National Historic Site, Barkerville, British Columbia, Destination British Columbia, and the Provincial Capital Commission. James was the on-air host of Shaw TV’s BC150 Years series of documentary shorts in 2008, and in 2010 began production (with Patrick Curling and Jacy Schindel) of a broadcast television documentary about British Columbia’s past and current gold rushes (narrated by CBC Radio’s Mark Forsythe) called Wilds to Riches.
Wilds to Riches was officially presented by CBC Television in July of 2013, and has been rebroadcast throughout British Columbia and internationally via satellite more than a dozen times since. The film was nominated for a 2014 Leo Awards for Best Documentary Screenplay, and for his role as co-producer James received the Cariboo Chilcotin Coast Tourism Association's Best Marketing Initiative award.
Over the past two decades James has produced or co-produced a number of noteworthy theatre projects, including the national touring premiere of Daniel McIvor’s Never Swim Alone on the Canadian Fringe Festival circuit, three seasons of a live, improvised, comedic serial soap opera (V8W 1K8: A Table for Four) for the Eclectic Circus, Charles Marowitz: Recycling Shakespeare for the Metro Theatre, Don Webster’s Spin for the New Vic Theatre, @The The Saints of British Rock for London UK Records, and a site-specific staging of William Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost at Victoria’s Emily Carr House.
James’s recent directing credits include The Saints of British Rock, The Bride of Barkerville, Lady Overlander, The Great Love of Queen Victoria, The Sinister Secret of Hatley Castle, Fangs for the Memories, and Das Love Boot. He has also worked as dramaturge on critically-lauded productions of Andrew Hamilton’s Kaliban, Sally Clark’s Wanted, and Anne Carson’s contemporary translation of Sophocles’ Electra.
Norm Coyne
Norm Coyne is a Syilx producer, writer, director. His path to film was led by his career as an award winning live event and magazine creator. Through the years, Norm’s projects have appeared in Mashable, Fox News, CBR, Paste, CBC, Mental Floss, Nerdist, Playback and on Kevin Smith’s podcast Fatman Beyond.
In 2015, Norm founded the blockbuster entertainment event NORTHERN FANCON. The convention has hosted over 100 stars in Northern British Columbia including William Shatner, Kevin Smith, Nichelle Nichols, Lou Ferrigno, Tricia Helfer, Alan Tudyk and Karl Urban to name a few. Identifying it’s unique opportunity, Norm has since developed the event into a local film industry catalyst and seen amazing results.
During his film career, Norm served as executive producer of the critically acclaimed adaptation of Stephen King’s THE DOCTOR’S CASE which went on to win dozens of awards at festivals internationally and was reported by ScreenRant as “The 5th Best Stephen King film adaptation (according to IMDB)”. The momentum from the success of the film helped Norm spearhead efforts to build film industry in Northern British Columbia and in 2021, he produced the feature films A GREAT NORTH CHRISTMAS (available in the US on Crackle), THE WAY TO THE HEART, and the short film WITHIN THE GRIP.
His upcoming projects include the bizarre festival travelogue FESTIES and the web series SMALL TOWN LONGSHOTS which boasts interviews with Emmy & Golden Globe winner Edward James Olmos, SHERLOCK director Rachel Talalay, BATMAN executive producer Michael Uslan, VIKINGS star Alexander Ludwig and Writer’s Guild award winner Marc Bernardin.
In 2020, Norm was one of 100 filmmakers chosen from across Canada as part of the Netflix-BANFF Diversity of Voices fellowship in the Indigenous filmmaker category.
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