John L'Ecuyer

Born in Montreal, L'Ecuyer later moved and studied at Ryerson Polytechnical Institute in Toronto, where his classmates included screenwriter Brad Abraham.^{[citation needed]} His brother Gerald L'Ecuyer is also a film and television director.^{[citation needed]}

L'Ecuyer's first feature, Curtis's Charm (1995), based on a short story by Jim Carroll, starred Maurice Dean Wint as Curtis, a paranoid drug addict who believes his mother-in-law has cast a voodoo spell on him, which has resulted in his being stalked by a killer squirrel.^[1] It was shot on black and white 16 mm film.^[2]

The film, executive produced by Atom Egoyan and Patricia Rozema, premiered at the 1995 Toronto International Film Festival,^[3] where it received a special jury citation as Best Canadian Feature Film.^[4]

Also at TIFF that year, L'Ecuyer's short film UseOnceAndDestroy (1995) received another special jury citation at the festival, for Best Canadian Short Film.^{[citation needed]} The short film was based on his own book, titled UseOnceAndDestroy, which was originally published in 1998 by Gutter Press.^[5]

L'Ecuyer's other feature film credits include Saint Jude (also known as St. Jude) and On the Verge of a Fever, both of which premiered at TIFF.^[6][7] His feature documentary, Confessions of a Rabid Dog, won Best Social Documentary at HotDocs.^[8]

In 1999, Playback called him "one of the country’s top dramatic directors."^[9]

Since the 2000s, L'Ecuyer has worked primarily in television.^{[citation needed]} His television work includes dozens of popular series such as ReGenesis and Murdoch Mysteries, and he has also directed over a dozen made-for-television films.^{[citation needed]}

Director

False Prophet:The Gwen Shamblin Story (2022)

The Con (a film about propaganda) (2023) ZDF/ARTE-Beyond -Rogers

Writer

Producer

• John L'Ecuyer at IMDb
• Northern Stars profile