Gina Payzant, Filmmaker

Films by Gina Payzant, writer/producer/director with Jared Paull, DOP and cinematographer

 


 

Just a Ploughboy

Just a Ploughboy is a twenty-two minute short documentary film focusing on Canadian writer George Ryga, who wrote the internationally acclaimed play The Ecstasy of Rita Joe in 1967. The play remains a charged commentary on the treatment of Canada’s Indigenous people. Fifty years later, what has changed, and what still needs changing?

 

 


 

the hand that picks the stones

the hand that picks the stones is a music video featuring composer and performer david sereda. Created to support Just a Ploughboy, this film is about how the land and its people shape the writer who in turn shapes us.

 


 

An Astronomical Moment

An Astronomical Moment is a series of twelve one-minute films about how being in space affects the space traveller. Astronaut Dr. Robert Thirsk relates how his adventures in space shape his life on earth now.

 


 

Bright Hope

Bright Hope is a one-minute silent film about war in Ukraine. We are led through the horrors of war by the Ukrainian Muse until we arrive at yearned for peace.

 


 

Films in Progress

Physics for Poets

Physics for Poets is a magic realism historic docudrama film set in 1633, on the night that Galileo prepares to travel from Florence to Rome to appear in front of the Inquisitional Council. Various forces visit Galileo in the night, offering comfort, and advice, some of which is horrifyingly foreboding. The more technology we have, the more philosophy we need.

 


 

Perogy King

Perogy King, or how to bring people together to get stuff done is a short documentary film about Walter Makowecki, founder of the famed Cheemo Perogies. Referring to himself as the “Communist Capitalist’, this highly successful Canadian entrepreneur was able to bring people of diverse beliefs and backgrounds together to the benefit of business and culture in his home province, where he coined the phrase “the Alberta advantage” when working for the Peter Lougheed government as a consultant to promote Alberta agricultural products internationally.

 


 

Contact Gina Payzant at ginapay@telus.net