Justine Pimlott  

Justine Pimlott is an award-winning filmmaker who made her directorial debut with LAUGH IN THE DARK, which won the Best Social Issue Documentary Award at Hot Docs and Best Canadian Film at the Inside Out Film & Video Festival in Toronto.

In 2003, she formed Red Queen Productions with Maya Gallus and launched their company with the critically acclaimed six-part reality series on women’s boxing, PUNCH LIKE A GIRL, for which they each received two Gemini nominations (Canada’s Emmy Awards) for Best Direction in a Documentary Series. PUNCH LIKE A GIRLwas also re-released as a single documentary.

Her documentary FAG HAGS:Women Who Love Gay Men, which she directed and co-produced, won the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the Inside Out Film Festival and the Audience Award for Best Canadian Film at the Reel Out Festival. FAG HAGS was broadcast on CBC: The Passionate Eye, SRC, Showcase, IFC, SBS, YLE, SBS Australia and numerous others.

She also wrote and directed CAT CITY, an hour-long documentary that takes the viewer into the heart of the cat overpopulation crisis in Canada. CAT CITY premiered at the Royal Cinema in Toronto, and screened at numerous festivals including Blue Planet Film Fest, Commfest, Moving Image Film Festival and Wisconsin International Film Festival. Additional directing credits include several episodes of a 13-part reality series, FIRE STATION, for the Discovery Channel and CHASING THE DREAM, a pre-Olympic one hour special for CBC Sports on international women’s hockey.

As a producer, Justine’s credits include LAUGH IN THE DARK, PUNCH LIKE A GIRL, FAG HAGS, CAT CITY and DERBY CRAZY LOVE, as well as several documentaries directed by Maya Gallus, including the hybrid documentary-drama, THE MYSTERY OF MAZO DE LA ROCHE, nominated for three Canadian Screen Awards and recipient of the Golden Sheaf Award for Best Social Issue Documentary, the feature documentary, DISH-WOMEN, WAITRESSING & THE ART OF SERVICE and the feature documentary, GIRL INSIDE, which won the Gemini Award for Best Direction In A Documentary and was nominated for the Donald Brittain Gemini Award for Best Social Political Documentary.

Most recently, Justine co-produced and co-directed, DERBY CRAZY LOVE, with Maya Gallus, which launched at RIDM in Montreal in 2013 and is playing at various film festivals, including DOXA, QDoc Portland, Inside Out, Frameline and Northside in Brooklyn. She is currently in development with a several projects for Red Quen Productions, including the feature documentary THE FRUIT MACHINE, about the rise of the early gay rights movement in Canada and the U.S. as told through the story of the radical gay and lesbian newspaper, The Body Politic. (4/14)