Andy Jones

Vocation is a documentary on artists who knew from a very early age they wanted to be an artist. A decision that for them was instinctual and some may even say it is 'a calling' based on faith and perhaps even fate alone. Artists Andy Jones, Deepa Mehta, Marie Brassard, Christopher Pratt, Brad Peyton and Bif Naked are committed to creating work in theatre, literature, music, film and performance based on an innate desire to succeed while working in the precarious profession of art.

With little more than a 16-mm camera and a bedrock love of place, renegade filmmaker Mike Jones broke the trail for Newfoundland’s cultural renaissance. Through never-before-seen footage of the comedic chaos that was CODCO, Smash & Grab: The Rebel Lens of Mike Jones summons this chapter of Canada’s hilarious history in a joyful journey of rediscovery featuring Mary Walsh, Cathy Jones, Rick Mercer and more.

Nick is a successful young man whose comfortable West Coast life couldn't be better. However, when his girlfriend falls under the influence of lecherous music producer Lenny Swackhammer, Nick impulsively decides to travel to Toronto to intervene. Nick's buddies Tyler and Dime opt to turn the quest into a cross-country road trip that's complete with wacky antics and encounters with beautiful women.

A down-and-out restaurateur and his neighbor hatch a plan to lure bird watchers to their small Newfoundland town and increase tourism by announcing the presence of a rare duck.

Natalie, a gifted New York photographer, has a troubled past reflected in her art. When she struggles to make ends meet in the city, her agent, arranges an assignment in Boston for a considerable sum of money. Unable to turn it down in her dire straits, Natalie takes the job -- only to find that her estranged gay brother, Roy, is the employer. Roy wants to mend their broken past, but must convince her to stay long enough to do so.

A pharmaceutical scientist creates a pill that makes people remember their happiest memory, and although it's successful, it has unfortunate side effects.

An elderly woman battles horrifying circumstances designed by her deteriorating mind - and in her darkest hours, flickers of her true self shine through.

A Codco documentary turned improvised drama about a woman named Dolly who, fed up with taking care of a group of ungrateful layabouts, runs away. The story is intercut with footage from another Codco project called "Borkin the Spineless Servant."

Beat Down is an irreverent comedy about wrestling, family and following your dreams no matter how painful that can sometimes be. Fran Whiteway (Marthe Bernard, Republic of Doyle) is eighteen and a real firecracker. More than anything, Fran dreams of becoming a professional wrestler. Her single-father Whitey (Robb Wells, Trailer Park Boys) is a former-pro, aka White Lightning, with broken dreams of his own and is dead set against Fran wrestling. Fran is determined though and when Whitey's old rival Dark Thunder (Tony Nappo, Saw II) comes to town, she runs away to join his tour. Whitey is devastated and while he tries to get his daughter back, Fran learns the ropes of the wrestling game and of life itself.

Commissioned by the Toronto International Film Festival to mark the event's 25th anniversary in September 2000, the "Preludes" program consisted of ten short films by Canadian directors which were inspired in some way by the festival. Each film screened as a prelude to a feature film in the 2000 Toronto International Film Festival program. The full "Preludes" anthology was screened on the web in November 2000, and was given theatrical retrospectives at the TIFF Lightbox in the subsequent years.

In this chilling, atmospheric thriller, Katelyn (Lindy Booth) seeks answers about the brutal murder that claimed her mother's life 20 years ago in the lighthouse where they lived, a crime for which her grief-and-guilt-crazed father has long held the blame. When developers descend on the abandoned lighthouse and begin to vanish mysteriously, Katelyn comes face-to-face with the evil haunts the family's former abode.

The story of Ruby, 13, determined to grow up fast after her mother runs away to become a movie star, leaving Ruby with her hopelessly rural father.

In 1947 Whitbourne, Newfoundland, Alan Hepditch, a by-the-books but squeamish and somewhat dimwitted criminologist is constantly being tormented by his fellow ranger candidates and his sergeant, Bill O'Mara. Before Hepditch can quit, O'Mara, as a sort of punishment, assigns him to his first posting at Swyer's Harbour, where five sheep mutilations have taken place over the past year. When he arrives in Swyer's Harbour, Hepditch has a more serious crime to investigate, that of the murder of a local, mentally slow woman named Tryphenia Maud Pottle, better known to the locals as Young Triffie.

A tribute to Canadian comedy icon Tommy Sexton (1957-1993). A founding member of the Newfoundland comedy troupe CODCO Tommy died of complications from AIDS on December 13, 1993.

The story of an endangered Newfoundland community and the struggles of one man determined to resist its extinction.

A nature documentary about the wild Nuns of Newfoundland-- Originated as a "filmeo" to be performed live by Codco, but eventually overdubbed with audio and released as a short film.

When James Downey returns home to Newfoundland for his mother’s funeral, he is faced with all the haunting family issues he thought he had left behind. He channeled his own inner demons from an abusive father into being a police officer but his cousin Danny’s childhood trauma has exploded into a cycle of drugs, crime and violence. James must confront his tortured past, decide who he really is, and deal with his cousin before it’s too late.

Faustus is a clerk in St. John's at the Newfoundland Department of Education. He dreams of becoming ruler of Newfoundland and seceding from Canada. In the real world, Faustus' boss Eddie Peddle plans to indoctrinate the citizenry of Newfoundland with a cult-like geometric theory known as Total Education, but Peddle may be foiled by the revelation of a secret from his past career.

When a marriage is threatened by a long excursion for work, domestic trouble is buffeted by family and friends.

In Newfoundland, an unemployed minibike rider enters a minibike competition to win back his girlfriend.

In this Christmas drama, a boy and his family discover he is an elf.

The Untold Story of the Suffragists of Newfoundland (1999) is a docu-drama celebrating the thirty year struggle by the women of Newfoundland to win the right to vote.

Lily Belle (Renée Hackett) enters the Last Love Letter contest at the post office and a co-worker Ephram Amore (Andy Jones) catches her tampering with the mail to change her luck and find true love.

This is the story of The Adventure of Faustus Bidgood, a surreal comedy about a lowly bureaucrat and his fantasies of becoming president of an independent Newfoundland, that was released in 1986. A cult classic in Canadian cinema, the film is well known for the marathon it took to even get made. Principal photography on the film began eight years earlier, in 1978. Written and directed by comedy legend Andy Jones and his brother, Mike Jones, the movie was made on a shoestring budget, is packed with familiar faces and helped pave the way for Newfoundland and Labrador's vibrant film industry. And it was the first film ever both filmed and produced, from start to finish, in Newfoundland.

St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, is North America's most easterly landfall. For half a millennium, its perfect harbour has provided a safe refuge in the middle of the treacherous North Atlantic. For 300 years of its history it was an actual crime to try and settle--Newfoundland was the private preserve of British fishing merchants. But people stayed, despite the colonial masters, despite the lack of law and order, despite hellish weather and raging seas. And the city grew--lurching through centuries of crisis, disaster, privation. For filmmaker Rosemary House, "This is still a hard rock land, a dirty old town at the back of beyond. And yet the St. John's townie is so proud, you'd swear we lived in Paris." In this documentary, she explores her city with the help of six locals, Mary Walsh, Andy Jones, Anita Best, Brian Hennessey, Ed Riche, Des Walsh, writers and performers all. (Source: National Film Board)

Joanna, recently divorced, decided to return with her daughter to the town where she was born. There, she confronts the memories of the past when he meets his former lover, now married.

To resupply the protoblood that sustains Kai's life, the crew of the Lexx travel back to the Cluster but find the planet deserted. The population was killed in "The Cleansing", in preparation of the birth of the Giga Shadow, the last survivor of the insect wars and sworn enemy of humanity. The crew try to destroy the Giga Shadow with the help of Yottskry (played by guest star Malcolm McDowell), a defecting priest of the Divine Order.

A graduate history student returns to her native Newfoundland, searching for proof of a conspiracy surrounding the referendum that saw Newfoundland join Canada.

Luke has been veering between panic and numbness ever since losing his wife to Thyroid cancer. In a last-ditch effort to feel something, anything, he attends a bereavement counseling meeting at a nearby outreach center. There, he sparks a debate and a series of flashbacks that examine relationships, love, and anger.

A Canadian take on The Player.

This award winning miniseries traces the difficult passage of young Mary Keane (Aoife McMahon) from servitude in Ireland to the squalor of rough-and-tumble Newfoundland in the early 1800s. Escaping attempted rape and abuse, Mary moves on with her infant daughter to find shelter at a remote fishing station run by Thomas Hutchings (Colm Meaney). In a time and place where life and death are a hair's breadth apart, Mary joins the community's struggle for survival against sickness and starvation. All of the Cape's people are fugitives of one kind or another, but by pulling together through hardships and tragedies, they forge a new life of hope - and even love.

Henry lives alone growing rhubarb in the dark when his friend Emmanuel arrives to collect the harvest. Together, they tentatively explore the boundaries of their relationship community spaces in a tender and touching film about loneliness and longing.

As the new millennium approaches, God considers pulling the plug on the planet unless St. John the Baptist finds a reason to spare humanity. John travels to the Newfoundland city that bears his name where he becomes entangled in the lives of talk-show host Marietta, her husband Rick. (Toronto International Film Festival)

"Keeping Up with Cathy Jones" is a biographical romp through the life and times of this outrageously funny lady of stage, screen and television. From the first celluloid glimpses of "CATHY AT 16", "THIS HOUR HAS 22 MINUTES", her one woman shows and stand-up routines to interview clips with Cathy, her family and friends, this is a highly charged bio-pic; a salute to Newfoundland's comic genius."

A depressed man learns that fortune comes in many forms, and at any moment it can slam into you like a speeding car. Or in this case, an SUV.

Mary recounts to her daughter Eva the childhood story of when Mary and her father fell through the ice on a frozen pond.

Two teenage boys escape an unhappy home, embarking on a perilous journey of self-discovery that takes them deep into the Newfoundland wilderness.

A woman (Lois Brown) who thinks money will solve her problems enlists the help of a homeless friend (Barry Newhook) to rob a bingo hall.

A short drama that takes a humourous look at the consumer society.

Mike Jones and his siblings Andy and Cathy travel by helicopter from rural Newfoundland to a gala to make speeches congratulating TIFF on its anniversary.