Biografia
James Makichuk was born and raised in Swan River, Manitoba, before relocating to Southern Ontario to attend college in Michigan. He began his career at CKLW-TV in Windsor/Detroit, working as a newswriter, sound technician, and film cameraman, covering Vietnam War protests, presidential visits, and crime stories. During this period, he pursued film studies at Banff, Simon Fraser University, and the University of Detroit. He then joined Global TV as a newscameraman, later moving to Vancouver where, after working as a film editor for BCTV, he co-founded Rocky Mountain Films with Phillip Borsos. Together, they produced two short films, CADILLAC and COOPERAGE, along with several corporate films. Cooperage won the 1976 Genie Award for Best Short and received multiple international accolades, including being a finalist at the 1976 Academy Awards. The duo worked on several unproduced screenplays until Borsos’ untimely death in 1995. In 1976, Makichuk joined Armadale Productions in Regina as a writer, producer, and director, completing numerous commercials and corporate films. The following year, he moved to CFCN in Calgary to produce and direct commercials and corporate films. In 1979, he founded Badland Pictures, and in 1980, he wrote, produced, and directed GHOSTKEEPER, a 35mm suspense thriller distributed by New World Pictures. During the 1980s, he wrote, directed, and edited two television movies, THE TOWER and NIAGARA, for Visual Productions in Toronto. He also penned BETRAYAL OF SILENCE, a courtroom drama about teen abuse, which aired in Canada on CTV and in the US on Lifetime. After moving to Los Angeles in 1990, Makichuk worked extensively in television as a writer and story editor, developing several feature films with companies such as ABC Productions, Sony Pictures, and Leonard Goldberg. In 1998, he wrote two science fiction TV movies for Paramount's UPN network and rewrote five others. He also completed a television pilot script based on an adventure comic book for FFP Productions. Currently, he has projects in development as a writer and director in both British Columbia and Saskatchewan.
