ABOUT

BIOGRAPHY

John Seongho Choi 최성호 (he/ him/ his)

John Seongho Choi is a Canadian -South Korean filmmaker. Beginning his career after graduating in Fine Arts at York University (Toronto), John moved straight to New York City in 1992. He picked up work as a stills photographer assistant working with photographers including TV fashion director Ken Nahoum. The responsibilities included photo and film shoots for tv commercial productions and allowed John’s first introduction to a film set. From that point shifting gears towards the motion picture film industry, he worked at the ARRI Motion Picture Company NYC equipment rental house Camera Service Department at the original location on W 54th Street. Learning the technical side of film equipment and films cameras, he later pursued a film crew freelance career as a camera assistant/focus puller and quickly joined I.A.T.S.E. Local 644 East Coast Camera Union in 1996. As the union merged into Local 600 The International Cinematographers Guild, John was hired on films productions in NYC and abroad including “Godzilla”, “In Dreams”, “54”, “The Bone Collector”, “28 Days”, “Hurricane”, “The Out Of Towners” and “O Brother Where Art Thou?”. The film community in New York provided opportunities to work alongside legendary crews people including focus puller Andy Harris & Adam Gilmore, Gilbert & Rudy Salas and right up the ladder to Directors of Photography Roger Deakins CBE, John Bailey ASC, Michael Ballhaus BSC ASC, Darius Khondji AFC ASC, Dean Semler AM. and Phil Abraham. In commercials, most of John’s work was seen globe-trotting beside directors and dop’s Max Malkin, Michael Hausmann, Jeff Preiss, Josh Taft, Doug Nichol, Jake Scott, Joe Zizzo, Jim Bartolomeo and Chris Soos. Eventually, John was signed to the L.A. artists representation The Skouras Agency in 2004 as Director of Photography.

John moved back to Toronto in 2005 and collaborated on numerous music videos for bands MSTRKRFT, Cadence Weapon, Sloan, Metric, Blue Rodeo, Jim Cuddy, Kathleen Edwards, Great Lake Swimmers, Lights, Wintersleep, and many more. John segued into directing television and factual true crime series including Discovery I.D. “MOTIVES & MURDER”, A&E Original six-part series “THE ELEVEN” (awarded the 2018 CSC Award for Best DocuSeries) and Netflix Originals “THE RAINCOAT KILLER”. More recent projects completed are “K-POP EVOLUTION” for YouTube Originals and new CRAVE/ VICE series “DARK SIDE OF COMEDY” season 1 & 2.

John founded Playground Films 2006. He released his first feature documentary film “LOST & FOUND”. As part of the coveted Hot Docs Film Festival “The Forum” (2013) and recipient of the Rogers Documentary Fund, the project was co-produced by Shaw Media, NHK Japan, SBS Australia now streaming on CBC Gem. The film captures stories about beachcombers finding tsunami debris washing up on shore in North America from the 2011 Japan Tōhoku Earthquake and Tsunami disaster. John directed CBC POV “SPACEMAN” feature documentary film which delves into the sub-cult story of Canada’s west coast Vancouver Island UFO phenomenons. Grainger Taylor was a mechanical genius who disappeared after leaving a note to his parents that he would return after a 42-month interstellar journey.

John Seongho Choi is a critical thinker who believes in the ability for film to impact positive societal change. He is an advocate for equality, diversity and inclusion, and works to advance the careers of new, emerging film directors through mentorship and guidance in helping them to hone their craft. He is a member of the Directors Guild of Canada (DGC) and his advocacy work includes the Hot Docs/Netflix Accelerator Program as a mentor working with emerging fellows. He was also selected to contribute to the 2022 Creative Producers Accelerator Think Tank (CPATT) responsible for creating a federal report to surface systemic discrimination witnessed in marginalized BIPOC & disabled groups in the film industry. John was also recently guest panel and juror for the 2022 DMZ Industry Docs Film Festival and juror for 2022 Tokyo Docs Documentary Film Festival. John is currently working as the Creative Producer for Hot Doc’s 2023 Festival feature film “CITIZEN MINUTES season 2”.