Michael Jones

Directing

Michael Jones

Born — Died

1944-03-28 — 2018-03-04

Place of birth

St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada

Known for

Directing

Credits

22 titles

Michael Jones was a Canadian film director and screenwriter based in Newfoundland, known for his films which depicted the island's culture and humour. He was the sibling of filmmakers Andy and Cathy Jones.

Known for

Dolly Cake poster
NR

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."

Dolly Cake

1976

The Adventure of Faustus Bidgood poster
8.7

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.

The Adventure of Faustus Bidgood

1986

Secret Nation poster
6.0

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

Secret Nation

1992

Preludes poster
NR

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.

Preludes

2000

Westray poster
8.0

In this feature documentary, filmmaker Paul Cowan offers an innovative, moving account of the Westray coal mine disaster that killed 26 men in Nova Scotia on May 9, 1992. The film focuses on the lives of three widows and three miners lucky enough not to be underground that day when the methane and coal dust ignited. But their lives were torn apart by the events. Meet some of the working men, who felt they had no option but to stay on at Westray. And wives, who heard the rumours, saw their men sometimes bloodied from accidents and stood by them, hoping it would all turn out all right. This is a film about working people everywhere whose lives are often entrusted to companies that violate the most fundamental rules of safety and decency in the name of profit.

Westray

2001

The Story of Faustus Bidgood poster
NR

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.

The Story of Faustus Bidgood

2023

Film credits

2000s · 6 titles

Westray poster
8.0

In this feature documentary, filmmaker Paul Cowan offers an innovative, moving account of the Westray coal mine disaster that killed 26 men in Nova Scotia on May 9, 1992. The film focuses on the lives of three widows and three miners lucky enough not to be underground that day when the methane and coal dust ignited. But their lives were torn apart by the events. Meet some of the working men, who felt they had no option but to stay on at Westray. And wives, who heard the rumours, saw their men sometimes bloodied from accidents and stood by them, hoping it would all turn out all right. This is a film about working people everywhere whose lives are often entrusted to companies that violate the most fundamental rules of safety and decency in the name of profit.

Westray

2001

Pegi Nicol: Something Dancing About Her poster
9.0

Something Dancing About Her is an affectionate portrait of Pegi Nicol MacLeod, a charismatic yet relatively unknown painter. Shedding fresh light on her place in Canadian art history, director Michael Ostroff chronicles the life of this remarkable creative spirit who threw herself into painting, left-wing politics and love affairs with equal enthusiasm.

Pegi Nicol: Something Dancing About Her

2004

Buried at Sea poster
NR

This documentary chronicles ocean disposal of surplus World War II chemical weapons by Canada, Germany, Great Britain, the Soviet Union and the United States. Through a well edited combination of interview footage and still photographs this film outlines the serious problem that awaits us now that hundreds of thousands of tons of chemical weapons have been disposed of off our coastlines. The exact location of dumps was not always recorded on navigation charts. Sixty years later, containers that were designed to last for fifty years have started to disintegrate, posing substantial danger to both marine life and coastal communities.

Buried at Sea

2006

White Thunder poster
8.0

A riveting account of the tragic adventure of filmmaker Varick Frissell and his filming of "The Viking" (1931) and the tragic events that befell that adventure into early film-making.

White Thunder

2002

Sweet Pickle poster
NR

After 30 years of salt beef and baloney, the instinctively vegan Isabel hops a bay bus to the city supermarket. But a nosy stock boy, a cashier with his laminated flip book of produce codes could wreak havoc with her newfound confidence.

Sweet Pickle

2009

Congratulations poster
10.0

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.

Congratulations

2000

1990s · 3 titles

Behind the camera

Dolly Cake poster
NR

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."

Dolly Cake

1976

Dolly Cake poster
NR

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."

Dolly Cake

1976

The Adventure of Faustus Bidgood poster
8.7

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.

The Adventure of Faustus Bidgood

1986

The Adventure of Faustus Bidgood poster
8.7

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.

The Adventure of Faustus Bidgood

1986

The Adventure of Faustus Bidgood poster
8.7

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.

The Adventure of Faustus Bidgood

1986

Secret Nation poster
6.0

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

Secret Nation

1992

Preludes poster
NR

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.

Preludes

2000

Sisters of the Silver Scalpel poster
NR

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.

Sisters of the Silver Scalpel

1981

No artwork available
NR

Short film made by Mike Jones about his sister Cathy.

Cathy at 16

—

Congratulations poster
10.0

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.

Congratulations

2000

Congratulations poster
10.0

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.

Congratulations

2000