Jason Figgis

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Jason Figgis is an Irish^[1] film director.

Early life, family and education[]

Jason was born in Ranelagh, Dublin and attended St. Mary’s College in Rathmines. He has three brothers; two older - Peter and Daniel and one younger, Jonathan.

He attended Ballyfermot Senior College in Dublin to study art and was soon working for Murakami-Wolf Animation Studios on the celebrated cult TV series Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He went on to work for Steven Spielberg at his London based Amblimation Studios on the feature classic An American Tail 2: Fievel Goes West and for legendary animator, Richard Williams at his rooftop studio in Camden, London on the cult classic The Thief and the Cobbler which featured the voice talents of Sean Connery, Vincent Price and Kenneth Williams.

Later, Figgis studied business and worked in communications where he set up his film production company, October Eleven Pictures (with his brother Jonathan who departed the company several years later to pursue other interests).^[2]

Career[]

Figgis directed his first feature film when he was asked to collaborate with the acclaied photographer Sir Simon Marsden on a documentary feature project called The Twilight Hour in 2003.^[3] Oscar nominee John Hurt joined the project as narrator and the IFTA nominated film was almost immediately acquired by the Discovery Network where it was subsequently distributed to 100 countries in 2004. It was later released on Amazon Prime and DVD through the MVD Entertainment Group. Figgis was then invited by BSkyB to join them as a director in late 2004. He was almost immediately assigned a feature project - which was destined to appear in one of their Sky One Sunday 9 pm primetime slots less than four months later. The film was presented by paranormalist Uri Geller under the title Uri's Haunted Cities: Venice.^[4] This was released in January 2005.

Figgis' second assignment for BSkyB saw him direct the Sky Arts feature documentary A Maverick In London ^[5] where he collaborated with Alan Rickman, Joanna Lumley and Richard E. Grant, among others, on a film looking at the history of the celebrated King's Head Theatre in Islington. When the film aired in a primetime slot on Sky Arts One, it was named by Toby Young as one of his favourite documentaries of the year. The film was also distributed on DVD through the National Theatre in 2005.

Figgis was then invited to join the Screen Director's Guild of Ireland in 2006 and through this organisation, he was invited onto a BBC Director Training Programme for Drama in 2008 where he shadowed Game of Thrones director Ciaran Donnelly on the long-running favourite, George Gently, which starred Martin Shaw. Figgis commented that he found this particular training invaluable and gave him unfettered access into every aspect of directing and delivering a major drama.

Figgis was then selected in 2009 for a feature film director training Masterclass with the director Mike Leigh, where Figgis learned the finer arts of the feature film medium.

Figgis was then invited in 2010 to teach acting for camera techniques at the Irish Film Academy at a time where he also founded in 2011 Teen Feature Film Project Ireland and Feature Film Project Ireland in 2014.

Figgis-West[]

In 2018 Figgis was approached by John West, a journalist and broadcaster, about being interviewed for a magazine on the making of his latest documentary, Simon Marsden: A Life in Pictures.^[6] This led to West being invited to promote the documentary and arrange its première at the BFI in London. This, in turn, led to the pair forming a film partnership, Figgis-West. Their first joint production was the haunted house feature, Winifred Meeks starring Lara Belmont.^[7]

Figgis wrote a foreword for Britain's Haunted Heritage (2019) by John West.^[8] He also designed the cover, wrote a foreword and contributed a chapter for West's Britain's Ghostly Heritage which is to be published in 2021.

Filmography[]

2003. The Twilight Hour: Visions of Ireland's Haunted Past (Documentary) - Director/writer.^[9]

2005. Uri's Haunted Cities: Venice (documentary) - Director/writer.^[4]

2006. A Maverick in London: The Story of the King's Head Theatre (documentary) - Director/writer.^{[citation needed]}

2006. A Curious Incident in the Life of Uri Geller - Director/writer.^[10]

2007. Blood - Producer/cinematographer.

2008. Dublin: The Movie (segment “Jo Jo”) - Director/writer.

2010. Once Upon a Time in Dublin (aka 3Crosses) - Director/writer.

2012. A Christmas Carol - Director/Adaptation.

2013. Children of a Darker Dawn - Director/writer.^[11]

2015. The Ecstasy of Isabel Mann - Director/writer.^[12]

2016. Urban Traffik - Director/writer.^[13]

2016. Don't You Recognise Me? - Director/writer.^[14]

2017. Torment - Director.^[15]

2017. Grindsploitation (segment "The Wandering") - Director/writer.

2017. The 12 Slays of Christmas (segment “The Uncommon Mr Goode”) - Director/writer.

2017. Grindsploitation 3: Video Nasty (segment "All the Little Things/Vlad the Impaler") - Director/writer.

2017. Grindsploitation 4 (segment “Hacksaw Jack”) - Director/writer.

2017. Trashsploitation (segment “Isabel/Don’t You”) - Director/writer.

2017. Schlocksploitation (segment "Backroads/Bring Me the Head of Anto Murphy”) - Director/writer.

2017. Gore Theatre (segment “Nouveau Monde/Ethan”) - Director/writer.

2017. Home Movies (segment “The Almost Daily Journal of a Madman”) - Director/writer.

2017. Home Movies 2 (segment “Numbers”) - Director/writer.

2017. Horror Box (segment “The Last Train”) - Director/writer.

2017. 1000 Zombies (segment “In The Beginning”) - Director/writer.

2018. Simon Marsden: A Life in Pictures - Director/writer.^[16]

2018. Schlock-O-Rama (segment “Railway Children Promo") - Director/writer.

2018. Die In 60 Seconds 3 (segment “Bedside Manner/If You Go Down To The Woods/Run Lady Run”) - Director/writer.

2018. Dark Tales (segment “Friends Forever”) - Director/writer.

2018. American Sasquatch (segment "The Grey Man") - Director/writer.^[17]

2018. Grindsploitation 8: Drive-In Grindhouse (segment “Knife”) - Director/writer.

2018. The Haunting of M.R. James - Director.^[18]

2019. Gore Theatre 2 (segment “The Black Widow”) - Director/writer.

2019. Theatre of the Deranged III (segment "In Common") - Director/writer.

2019. Clare Island (short) - Director.^[19]

2019. Faces Of Fear (segment “The Ties That Bind”) - Director/writer.

2019. Midnight In The Mortuary (segment “What The Worst Thing Is”) - Director/writer.

2019. Previews of Coming Attractions (film trailer) - Director/writer.

2019. Trailersploitation (film trailer) - Director/writer.

2020. The Wedding Ring (short) - Director/writer.^[20]

2020. In Our Day (short) - Director/writer.

2020. Mythmaker: George A. Romero (short) - Director/writer.

2020. Dunkirk 80 (short) - Editor/writer.

2020. Winifred Meeks - Director/writer.^[21]

2021. Cold Sun - Director (pre-production).

References[]

External links[]

• Jason Figgis at IMDb
• The Twilight Hour, review of documentary film Twilight Hour - Visions Of Ireland's Haunted Past directed by Jason Figgis on Pop Twist entertainment
• The Twilight Hour - Visions Of Ireland's Haunted Past review and article on Cork Film Festival
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