Peter Lynch

Peter Lynch grew up in the East York area of Toronto where he spent a great deal of time fishing playing hockey and singing in a choir He was turned on to filmmaking by an uncle who obsessively filmed everything but it wasnt until his father took him to see John Fords emStagecoachem that he knew he wanted to make films When he was eleven he saw Stanley Kubricks em2001 A Space Odysseyem and reconfirmed his desire to become a filmmaker Raised on as much pop culture as he was high art from Beatles to Bach from Picasso to Superman comics after high school Lynch spent two years being a ski bum in the Laurentians north of Montral and then spent the next few years as a truck driver and on assembly lines He then went to study Fine Arts at York University and found that he was more interested in anthropology than in most film courses At York he discovered the video revolution Lynch headed off to New York City to become a VJ at various nightclubs including The Mudd Club and Danceteria There he combined images and music together and was amongst the first to show video art He then moved into staging larger multimedia events which would combine music video performance art and fashion One of the most memorable was emKitchen Syncem 1982 a landmark cultural event in Toronto which featured performance art by Eric Bogosian showcased Fab Five Freddy and the Rocksteady Crew and contemporary dance by Trisha Brown Between 19831987 Lynch cofounded coproduced and codirected Video Culture International an international festival which showed the latest in video and the new media expression from around the world This event included a competition conferences exhibitions symposiums installation and multimedia performance eventsbrbrIn the early 1990s Lynch produced and directed a number of music videos which aired on Much Music and MTV He then started to work on short films notably his first dramatic short emArrowheadem for which he received a Genie Award in 1994 In 1996 Lynch made the wildly successful emProject Grizzlyem one of the most acclaimed Canadian documentaries of all time He then cowrote and directed emThe Herdem a historical drama that was filmed in the Arctic Lynchs films have been broadcast and shown in festivals and theatres around the worldbrbrbr