Jay's biography:
Jay, a former post office truck driver and railroad Carman mechanic, made a career change and decided to pursue filmmaking. After several years, he has continued to work in the industry. His first documentary, "Return to Kandahar", was a feature-length film co-directed with Nelofer Pazira, and follows her return to Afghanistan in search of her childhood friend. The film received positive reviews from critics, including "eye-opening... breathtaking" from Macleans, "wonderful... an astonishing story of the personal and political" from The Globe and Mail, and "shocking, compelling... as suspenseful as any drama" from The Ottawa Citizen.
Jay's other notable works include "Lost in Las Vegas" (2001),a feature-length documentary for A&E, which was praised by critics for being "equal parts hilarious, heroic and heartfelt... often surprising, occasionally inspiring, frequently hilarious... You've got to see this thing to believe it. It's so good." (Rob Salem, The Toronto Star).
He also created the documentary "Hitman Hart: Wrestling with Shadows" (1998),which was screened in 25 major festivals and won over a dozen awards. The film was praised by critics, including "one of the most acclaimed Canadian films in years" (Eye magazine),"A tale as bizarre as Kafka and as tragic as Shakespeare" (Ottawa Citizen),and "one of the best films of 1998" (Peter Plagens, art critic for Newsweek).
Jay is also the creator and executive producer of CBC Newsworld's flagship debate program counterSpin, now in its sixth season of prime time debate about the news of the day. His other work includes "Justice Denied" (Turner),"The Life and Death of Owen Hart" (TVO, A&E),Albanian Journey: End of an Era (TVOntario, CBC Witness),The Birth of Language (TVOntario and Discovery U.S.),and 'Here's to the Cowboy' (CBC, Disney, London Weekend, Central TV).
Jay has also executive-produced several other documentaries, including "Through Thick and Thin" (CBC Newsworld),'Machine Gun' (3x1 Discovery Canada&US),and 'The Famine Within 'TVO). He was the co-creator and co-executive producer of Face Off, a nightly prime time debate program that ran 5 years on CBC Newsworld.
Jay was born and raised in Toronto and has been involved in the Canadian documentary film industry for many years. He is a past chair of the Canadian Independent Film Caucus and the founding chair of Hot Docs!, the Canadian international documentary film festival.
