Filmmaker and professor of film studies

As well as being an experienced documentary filmmaker and accomplished screenwriter, Isabelle Raynauld has been teaching film studies since 1989: First at Concordia University, then at Université de Montréal, where she is a tenured professor in the Art History and Film Studies department. She trains emerging filmmakers and her courses, lectures, workshops and articles all teach and enhance the skills of film artisans, especially in screenwriting. She holds a Ph.D. in comparative literature from Paris VII University.

As a filmmaker, since 1990 she has devised, scripted or directed many film and TV productions. In 1990 she worked on the research and screenplay for Clip-Globe, a five-episode documentary miniseries for the program Nord-Sud at Radio-Québec. She wrote the script for L'hiver apprivoisé as part of the weekly program Comment ça va? at Radio-Canada, which won a Gémeaux award for the 1992-1993 season. In 1995 she scripted five episodes of La Ribambelle, a Radio-Canada youth program. She also scripted Roche, papier, ciseaux, the first of a series of eight shorts entitled Les portes de l'imaginaire, screened in 1995 at the Cinémathèque québécoise as part of the tribute to female filmmakers Les cent ans du cinéma. She worked on the script of the fiction feature Emporte-moi directed by Léa Pool (Best Screenplay Award at the Chicago Film Festival; Ecumenical Jury Prize at Berlin, 1999), and in 2000, she directed Une Blonde pour Anatole, a 25-minute comedy with Andrée Lachapelle. In 2002 she won the Jutra for Best Documentary for Le Minot d'Or, which she conceived, wrote and directed. La balançoire, a short fiction in the NFB's independent cinema program (2004), is also her work. In February 2006, as part of the Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois, she presented Un homme à l'île de Sark, a 52-minute documentary which she also conceived, scripted and directed. She has just completed Histoires de zizis, another 52-minute documentary aired by Radio-Canada.

Alongside the presentation of her most recent film, Mystical Brain, Isabelle Raynauld is working on other film productions in Quebec, Vietnam and Great Britain.