John McDonald

Producer/Director/Cinematographer, has been a filmmaker for the past 35 years and established his production company, John McDonald Productions Inc., in 1980. The company produced award-winning projects for industry, education and television as a full-service provider, but John now dedicates himself exclusively to making documentaries about subjects he cares about.  He is a member of the Directors Guild of America and the International Documentary Association.  John received a degree in Cinema from USC, where he made Cotton Eyed Joe, a globally recognized documentary that made the Oscar’s shortlist.

Later, he shot the Oscar-nominated short documentary, SQUIRES of San Quentin. His ABC Television documentary, The Youngest Victim, garnered an Emmy.  The feature-length documentary The Ghost Mountain Experiment aired on KQED’s Truly CA series and on the CBC’s national Documentary series, and was featured on an episode of Huell Howser’s California’s Gold. Its festival run included Telluride MountainFilm, Big Sky, Cinequest, MountainFilm (Trento), Sedona, and the international environmental film festivals in Washington, D.C. and Rome.

On The Day, shot in Scotland, Canada, and the U.S., was released theatrically in 53 theatres across Canada, aired on the CBC’s national Bold series in 2011 and is distributed in the U.S. by American Public Television.  In 2015, John completed the feature documentary, Pipes & Sticks on Route 66, which had nationwide theatrical releases in Canada and Scotland. His latest feature-length documentary, Call Me Mule, had its world premiere at the Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival in Greece and is currently showing at film festivals throughout the world.