After discovering a love of dramaturgy and storytelling at his Northern Ontario high school, J.L. studied Film Production at Ryerson Polytechnic University’s School of Image Arts in Toronto where he wrote, directed and edited many dramatic and experimental short films. Since graduating with his Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2000, he has worked predominantly as a freelance picture editor in Toronto, on documentaries, dramatic films and music videos. During this time, he was the resident picture editor at Shadow Shows for director Bruce McDonald, and his apprenticeship included working on various shorts and features. Early highlights included editing and co-directing with McDonald on 'The Life and Times of Robbie Robertson' for CBC, and editing the infamous mock-umentary 'Claire's Hat – The Unmaking of a Film', starring Juliette Lewis, Gina Gershon and Mickey Rourke.
In 2006, Munce was the lead editor on ‘The Tracey Fragments’ starring Ellen Page, which played at the MoMA in New York in March, 2008 as part of the ‘Canadian Front’. The film was nominated for a Genie, for best achievement in editing, and at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2007, Munce’s efforts as Editor and Conceptual Designer were recognized by the Manfred Salzgeber Award for Innovation. In 2008 he edited McDonald’s critically acclaimed feature, ‘Pontypool’, starring Steven McHattie.
Recent highlights include editing ‘Water On The Table’, an ecological plea and portrait of water-warrior, Maude Barlow which won best feature documentary at 2010’s Planet in Focus Festival in Toronto and was nominated for Best Socio-Political Documentary at 2010’s Gemini awards (The Donald Brittain Award), and the screen adaptation of 'Irvine Welsh’s Ecstasy’, starring Kristen Kreuk, Billy Boyd, and Adam Sinclair.
Directorially speaking, Munce’s ‘The Alma Drawings’, won the award for Best Direction of a Short to Mid-Length Documentary at the Hot Docs Festival in 2005. It has gone on to be broadcast on The Documentary Channel, Discovery, TVO and Vision TV. Most recently, he co-wrote, co-directed and edited a short film with Toronto and Ontario Arts Council grants, ‘When I Was Young And In My Prime’.
Presently, J.L. is co-writing and developing two feature-length dramatic films, ‘The Red Road’, and ‘What Rough Beast’. He continues to take on innovative short format work as a director-editor through the commercial house ‘Scout Media’ (scoutmedia.ca). Munce is also completing editing with Peter Mettler on a multi-frame film documenting a Richie Hawtin show in Detroit.
J.L. Munce
Filmmaker. Director. Editor.