Jennifer Holness

Jennifer Holness is a Canadian film and television producer and screenwriter, who is the business partner of Sudz Sutherland, also her husband, in Hungry Eyes Film & Television.[1] Her production and writing credits include the film Love, Sex and Eating the Bones and the television series Guns, She's the Mayor[1] and Shoot the Messenger.

Jennifer Holness
Jennifer Holness at a CFC event in L.A.
NationalityJamaican
OccupationFilm/TV producer and screenwriter
Known forLove, Sex and Eating the Bones
Guns
She's the Mayor

Holness also directed the documentary film Speakers for the Dead, and produced Catherine Annau's documentary film Brick by Brick.

Biography

Jennifer Holness was born in 1969 in Montego Bay, Jamaica. She moved to Toronto, Canada, at a young age with her mother.[2] She attended York University, where she studied political science. This is also where she met her husband David "Sudz" Sutherland. The two were married after finishing their degrees at York University and have three daughters.

Career

Holness has mentioned that growing up in a housing project helped shape her view of the city and how she crafts her work. The aim of her work has been a steady understanding of the stories that most people do not want to direct; touching subjects about gun violence, homophobia and deportation of immigrants in the city of Toronto.[2] Holness' professional career started with a documentary in which she co-directed, Speakers for the Dead (2000) with her husband, Sutherland. Following the success from Love, Sex And Eating the Bones, Holness produced and co-wrote a miniseries for CBC titled Guns (2009). She then went on to produce a documentary, Badge of Pride (2010), which looked at the struggles that gay police officers faced in the force. Holness went on to produce and co-write another feature film titled Home Again (2012), in which follows Jamaican deportees from Canada. Holness mentions that she obtained the inspiration for this film from a classmate in high school who was deported back to Jamaica- and killed in a shooting. It was in an attempt to challenge the bill C-43 which stated that immigrants with criminal records could be deported back to native countries.[3] Her largest work to date with husband David Sutherland with a production value of over 4 million.[4]

She is currently producing and co-writing a TV crime drama, Shoot the Messenger (2016), a drama that follows a journalist who gets tied up with various third-parties (such as gangs and politicians) while she uncovers her first murder case. The idea is loosely based on the controversies of former Toronto mayor Rob Ford.[3]

Awards and nominations[2]
Year Awards and Nominations
2000 Best Documentary Film (Speakers for the Dead), Black Film and Video Network's Reel Black Award

HBO Award for Best Short Film (My Father’s Hands), Acapulco International Black Film Festival

Best Drama (My Father’s Hands), Yorkton Film Festival, Golden Sheaf Award

Best Director (My Father’s Hands), Yorkton Film Festival, Golden Sheaf Award

2001 Prix Chantal Lapaire (Speakers for the Dead), Vues D’Afrique Film Festival
2003 Best Canadian First Feature Film (Love, Sex, and Eating the Bones), Toronto International Film Festival
2004 Audience Award, Best Feature Film (Love, Sex, and Eating the Bones), American Black Film Festival

Best Feature (Love, Sex, and Eating the Bones), Los Angeles Pan African Film Festival

Audience Award (Love, Sex, and Eating the Bones), Los Angeles Pan African Film Festival

Best Canadian Feature (Love, Sex, and Eating the Bones), Victoria Independent Film + Video Festival

2010 Best Writing (Guns), Canadian Gemini Award
2011 Excellence in Media – Video (Brick by Brick: The Story of the Evergreen Brickworks), Heritage Toronto Awards

Filmography[5]
Year Film
1998 Win/Loss/Tie
1998 I'm a Big Girl
1999 Roadkill Travelogue
1999 Vicious Cycles
1999 My Father's Hands
2001 Bagatelle
2002 Yin yin/Jade Love
2003 Love, Sex and Eating the Bones
2008 Guns
2010 Badge of Pride
2011 She's The Mayor
2011 Brick by Brick
2012 Home Again
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References
  1. "At Home with Jennifer Holness & Sudz Sutherland". Sway, 2011-04-08.
  2. Mullen, Patrick. "Jennifer Holness". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2016-02-29.
  3. Mullen, Patrick. "Jennifer Holness". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2016-03-04.
  4. Crawford, Trish (2012-09-06). "Husband and wife Canadian movie makers, Sudz Sutherland and Jennifer Holness, race to finish their film, Home Again, in time for TIFF". The Toronto Star. ISSN 0319-0781. Retrieved 2016-02-29.
  5. "Jennifer Holness". IMDb. Retrieved 2016-02-29.
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