Early years

Among Poliquin's first directorial projects was the short film "Inside Charlie," released in 2007. The film, which he co-wrote, followed the story of a photographer seeking to take a picture to save his career.^[7] At the 2008 Calgary International Film Festival it was nominated for both "Best New Film" and "Audience Favorite."

Music videos

By 2010 Poliquin was active in directing music videos for artists, many signed to major labels in Canada. Among the bands he has worked with are Hey Ocean!, Tim Chaisson, Hedley, Finger Eleven, My Darkest Days, Mother Mother, Arkells, Theory of a Deadman, The Trews, Small Sins, The New Cities, Paper Lions, illScarlett, The Latency, Brock Zanrosso, Victoria Duffield, State of Shock, and Gary Beals. Poliquin was nominated for his first major music video award in 2010, when "A Song About California" by Hey Ocean! was nominated for "Best New Video" at the Leo Awards. His music video work has since been nominated for awards at the Juno Awards,^[1] the MuchMusic Video Awards,^[2] the East Coast Music Association Awards,^[3] and the PEI Music Awards.

In 2010, Tim Chaisson's band filmed their first music video for "Broken Hearted Beat" in Toronto with Poliquin. The video was released in May 2010 on CMT and also made it to the #1 spot on Much More Music’s Top 10. Immediately following the video’s release, its single was released and made it to #1 on the East Coast Countdown. The music video for "Slippin’ Away", also directed by Poliquin, was released in October 2010. It reached #8 on the Much More Music Top 20 Countdown. Also in 2010, the band Paper Lions had the Poliquin-directed video for their single "Lost the War" nominated for a 2010 CBC Radio 3 Bucky Award.^[9]

John JP Poliquin has appeared on-air several times on MuchMusic's television program New.Music.Live,^[4] sitting on an expert panel to discuss industry music videos and adding entries to their official blog.^[5] In January 2012, his music video for Light Organ Records artist Adaline "The Noise" premiered exclusively with Andy Warhol's Interview Magazine.^[10]

Film and television

From 2010 to 2012 he directed segments for The Next Star, a series aired on the youth-oriented Canadian television network YTV.

In 2012, Poliquin directed the found-footage horror film Grave Encounters 2, the sequel to the 2011 cult hit Grave Encounters, which is his first film as director.^[11] Written and produced by the Canadian filmmaker duo The Vicious Brothers, the film follows a film student investigating the found footage from the sequel. The film received mixed reviews, but like its predecessor, many were largely positive, particularly concerning Poliquin's directorship. According to Dread Central, "if you look at just the first two acts, it is one of the most smartly written... and directed movies this reviewer has seen all year. At the helm is John Poliquin, and he takes the events of the first film and builds upon them in the most clever of ways. Poliquin's direction is beyond spot on, and he and the Vicious Brothers collectively managed to deliver an almost perfect sequel to Grave Encounters."^[12]

In 2020, Poliquin co-wrote the horror film Room 203, based on the novel of the same name by Japanese writer Nanami Kamon. The film's worldwide sales rights were subsequently acquired by Voltage Pictures, with the domestic distribution rights acquired by Vertical Entertainment.^[6][13]

Films

Television

Music videos