Noam Gonick RCA (born in 1973 in Winnipeg, Manitoba) is a Canadian film director, screenwriter and artist.
The son of radical Marxist and former Manitoba MLA Cy Gonick, Noam supplemented his formal film education by studying directors Guy Maddin and Bruce LaBruce. His survey of Maddin's life and work became the documentary Waiting for Twilight (1998), narrated by Tom Waits. His interest in LaBruce resulted in the book Ride, Queer, Ride!
Gonick's first short, 1919 (1997), was a retelling of the Winnipeg General Strike seen through the window of a Chinese bathhouse/barbershop. The film posits a more positive, albeit historically inaccurate, outcome to the famous labour uprising.
Hey, Happy!, Gonick's first feature film, is an astro-camp epic set in the Winnipeg rave scene on the eve of an apocalyptic flood. The film's world premiere was at the Sundance Film Festival in 2001.
Stryker (2004) is a gang war flick with a Native power message. The film was shot by cinematographer Ed Lachman (Far From Heaven, Ken Park). Stryker premiered at the 61st Venice Film Festival.
Wildflowers of Manitoba (2007) is a film installation made in collaboration with Luis Jacob. It has exhibited at the Montreal Bienalle, and the Toronto and Berlin International Film Festival and was purchased by the UBC Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery.
Gonick has produced for Anishinaabe performance artist Rebecca Belmore, including her installation Fountain for the Canadian Pavilion of the Venice Biennale and her latest work: March 5th, 1819.
He recently created the television comedy pilot Retail and is working on a slate of upcoming art, film and TV projects.
In June 2007, Gonick was elected into the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (RCA).[1]
He is President of the Board of Directors of the Plug In Institute of Contemporary Arts