Jeff Campagna

Jeffrey Michael Campagna (born November 3, 1982) (no connection to American film producer, writer, and attorney Jeffrey H. Campagna) is a Canadian film and music video director and screenwriter. He is best known for his film Six Reasons Why.

Background

Born and raised in Mississauga, Campagna was a mediocre high school student and achieved lower than average grades.^[2] He was known to convince his teachers to let him produce short 'subject specific' films instead of writing essays and reports. After high school, Campagna began his career as a professional chef working in upscale restaurants, country clubs and health management clinics in Toronto. After some unsuccessful attempts at becoming a television cooking personality he began pursuing a career in the film and entertainment industry.

Career

Film

Campagna's film career began with Roots Of A Man, a feature length dramatic documentary shot largely in Ireland. Roots Of A Man marked the first film collaboration with his brother, Matt Campagna and screened in international film festivals including Foyle Film Festival, Gloria Film Festival and Barrie Film Festival.^[3]

Using the attention garnered from Roots Of A Man, Campagna, along with his brother, Matt Campagna, would write, direct, edit and produce the post-apocalyptic spaghetti western Six Reasons Why starring Colm Feore. The film, made on a shoestring budget of $12,000 was purchased in a quarter million dollar bidding war by THINKFilm for North American distribution after the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival and was released in theaters and on DVD in August 2008.^[4] The film was not however a selection of the film festival. It took the brothers almost a full year after principal photography to get Colm Feore to agree to act in the picture after a chance meeting between Colm Feore and Campagna in 2005 at Toronto International Airport. Six Reasons Why had mixed reviews online due to its somewhat art house tone.

In 2009 Campagna was brought on as a story editor, co-writer and associate producer on Shark City, a gangster/poker comedy starring Corey Haim, Vivica A. Fox and Carlo Rota. The company behind Shark City, Stardust Pictures, then hired Campagna as screenwriter on the romantic comedy Boy Toy.

Campagna teamed up with his brother again in 2009 on Roll The Hard Six another post-apocalyptic spaghetti western and the follow-up to Six Reasons Why.

Music videos

Campagna made his music video directorial debut with the song 'The First Time' or 'Pershyj Raz' by Ukrainian rock band Klooch. The budget for the entire video was $1,200 and, in January 2008, it charted at #9 on the MTV Rock Video Charts in Eastern Europe. Campagna then collaborated with Klooch once again for their North American single 'Beautiful'. Again, the video was a lowbudget production costing $3000 and would chart for multiple weeks on Much More Music's Top Ten peaking at #6.

Film Festival Founder

In July 2008, Campagna and his brother founded and hosted the 2008 Mississauga Independent Film Festival in Mississauga, Ontario.^[5] The festival showcases strictly Canadian independent film and video. In the 2008 year the winner for the best feature film went to Matt Bissonette's Who Loves the Sun,^[6] and in the 2009 year, Dean Bajramovic's Gangster Exchange.^[7]

ZOUCH Magazine

On September 30, 2010, Campagna launched "ZOUCH Magazine and Miscellany" with his co-founder, fellow Canadian artist SWAiL.

References

External links

• Official website
• Jeff Campagna at the Internet Movie Database
• Mississauga Independent Film Festival
• ZOUCH Magazine & Miscellany