James Cohen
In 1999, James Cohen joined Saturday Night Live Films after calling Lorne Michaels' office twenty five times before his call was returned. Lorne Michaels agreed to meet Cohen an hour before Chris Farley's last public appearance on Saturday Night Live. Michaels told Cohen that he reminded him of himself thirty years ago, and hired him on the spot. One year later, Cohen was in New York working for Broadway Video, Saturday Night Live Films, and BBN Network. For Broadway Video, James' concept for a reality series about a group of young comedians on the college circuit was produced. Nick DeNinno, current VP, National Lampoons, who worked with Cohen during this period said, "I believe in James as a filmmaker and as a person, and have complete trust in his ability to direct a successful feature film." In New York, Cohen also teamed with Jack Healey, former Director of Amnesty International and the visionary behind the legendary Amnesty International Concert Tour of the 90s, on several media-related human rights projects for the Free Burma Campaign. Mr. Healey describes Cohen as an "honest, forthright person of immense talent and vision." Cohen holds a BA in Film Theory from the University of Western Ontario and a Bachelors of Education from Brock University. In 2006, Cohen worked for a semester as a guest lecturer at Taylor's College in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia where his students produced documentaries on the Holocaust from Muslim perspectives and founded a local student film festival showcasing new voices in Asian cinema. Cohen's work as an educator has also resulted in two other completed film collaborations with students in Toronto. School'd is a docudrama about one day in the life of a teenager gang member created with at-risk high school students at West Toronto Collegiate. Portrait of a Divorce is a documentary about a middle-class family going through a divorce through the perspective of one of the children. It was produced with students with behavioral challenges at the alternative-private school, Freemont Academy. Other projects in recent years include writing, directing and producing a short dramatic film called, Chance, based on a true story of a law student addicted to gambling and producing a segment for Sportsnet TV on the NBA. In the past year and a half, James Cohen wrote and directed, the short film, "The Barber of Kigali". It is played at 7 film festivals around the world. He also wrote and directed a commercial for, Shoeless Joe's restaurant chain. Cohen is set to direct his first feature film, "Know Chance" in early 2009.
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