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Matthew Rankin is a Winnipeg filmmaker who’s known around the world for his cleverly crafted short films.

His most recent film Negativipeg which tells the tale of Rory Lepine, the man who will forever be known as that dude who attacked legendary Guess Who front man Burton Cummings with a beer bottle at a Winnipeg 7-Eleven. The film is produced by Walter Forsberg and premieres at TIFF this year.

Here’s a few interesting facts about Matthew Rankin that you may or may not know!

Matthew is a full-blooded Scotsmen. His parents tried to immerse him in this culture, but Matthew would not conform – he wanted nothing to do with it. This was the one rebellion Matthew afforded himself as a teenager.

When Matthew was a wee lad, he wanted to be a cartoonist. He eventually started an apprenticeship under local animator Patrick Lowe at the old NFB Animation studio.

Matthew is a history buff. He studied history in Québec City, then filmmaking at l’institut national de l’image et du son in Montreal. Then he returned to Winnipeg to work in what he calls ‘ the sub-earthly, sub-human indie realm of the Winnipeg Film Group’, while doing a few creative film jobs in Montreal on the side.

Matthew has dubbed Winnipeg ‘My own personal international capital of cinema.’

He’s taking his career places…literally. Matthew has just started working at Film Training Azerbaijan. Before Azerbaijan, he had previously lived in Iran – specifically Iran’s Azerbaijan Province in its northwest corner, bordering Armenia and the Azeri Republic.

His work has screened at the Canadian Parliament…well ON the Canadian Parliament. Last year, Matthew worked on a “propaganda” film for the Canadian Government. The film is currently being projected on the Parliament Building in Ottawa. Ahh, when Government meets Art: http://www.mosaika-sl.ca/mosaika.asp?lang+en. It was at the premiere of this project that Matthew met some Azeris who became interested in his work.

Click here to read the OSM Article ‘Matthew Rankin’s Negativipeg Hits TIFF’

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