Directing

Justin Simms

Justin Simms is a Newfoundland and Labrador filmmaker whose first feature film, Down to the Dirt, received the best Atlantic feature and best screenplay awards at the Atlantic Film Festival. His feature film adaptation Away from Everywhere (2016), based on the Chad Pelley novel of the same name, had its world premiere at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival as part of Telefilm Canada’s Perspectives Canad…

Known For

A House Built on LiesA House Built on Lies · 2026
A House Built on Lies
★ 6.72026
MovieThrillerTV Movie
Inspired by true events. When Daisy's husband is murdered, the news brings on a sudden, traumatic labor. Now, reliant on medication following a complicated birth, Daisy depends on her best friend Louise to help care for her son. But her husband’s death has triggered a strange series of events, and she soon finds herself in danger. Will she be able to uncover the truth in time to save herself and her new baby?
BounceBounce · 2022
Bounce
2022
MovieComedy
When a boy from Darcy's cadet corps insists she attend the Trampoline Social, she sets off for a dramatic evening of self-acceptance and sweet backflips.
Behind the Red DoorBehind the Red Door · 2003
Behind the Red Door
★ 5.42003
MovieDramaTV Movie
Natalie, a gifted New York photographer, has a troubled past reflected in her art. When she struggles to make ends meet in the city, her agent, arranges an assignment in Boston for a considerable sum of money. Unable to turn it down in her dire straits, Natalie takes the job -- only to find that her estranged gay brother, Roy, is the employer. Roy wants to mend their broken past, but must convince her to stay long enough to do so.
BedlamerBedlamer · 2024
Bedlamer
2024
MovieDramaHorror
On the shores of a small fishing village lives a lonely settlement of men - capturing and domesticating otherworldly creatures that were never meant to be tamed.
Sing the World BetterSing the World Better · 2026
Sing the World Better
2026
MovieDocumentaryMusic
Chronicles ten weeks with Lauda - a pioneering youth ensemble within the internationally renowned Shallaway Youth Choir, one of only a handful of choirs in the world to embrace all neurotypes. As the choristers prepare for their end of season concert, they reveal the joyful harmony they’ve found together while navigating a world not always tuned to their rhythm.
CaseyCasey · 2017
Casey
2017
MovieDrama
Casey's mother ensures her daughter receives the education, protection, and loving care little girls need. But an altercation with some local schoolgirls reveals that Casey's life is based on a lie.
Becoming LabradorBecoming Labrador · 2019
Becoming Labrador
2019
MovieDocumentary
In the stark Labrador interior, a growing number of Filipino workers have recently landed in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, travelling halfway around the world for jobs they hope will offer their families new opportunities and a better life. Becoming Labrador follows a handful of them as they make a place for themselves in Labrador while dealing with the unexpected costs of living far from their family.
Rick Mercer: 'Take Action' FiguresRick Mercer: 'Take Action' Figures · 2019
Rick Mercer: 'Take Action' Figures
2019
MovieDocumentary
While gift shopping at an "enlightened" toy store, a mother and son are out of luck finding the latest Spider-Man and Transformers toys-because all this eccentric shopkeeper proudly sells are Rick Mercer-themed toys that are meant to inspire the next generation of Canadian youth.

Filmography

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Love, ScottLove, Scott · 2018
Love, Scott
★ 6.22018
MovieDocumentary
One fateful night, after leaving a bar in his home town of Nova Scotia, musician Scott Jones was subjected to a vicious and targeted attack which left him paralysed and in a wheelchair. Despite Scott knowing that this was a homophobic hate crime, the assault was not treated as such in the courts, or by the media. As Scott rebuilds his life, he is forced to make sense of the way the incident was handled while also struggling to make peace with his attacker. Taking place across the three years following this life-changing ordeal, close friend and filmmaker Laura Marie Wayne gracefully charts the impact of the attack on Scott’s life, both physically and mentally. The resulting documentary is a tender, heartbreaking and inspiring testament to one man’s strength and resilience.

Story Editor

SeguridadSeguridad · 2024
Seguridad
★ 10.02024
MovieDocumentary
In her feature documentary Seguridad, Newfoundland-based filmmaker Tamara Segura—once named “Cuba’s youngest soldier” in a militia publicity stunt—portrays her troubled relationship with her father in the context of the Cuban Revolution. When Segura accepts a scholarship to study film in Canada, the move offers crucial distance from her alcoholic father. After four years, she returns to Cuba hoping to make amends. But her father’s sudden death just days after her arrival forces Segura to explore his troubled past and the role Cuba’s highly militarized system played in his downfall. Through a series of deeply personal on-camera interviews with her immediate family, Segura unearths long-held secrets that ultimately tell a story of resilience and profound love between family members. Seguridad artfully weaves a lifetime’s worth of still photographs into its intimate narrative, which offers a rare glimpse into the inner lives of Cubans in the post-revolutionary era.

Cinematography

SwallowedSwallowed · 2002
Swallowed
2002
MovieDrama
Swallowed is a fictional story that spans the life of Mike Seaward, a fisherman in outport Newfoundland, Canada. An unemployed fisherman, he reflects back to his younger days when he loved and respected the sea. We follow Mike from his days as a young man in a community thriving on the ocean and it's great resources, to the current day, where most of the community has left due to the decline in fishing stocks, in search of a better more stable life. Mike is struggling with the thought that there is no future for him, not only in the virtually deserted community, but anywhere else. He must make a decision either to follow the rest of the community and accept government offers of relocation and re-education, or to follow his own family and be at peace with himself.

Production Manager