Jan Cannon Films Home

Jan Cannon began his film career in South Florida in the early 1970s working on feature, commercial, documentary and industrial films. His primary experience was as a cameraperson and editor.

In 1981 he moved to Boston, where he worked for several years as a video editor at Cinemagraphics/Video One and WGBH.

While in Boston he discovered pottery and left filmmaking to become a studio artist for the next twenty years (www.jancannonpottery.com). During that period he studied ceramics at the Radcliffe Pottery Studio in Somerville, MA, and traveled extensively throughout Asia studying ceramics in China, Korea, Japan and Thailand. He was an artist-in-residence in Calhoun College at Yale University and director of the ceramics program at Creative Arts Workshop in New Haven, Connecticut. In 1993 he established his pottery studio in Charlotte, Vermont. He has served on the board of directors for the Vermont Crafts Council, The Ferrisburgh Artisan’s Guild and the Shelburne Art Center.

In 2005, having become interested in sustainability issues, Cannon decided to return to making films. Vermont had many groups and individuals promoting ideas about sustainable living and he felt it was important that those voices be recorded. Observing that many people still didn’t understand the challenges posed by over-consumption, climate change and peak oil, he decided that he wanted to be more actively involved in working for positive change in the world, especially by using film to educate and promote ideas of sustainable living.

When Cannon returned to filmmaking, he still had the sensibility of a studio artist. During the time he had been away from filmmaking the technology had changed radically and he was now able to work completely independently in what was traditionally one of the most collaborative of mediums. Working independently allowed him to maintain a low profile and achieve an intimacy on his projects that would otherwise be unachievable with a larger, more traditional filmmaking approach. As a studio artist the expression of beauty was always the primary aim of his work; and it remains so in his work as a filmmaker.

Link to June 28, 2007 Charlotte News profile

JAN CANNON FILMS