Accession 2004-24 - Brian Stockton

Brian Stockton was born in North Battleford in 1964 and grew up in Regina, Saskatchewan. He began his media career as a broadcaster with CKCK Radio in Regina and in 1984 was hired by Ron MacLean, then program director at CKRD Radio in Red Deer, Alberta.

After his time in Red Deer, Brian returned to Regina and attended the University of Regina where he obtained a bachelor’s degree in film and Video studying under Professor Jean (Hans) Oser, a key figure in the early sound cinema of Europe. As a student at York University, Brian earned an MFA in film production and was a director resident at Norman Jewison’s Canadian Film Centre. While at the CFC he wrote and directed the “The Weight of the World” in 1994, which was a multi-award winning short film that screened at numerous international festivals and was aired on the Sci-Fi Channel in the United States.

Stockton has created a number of short films: notably the animated short film The Blob Thing, which spawned numerous short sequels that have been shown on television and at festivals around the world. Brian worked with his grandmother on the short film The Final Gift (1990), which was recognized as one of the ten best short films at the Ann Arbor Film Festival by Los Angeles Film Forum.

Stockton has also worked on a series of autobiographical short films The Epic Story of My Life, which have premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. This series includes Saskatchewan and Saskatchewan Part 2 (That’s My Wonderful Town), which won the grand jury prize for best documentary at the Temecula Valley Film Festival in California.

Stockton moved back to Regina after living in Toronto for nine years. He has taught filmmaking at workshops across Canada and was an innovative instructor at the University of Regina. Brian was invited to screen a program of his short films at the Idaho International Film Festival, where he created the Instant Animation Workshop. Participants of this workshop wrote, prepared, and shot a stop-motion animated film in one afternoon. He retired from the University of Regina film department as an Associate Professor in 2022. Brian Stockton is currently the co-host of The Clean Energy Show podcast, which began in 2020 and has been releasing weekly episodes since then.