Jo Meuris

Born in Barbados in 1975 to a Chinese-Trinidadian mother and a Dutch-Canadian father, Jo Meuris was raised in Montreal, where she began animating at the age of six. After having completed her Bachelor of Arts studies in animation at the University of Concordia in 2000, Jo Meuris worked as an animator at the NFB.She is currently pursuing her MFA in animation at UCLA's prestigious School of Film and Television, where she hopes to expand on her skills in animation and filmmaking.

Jo Meuris has directed Christopher, Please Clean Up Your Room!, Lights for Gita, I Want a Dog and participated in the project Animation Hothouse in which she directed a short animation, An Aqueous Solution. Her short animation, The Girl Who Hated Books is a story of a little girl Meena who does not like to read. In fact, she hates anything to do with books and reading. This worries her parents, who love books, to the point of being able to read three at a time. One day while searching for her kitten Max, Meena is introduced to the magical worlds within books, and nothing, as they say, is the same after that. As part of the second series of NFB's Talespinners, this animation is based on a book by Manjusha Pawagi.

I am most concerned with the positive representation and promotion of smart, powerful, and resourceful female characters, who are able to transform the world around them. I am equally interested in producing work that is simple and readable (but not uncomplex), which entertains while effectively communicating emotion and challenging new ideas. In film, the simplest stories can serve as powerful allegories for the most profound human experiences, and sometimes delivery is all that is needed to elevate a text beyond its simplicity. With these elements, I hope to use film to educate and tackle serious social issues by provoking discussion and challenging others to think differently.

Jo Meuris

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