John Switzer

Movies

Porcupine Lake
Craft Service
During a hot and hazy summertime in northern Ontario, 13-year-old Bea wants a best friend more than anything else, but when she meets boisterous Kate, she gets more than she imagined. A story of bravery, small-town summer love, and the secret world of girls.
I've Heard the Mermaids Singing
Music Coordinator
Awkward, shy and delightfully funny, Polly Vandersma is an "organizationally impaired" temporary assistant who finally gets her first permanent job at the age of 31. While she works for the curator of an art gallery, Polly narrates her own story, sharing the comical and bittersweet pretensions of the art world. At the same time, she reveals a special part of her own private world, taking the viewer to enchanted places in this quiet assault on the notion of authority everywhere.
Passion: A Letter in 16mm
Original Music Composer
The film takes the form of an extremely intimate Letter in 16mm from Anna, normally a documentary filmmaker, to her unidentified lover. From the first 'exquisite ache' of romantic passion to her final drunken and solitary dance with success, Anna struggles with an all-too-prevalent problem in this achievement-oriented age: Is it possible to balance a passion for excellence with a passion for intimacy?Are obsessions mutually exclusive?