Jon Einarsson Gustafsson was born and raised in Iceland. He started making films in high school with his father’s 8mm camera. While intending to pay his way through a psychology degree at the University of Iceland by hosting weekly radio shows, he soon got offered his own television show, causing him to drop out of university. After a successful two year career in Icelandic television where he hosted over 120 TV shows, he decided to pursue his old film making dreams.
He studied film making in Manchester, England, and Directing for Theatre and Cinema at the California Institute of the Arts, where he was mentored by the late Ealing Studios director Alexander Mckendrick. Gustafsson has directed documentaries for television, theatre productions, short films, television commercials, and music videos. He immigrated to Canada in 1997 when he was offered the chance to direct the documentary „The Importance of Being Icelandic“ for CBC’s RoughCuts series. Since then he has kept busy directing theatre shows, „Brighter Hell“ – a music video for the Canadian rock band The Watchmen, (nominated for the 1999 Prairie Music Awards) and last but not least writing and directing his first feature film „Kanadiana“, financed by Telefilm and Mani
