FILM WORK

Janisse’s filmmaking practice grew organically out of her work in film programming and distribution. From 2005-2010 she made a series of unofficial music documentaries for programming at her weekly “Music Monday” slot at the original Alamo Drafthouse Cinema and later programs in Winnipeg and Montreal. These were referred to by video artist Hope Peterson as “bibliodocs,” as they featured exclusively pre-existing footage with contextual intertitles or voiceover narration. Such “bibliodocs” included Bubblegum Music is the Naked Truth! (2005) based on the book by Kim Cooper and David Smay, My Autumn’s Done Come: The Lee Hazlewood Story (2006, for which Lee Hazlewood personally threatened Janisse with a lawsuit), Teen Routines: The Self-Made Magic of R. Stevie Moore (2010) and more.

Janisse was a producer on Mike Malloy’s feature documentary Eurocrime: the Italian Cop and Gangster Films That Ruled the ’70s (2012), Sean Hogan’s short horror films We Always Find Ourselves in the Sea (2017) and To Fire You Come at Last (2022), Mike McKinlay’s short documentary Tights Worship: The Processes of The Rita (2019) and David Gregory’s Tales of the Uncanny (2021), and Theatre of Horrors: The Sordid Story of Paris’ Grand Guignol (2025).

In 2017 she began working with Severin Films as an editor and producer for their special features. This collaboration led to Janisse’s first feature as director/producer, Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror, which went on to premiere at SXSW where it won the Midnighters Audience Award, in addition to winning a Fangoria Chainsaw Award and many other accolades. She is currently working on her second documentary feature for Severin Films, an adaptation of David Kerekes and David Slater’s groundbreaking 1994 book Killing for Culture.

An avowed Nilsson fan, Janisse participated in the restoration and re-release of Harry Nilsson’s 1971 animated TV movie The Point, providing and scanning her personal 16mm film print and producing several of the bonus features for the 2020 MVD blu ray release.

In 2020/2021 Janisse embarked on three collaborations as a writer with photographer Nick Knight, creating the fashion films S.W.A.L.K. and S.W.A.L.K. II for designer John Galliano and Maison Margiela for their 2020 Artisinal and Ready-to-Wear collections, and A Folk Horror Tale for the 2021 Artisinal.

Photo above: The Occupant of the Room (2025) – photo by Jordy Clarke