A Well-Lit Life

Charles sees himself as an actor from a golden age, destined to follow in the footsteps of Bogart and Grant. Charles’ boss sees him as a junior sales associate with special needs that can no longer be accommodated.

A Well-Lit Life is about the day these views collide.

Creative team

Writer/producer: Jon Wayne Brown
Director/producer: John Cullen

Director’s statement

John Cullen says:

“Oddball characters can be real people too. And maybe they are oddballs because reality has a tendency to be painfully drab. This is what first attracted me to Jon’s script for A Well-Lit Life.

Charles is an interesting combination of vulnerability and vanity. I thought it would be an interesting challenge to portray him as a sympathetic protagonist, while at the same time showing how annoying his ‘quirks’ might come across to other people.

Ultimately this film is about the power of personal dreams and how they can become a buffer against aspects of life over which we have no control.”

About John Cullen

John is a commercial photographer and director based in Toronto.

He is currently working on two documentary films: one for the Tourette Syndrome Foundation of Canada, and another that examines the cultural identity of Italian cooking.

About Jon Wayne Brown

After a lengthy battle with a novel-in-progress, Jon Wayne wrote the screenplay for A Well-Lit Life and hasn’t looked back.

His current projects include an original TV series entitled The Small Time, which was shortlisted for NSI Totally Television in 2010 and a feature-length screenplay meant to put his unfinished novel to rest.

Originally from St. John’s, Newfoundland, he is currently based in Toronto.