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Ryan Randall has earned a 2021 Best Cinematography in a Feature Length Documentary award from the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television for his feature length documentary Workhorse.

follows three humans whose work and lives are deeply connected with their stoic equine partners. Filmed in black-and-white, this documentary reflects on and honours our ancient dependence on horse power.

“Best friend and Director of Workhorse Cliff Caines approached me about the potential of making a film with this subject matter right as I was contemplating moving to Kingston and applying to Queen’s,” says Randall, an Adjunct Lecturer and Senior Technician in the Department of Film and Media. “From the initial discussion and test shoot to today is over six years – one year of testing, two years of shooting, one year of editing, and one year of finalizing and beginning a festival release strategy the was disrupted by the pandemic.”

The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television is the largest non-profit professional media arts organization in Canada and the Canadian Screen Awards bring together the screen-based industry annually to celebrate the country’s top talent in the film, television and digital sectors.

Randall’s interest in the arts has spanned over 20 years, culminating in this recent honour.

“While attending the Ontario College of Art & Design University (OCAD), my interest in drawing, painting, photography, and music lead to in a film production course. I began working as a Technician at OCAD a few years after graduation and began a hybrid career that continues to today: one foot in the film production industry and one foot in academia.”

Randall came to Queen’s University and joined the Faculty of Arts and Science in 2015.

“Our growing family was looking for a better quality of life and the opportunity here was worth the regular 2.5-hour drive to Toronto to shoot,” he says. “We are within walking distance to everything and my commute (pandemics aside) went from 1.25 hours of streetcar each way to a 10-minute walk/5-minute bike ride.”

Asked what the future holds after winning this prestigious honour, Randall says he honestly isn’t sure.

“I just hope it gets me to keep creating As mentioned before, collaborating is the thing that drives me, I love working with other to achieve a central goal. I have the admirable position with my hybrid career of saying no: no to projects that I’m notly engaged with; projects that will take me away from my young family, etc. I just hope to continue making and pushing myself to help create things that I’m truly proud of. The trophy will certainly lend some credential to my students as well.”

To learn more about the award, .