BIO

Eli Speigel is a freelance director and editor born and raised in Toronto.

His work spans from comedy shorts to sizzles for global toy companies, documentaries to music videos, talk-shows to advertisements and so on & on... & on.

Eli studied theatre and philosophy at the University of Guelph, but after Judith Thompson told him that no one would be interested in the kind of theatre he wanted to make, he soon left that world to pursue film!

In 2015-2017, Eli ran around with a camera and some friends and made some short films that he's a little embarrassed of now but it lead to him creating the talkshow, Liver Than Live, which NOW magazine said "thrives on spontaneity by putting live performances at the forefront" and that's... not a negative description! In 2018/2019, Eli directed and edited the web series, Blood, which premiered at the New York City Web Fest.

In 2020, his short film, Stain, participated in the Short Film Corner at the Cannes Film Festival, and later won Best Concept at the Lonely Wolf London Intl Film Festival, as well as being included in the IMDb Top 10 Nominees for Best Short Film. It puttered around the festival circuit for a bit and is now available online via Beyond The Short, Film Shortage, Kino Short of the Week, Shorted, and FlickFair.

2020 also saw the completion of Eli's short documentary, Tarana Ding Dong. It didn't go to any festivals or screen anywhere interesting because there was a pandemic, but also people didn't seem to like it that much. Eli really likes it though. 

In 2022, his short film, Mayonnaise, premiered at the Naked Mountain Independent Film Festival in New York, and had its Canadian premiere at the Toronto Shorts International Film Festival. After a small festival run, it is now available online via Klipist, Retrospective of Jupiter, Kino Short of the Week, Film Shortage, and Shorted.

In 2023, a feature-length cinéma-vérité film he DoP'd called, Plains premiered at the Revue Cinema in Toronto and has since played in Halifax, Liepzig, and London (UK).

Currently, Eli is sitting on a DIY short film based on the stories of author, Stephen Wright... but he doesn't know what to do with it yet. He has also secured one-half of the grant money needed to make another film in 2024. 

Eli is not sure if he should say more about his past credits here or just leave that to the "work" tab above. He is also sick of referring to himself in third-person and just wants you to watch his stuff and hit him up so he can keep making more.