Amnon Buchbinder was born in 1958 in Missouri, USA. His parents were political activists, and he grew up immersed in the social strife of the 1960’s. In 1969 the family moved to Toronto, and the same year AB began making Super 8 films. Soon after he was also editing and publishing the horror movie fanzine Fright & Fantasy. As a teenager he worked for the Metro Toronto Film Library cleaning 16mm films. He programmed public film screenings there, in his high school, at his summer camp, and then a weekly program at Cal Arts. Much of his film education took place in the early 1970’s at Toronto’s 99 Cent Roxy Cinema (a different double bill every night). He’s also worked as a negative cutter, projectionist and cook.

From 1979 to 1983 he lived in Southern California where he attended Cal Arts, from 1984 to 1993 in British Columbia (Vancouver and Hornby Island), and since 1993 he has lived in Toronto.

In 2010 AB celebrates his 25th anniversary of marriage to the artist and Waldorf teacher Elyse Pomeranz. They were engaged two weeks after meeting and married three months later. Their sons Ishai and Caleb were born in 1987 and 1992. At the moment there are also two Siamese cats and a large mutt.

In addition to cinema, AB continues to study mythology, classical music (especially 20th century), metaphysics, 20th century history. He is running out of space for DVD’s. He loves travelling and has been to more than 15 countries in the past few years. He can’t sleep under a synthetic blanket. He spends too much time online already and is resisting Facebook, which is perhaps why he is writing this profile. He needs to spend at least a few days (preferably a week) in a natural setting every few months or he starts to lose his mind. He returns to Hornby Island once or twice a year; it’s still a home even though he doesn’t own any property there. He hasn’t had a cold or been ill in at least five years. He is an avid cook. He is addicted to saunas (except in the summer), is fond of Trappist beers. He has been keeping a journal since 1988 and it’s over 11,000 pages of writing at this point.