
Richard Ciupka
Directing
Biography
Richard Ciupka is a Canadian cinematographer and film director. He is perhaps best known for his work on the 1983 horror film Curtains, as well as his collaborations with Louis Malle on the 1980 film Atlantic City, Alexandre Arcady on the 1985 film Hold-Up and Claude Chabrol on three feature films in France. Ciupka also filmed or directed over 520 television commercials in Canada and the United States. His work on the Canadian drama series Nouvelle adresse garnered him a Gémeaux award for "Best Cinematography (Dramatic)." Born in Liège, Belgium, Ciupka immigrated to the United States at age six. His first work as a cinematographer was on the Canadian film The Mystery of the Million Dollar Hockey Puck (1975) followed by Ilsa, the Tigress of Siberia (1977) and the television film An American Christmas Carol (1979). He made his directorial debut with the horror film Curtains (1983); however, Ciupka left the production midway through over creative differences with producer Peter R. Simpson and is credited as Jonathan Stryker. Since 2013, Richard has worked as a cinematographer on TV series and feature films. Richard also produced and Directed/Photograohed over 520 TV commercials in Canada and the USA. Source: Article "Richard Ciupka" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
Known For

The Hunger is a British/Canadian television horror anthology series, co-produced by Scott Free Productions, Telescene Film Group Productions and the Canadian pay-TV channel The Movie Network. Though it shares a title with the feature film The Hunger the series has no direct plot or character connection to the film, and was created by Jeff Fazio. Originally shown on the Sci Fi Channel in the UK, The Movie Network in Canada and Showtime in the US, the series was broadcast from 1997 to 2000, and is internally organized into two seasons. Each episode was based around an independent story introduced by the host; Terence Stamp hosted each episode for the first season, and was replaced in the second season by David Bowie. Stories tended to focus on themes of self-destructive desire and obsession, with a strong component of soft-core erotica; popular tropes for the stories included cannibalism, vampires, sex, and poison.
The Hunger

In a corrupt city, a small-time gangster and the estranged wife of a pot dealer find themselves thrown together in an escapade of love, money, drugs and danger.
Atlantic City

This is the story about Joy who falls in love with an older man (she has been looking for her missing father all her life), and then travels around Paris with him and his other female companion, experiencing a broad range of sexual encounters.
Joy

Six young actresses auditioning for a movie role at a remote mansion are targeted by a mysterious masked murderer.
Curtains

Siberia 1953: Ilsa is now working in a Gulag prison camp. Her mission is to "retrain the minds" of those who don't agree with the communists.
Ilsa, the Tigress of Siberia

In the German-occupied Paris, Helene is torn between the love for her boyfriend Jean, working for the resistance and the German administrator Bergmann, who will do anything to gain her affection.
The Blood of Others

Lindsey Wilson first found love in the romantic city of Paris when she was a university student studying art there. Now, twenty years later, she is returning to the City of Light to take her daughter on an adventure there. With a little inspiration from the city's famed "love locks" on its scenic bridges, the adventure proves to be a journey of romance and rediscovery for the divorced Lindsey when she reconnects with her college flame in Paris and finds that her first love just might be the lasting love of her life after all.
Love Locks

Soviet High School girls are sent to the U.S. where they are taught to become secret agents and use sex to find information.
Secret Weapons

Story of a wild first love that takes place at the mouth of the St. Lawrence River between the refineries at Pointe-Au-Trembles and the rock culture of Montreal.
Coyote

A Harvard University student finds a strange letter that seems to be signed by George Washington. When trying to contact an expert (Prof. Chandler) to authenticate it, he is murdered but the letter disappears. Then Chandler, who does not know anything about the case, gets chased by the mafia and haunted by a TV reporter (Polly Bishop).
Dirty Tricks

Dressed as a clown, the clever rascal Grimm holds up the most secure bank of Montreal and takes 30 hostages. While confusing and ridiculing the police with his strange behavior, he calmly manages to rid the bank of a fortune. But then an unsatisfied companion arouses trouble...
Hold-up

In Depression-era New England, a miserly businessman named Benedict Slade receives a long-overdue attitude adjustment one Christmas Eve when he is visited by three ghostly figures who resemble three of the people whose possessions Slade had seized to collect on unpaid loans. Assuming the roles of the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future from Charles Dickens' classic story, the three apparitions force Slade to face the consequences of his skinflint ways, and he becomes a caring, generous, amiable man.
An American Christmas Carol
A backwoods, illiterate young woman from Arkansas battles to regain custody of her son from her estranged husband who feels she is an unfit mother. In the process, she falls in love with a struggling musician who helps her cause.
Melanie

The true story about the Canadian cancer amputee hero, who decided to run across Canada on only one leg to raise money for cancer research.
The Terry Fox Story

A tough rich female ranch owner in Africa wants to cut off the water supply to the locals, since she holds them responsible for the murder of her husband. She hires two charming gunrunners as help, but they suspect her shady competitor.
It Rained All Night the Day I Left

New York urologist Harold Lear gets a taste of his own medicine when he suffers a heart attack and is confronted with a medical institution which doesn't seem equipped to help. Wife Martha steps in to fight the system and get a measure of service and compassion. Ultimately the greatest battle is not waged against the medical profession, however, but against Lear's own failing body and his own mortal fears.
Heartsounds

A young American hockey player, studying in Canada on a hockey scholarship, falls in love while risking his scholarship and the prospect of the Vietnam war draft.
Yesterday

In this sequel to the popular adventures of Mademoiselle C, the strange Mademoiselle Charlotte began a new life as a postwoman in Saint-Gérard where she encounters a particularly dishonest businessman.
L’incomparable Mademoiselle C.

The residents of a New York apartment building are shocked when one of them is shot during a burgulary. They decide to hire a security expert to patrol the building, but he seem a little over-committed to his work.
The Guardian

Based on a true story, a veteran narcotics officer takes on a case that could cost him his life.