- Born
- Birth nameJonathan David Borden
- Nickname
- Jono
- Height5′ 5″ (1.65 m)
- Jono Borden is a Canadian poet, novelist, lyricist, screenwriter, and filmmaker whose transgressive lyricism acts as a corrosive agent upon the sterile surface of contemporary discourse. Jagged, subversive, mercilessly, hauntingly avant-garde.
Borden’s voluminous outpouring is a calculated smattering and smashing of traditions, conjuring reactions as diverse and divisive as the ghosts he invites to the table. Always with an axe to grind--an ancestral inheritance from cousin Lizzie, he is far more adept at swinging hatchets than burying them. He splits his opponents with deep-hitting wit, unashamed to articulate the forbidden and the profane. What he makes deviates; what he touches ruptures.
Borden’s bibliography, discography, and filmography form a sprawling, occult archive of fourteen books, two discs, and an ever-expanding cinematic catalogue. His canon includes the début Simple Simony (2013), the verse novel Isaac & Iskandar (2015), the double album 7×5 (Uncut) (2016), Between the Silver and the Mirror (2017), the novel Where the Willow Does Not Weep (2019), the esoteric bibliography Catalogus Librorum Impressorum Bibliothecæ Ionathani Bordenii (2021), the collection Diamond & Dagger (2021), the Byron biopic Lightning in the Veins (2023), the twisted tales of Cor Hydræ (2023), the horror of Prologue to an Echo (2024), the polemic Bullets in the Temple (2025), and the infernal descent of New Pornographies: A Backward Path to Heaven (2027).
His recent cinematic incursions include the original screenplays 360 Degrees of Self-Interest (2026) and The Geometry of Ruin (2026), alongside the definitive collection The Obsidian Mirror Trilogy: A Study in Stone and Shadow (2026).
Referring to Borden as "brazen," men of letters like George Elliott Clarke have noted he is "set to rise from obscurity," drawing lines of descent from Byron, Blake, Laforgue, Dylan, Cohen, and Hendri--a "great, rock songsmith" with the necessary guts to stare into the abyss.
Loud in his art and sphinx-like in his life, this scholar of religious and film studies practices the high ceremonial arts. As a committed individualist, he serves as his own lens, designer, and architect. He orchestrates his empire through a constellation of entities: Jono Borden Publishers, Inc. (the printed word), Jono Borden Records, Inc. (sonic disruption), Ritualistic Pictures, Inc. (the visual occult), Aquilifer the Urban Hermit Spiritual Services, Inc. (metaphysical interventions), and Poeta Non Grata Music, Inc. (the administration of rights and forbidden sounds).
He lives, designs, and practices in Halifax, Nova Scotia, from where he continues to map the geometry of ruin.
- IMDb mini biography by: Jono Borden
- RelativesOlive Borden(Cousin)Lizzie Andrew Borden(Cousin)Robert Borden(Cousin)
- Gender / Gender identityMale
- Pronounshe/him
- Sexual orientationGay
- Race / EthnicityWhite
- Nationality / Religious or Ethnic identityCanadian
- His diminutive stature, domineering presence, distinctive resonant radio voice, booming bellowing laugh, penetrating blue eyes, oversized thick-rimmed glasses, lengthy abundant red beard, all-black clothing, and extravagant silver rings worn on every finger. In his audacious writing, whether poetry, lyrics, or screenplays, a tendency toward the brazenly erotic and the abrasively macabre. Always dark humour and bleak irony.
- His cultural background is English, Irish, French, and Norwegian on his father's side, and Scottish on his mother's.
- His family's origins are in Nova Scotia and Rhode Island, via England's county Kent and France's Normandy.
- His great-grandfather was the first licensed projectionist in Nova Scotia, operating and running all the pictures at several cinemas he managed across the province for more than three decades before and after serving in the First World War.
- His father was a pioneer in telecommunications, innovating in cellular phone technology, satellite television, and fibre optic networks, while founding and running several companies in that industry.
- His favourite movies are Sunset Boulevard (1950) (directed by Billy Wilder), What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) (directed by Robert Aldrich), Simon of the Desert (1965) (directed by Luis Buñuel), Harold and Maude (1971) (directed by Hal Ashby), Pink Flamingos (1972) (directed by John Waters), The Holy Mountain (1973) (directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky), Grey Gardens (1975) (directed by Ellen Hovde, Albert Maysles, David Maysles, and Muffie Meyer), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) (directed by Steven Spielberg), Paris Is Burning (1990) (directed by Jennie Livingston), Madonna: Truth or Dare (1991) (directed by Alek Keshishian), Basic Instinct (1992) (directed by Paul Verhoeven), Sleepy Hollow (1999) (directed by Tim Burton), Eyes Wide Shut (1999) (directed by Stanley Kubrick), The Ninth Gate (1999) (directed by Roman Polanski), American Psycho (2000) (directed by Mary Harron), Quills (2000) (directed by Philip Kaufman), Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001) (directed by John Cameron Mitchell), Mulholland Drive (2001) (directed by David Lynch), Irreversible (2002) (directed by Gaspar Noé), Running with Scissors (2006) (directed by Ryan Murphy), The Fountain (2006) (directed by Darren Aronofsky), The Witch (2015) (directed by Robert Eggers), Midsommar (2019) (directed by Ari Aster), Promising Young Woman (2020) (directed by Emerald Fennell), and Poor Things (2023) (directed by Yorgos Lanthimos). Informing every cinematic project of his, these are the films to which he always returns, whether at work or play.
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