Alex Jansen

Alex Jansen is a creative entrepreneur with more than 20 years’ experience in the film & media industry and a passion for community development.

Jansen has spent more than a decade running his own successful multimedia production company, Pop Sandbox. He has produced award-winning films, video games, graphic novels and interactive experiences, featured at the Cannes Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, SXSW, the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), Hot Docs, the Tokyo Game Show, Indiecade and PAX East among others.  Visit: www.popsandbox.com

Recently Jansen was founding Commissioner of the Kingston Film Office, where he developed the infrastructure to attract and support film & media production locally.  This included the creation of training programs, incentive programs and new access to key locations such as Kingston Penitentiary.  By 2021, the sector generated more than $5million in direct spend annually.  The Film Office hosted more than a dozen major productions including Star Trek: Discovery, DC’s Titans, Reacher, Locke & Key, and the Mayor of Kingstown.  The Film Office had also begun partnering on more than a half dozen lower-budget end-to-end productions, shot entirely in Kingston with majority local crew.  In 2022 the Film Office was nominated for Top Film Commission globally by the Location Managers Guild International (LMGI).

Prior to starting Pop Sandbox, Jansen built and lead the Home Entertainment division at Mongrel Media, one of Canada’s premiere film distribution companies. He is founder of the Kingston Canadian Film Festival, which recently celebrated its 20th anniversary, and teaches part-time with Queen’s Film and Media.