Resume

My LinkedIn profile | Resume

Jith Paul is an Ottawa-based creative who bridges software engineering and independent film. A seasoned professional in systems design and architecture, he founded Treepot Media in 2010 to pursue his long-held passion for filmmaking.

Jith's directorial debut, Algebra, a short film about a painter grappling with the loss of his sight, screened at festivals throughout Asia, North America and Europe including the Festival international Entr’2 marches in Cannes, France in 2015. His next directorial effort was an ACTRA union film about a once promising pop singer, who struggles to overcome her debilitating stage fright. The film, A Clean Slate was awarded Best International Short Film at the Valle d'Itria Film Festival in Italy, where it premiered.

Jith edited the documentaries Partners for Peace, an official selection at Victoria Film Festival, North Boys, winner of the Founder’s award at the Yorkton Film Festival, and This is My Witness, which premiered at the Paley Centre in New York and was an Official Selection at the Amnesty International Reel Awareness Human Rights Film Festival.

Polar Bear Love, Moments, and Perfect, short films Jith produced, were selected to participate in CBC Television’s Short Film Face-off in 2011, 2012 and 2013 respectively. Jith produced Karim Ayari's Before Me / L’homme de la maison, a bilingual narrative film that explores social intolerance and its impact on children. The film has completed a successful run which included a best film award at the Festival du Court-Métrage d'Auch, in France. Jith recently edited Zachary Chabot's bilingual film Bytowne, which was an official selection at the Festival du film de l'Outaouais, and the Ottawa Youth Film Festival where it was awarded runner up in its age category.

As founder of the Treepot Film Festival, Jith presented more than 150 Canadian independent films at theatres, campuses, and outdoor venues across downtown Ottawa between 2011 and 2014. When it became clear that the initiative required a more formal and sustainable structure, he helped found the Ottawa Canadian Film Festival (OCan) in 2015, incorporating it federally with partners Ed Kucerak and Blair Campbell. OCan launched its first annual screenings in 2017 and has since presented jury-selected Canadian films across all genres. During Jith’s tenure, the festival achieved registered charity status and became a Canadian Screen Award-qualifying festival. He concluded his service on the OCan board in 2024, ten years after its inception, as the organization entered a new chapter and welcomed fresh leadership for its next decade.

Alongside his film work, Jith has built a career as a software systems designer and architect, leading cross-functional teams across diverse technical environments. He brings deep expertise in the design, planning, and lifecycle management of complex, mission-critical digital initiatives, including publishing platforms, web streaming, data persistence, and workflow systems.

In 2020, as Team Lead for Digital Development at the Cable Public Affairs Channel in Ottawa, Jith designed a major software re-platforming project, and managed and coordinated the efforts of an international team of software developers and service providers to implement it. The new platform, launched in 2021, enables CPAC to deliver multiple simultaneous live streams, video-on-demand content, and articles across its digital platforms, including the cpac.ca website and CPAC's social media channels.

From 2024 to 2026, Jith served as the Technical Lead for the Democracy in Action project, where he coordinated the digitization and migration of 600+ legacy broadcast assets from CPAC’s federal election coverage, making historic content publicly accessible online.

Jith holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Waterloo and is a graduate of the television broadcasting program at Algonquin College. He was nominated for the Premier's Award (Ontario Colleges) in 2013. He served on the board for SAW Video (now the Digital Arts Resource Centre), and currently manages the film613 blog, curating, editing, and writing content that spotlight local and Canadian screen culture.

Education & Experience

Skills

• Systems Design
• Project Coordination
• Project Life-Cycle Management
• Collaborative Knowledge Sharing
• Content Management Systems (CMS)
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• Structured Data and Schema Markup
• Live-streaming
• Video Post Production
• Editing
• Web Publishing
• Social Media

Timeline