Joe Klymkiw was born in Brandon Manitoba on March 29th 1980. He was raised in Winnipeg and educated at the University of Ottawa.

Director Joe Klymkiw spent many youthful summers in Gimli, Manitoba watching his older cousin’s acclaimed motion picture productions projected through the flickering light of a Bell and Howell Autoload projector upon bed sheets and walls of cottages -- soaking up anything and everything Guy Maddin and all that the other iconoclasts of Winnipeg's Cinematic New Wave had to offer. With this constant exposure to alternative worlds and visions, it’s little wonder that Joe not only plugged into the Canadian hip hop scene but that his life now revolves around film.

Hosting "Beats from the Basement," an acclaimed hip hop show on Vancouver’s CITR for six years, Joe discovered how inattentive Canadian media had been to hip hop, in spite of its huge influence on domestic culture, and the eventual success Canadian hip hop achieved internationally. Joe's gig at CITR had the additional benefit of placing him squarely in the sights of the Canadian icon that is Nardwuar, the Human Serviette. Joe directed Nardwuar’s music video Half Empty Halls, which launched the next stage of his career. Where he directs, produces, music’s videos, commercials and started his own production company Joi Productions.

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