After studying law, Jean François Lesage began his career as a journalist for Radio Canada television in Alberta and British Columbia. In 1998, influenced by the discovery of Chinese cinema, he moved to Beijing, where he lived for six years and directed his first creative documentary, Sweet Nights Sour Nights in 2004. He later co directed How Can You Tell if the Little Fish Are Happy? in 2009 with his brother Philippe Lesage.
Returning to Montréal, he directed A Mile End Tale in 2013, which was the closing film at Visions du Réel in 2014. He followed with A Summer Love in 2015, which won the Grand Prize for Best Canadian Feature at the Montreal International Documentary Festival. His fourth feature, The Hidden River in 2017, received the Special Jury Prize for Canadian feature at the same festival.
In 2020, Prayer for a Lost Mitten won Best Canadian Documentary at Hot Docs and received a Special Jury Prize at RIDM. The film was also nominated for Best Feature Length Documentary at the 10th Canadian Screen Awards in 2022.
In 2024, he released Among Mountains and Streams, which was nominated for Best Documentary at the 27th Quebec Cinema Awards in 2025.
