Yves Bisaillon was born in Montreal and holds a degree in Urban Planning from Université de Montréal and in Communications from Université du Québec à Montréal. A reporter at Radio-Canada in the late '80s, he hosted and directed several educational shows for the French station of TV Ontario from 1990 to 1992. He went on to collaborate with Radio-Canada's regional and national networks until 1995, directing some 50 arts and culture reports, as well as several TV documentaries for series such as Second Regard and Objectif Ontario, for which he received a Gémeaux award in 1993 and a Gémeaux nomination in 1994.

His directing credits include a documentary film on the poet and playwright Jean-Marc Dalpé entitled Le Cri du silence (1991), as well as Il était deux fois une élection, produced by the National Film Board; the co-production Le Quatuor de l'exil (winner of the UNESCO Award at the Vues d'Afrique festival in 1995); and the series Au-delà de l'image, which he directed for Radio-Canada in 1997.

Bisaillon joined the NFB as a producer in 1997. His productions include No Quick Fix, Just Watch Me: Trudeau and the '70s Generation (winner of a Genie Award for best feature-length documentary and best Canadian first feature film at the International Toronto Film Festival, 1999), Claude Jutra: An Unfinished Story (2002), which won a Gémeaux and three Gemini awards. Most recently, he has produced documentaries such as Raymond Klibansky: From Philosophy to Life (awarded the Telefilm Canada Prize for best Canadian work), The Righteous (Claude-Jutra Award for best hope of the year), The Broken Thread, The Cabinet of Doctor Ferron, La Cueca Sola (Special Mention at the Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois, best Canadian documentary and best direction in the Canadian Spectrum Program at Hot Docs 2004), What Remains of Us (selected at the International Critics' Week, Cannes 2004, winner of the Jutra Award for best documentary in 2005) as well as Short Infinity (Honourable Mention at Hot Docs 2004), My Son Shall Be Armenian and Soraida, A Woman of Palestine. Most recently, he produced the controversial Medicine Under the Influence, Who Shot My Brother? (winner of the Public Award, Festival du nouveau cinéma de Montréal) as well as In the Name of the Mother and the Son (AQCC Award/Claude-Jutra Award for best hope).