Colin Low (filmmaker)
Encyclopedia
Colin Archibald Low, CM
, RCA
(born July 24, 1926) is a Canadian
animation and documentary filmmaker.
Born in Cardston, Alberta
, Low attended the Banff School of Fine Arts and the Calgary Institute of Technology, now known as the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology
. His career at the National Film Board of Canada
in Montreal
spanned over five decades, on more than 200 productions, most often as director, producer or executive producer. He is currently retired and living in Montreal.
Low is a Mormon
.
, won a Short Film Palme d'Or
at the Cannes Film Festival
, a special BAFTA Award and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Short Subject, Cartoons.
His 1954 documentary Corral
received was named best documentary at the Venice Film Festival
. He followed that with a second documentary shot in southern Alberta, the 1960 film Circle of the Sun
, which marked the first time the Kainai Nation
's sacred Sun Dance
was filmed.
, along with another BAFTA award and Oscar nomination for his 1957 documentary, City of Gold
, on the Klondike Gold Rush
, co-directed with Wolf Koenig
. City of Gold made use of slow pans and zooms across archival photos and has been cited by Ken Burns
as a key inspiration for the so-called Ken Burns effect
.
co-directed Universe, capturing the attention of Stanley Kubrick
, who was preparing to make 2001: A Space Odyssey
. Low was invited to work on 2001 but had to decline due to his work on In the Labyrinth
, a multi-screen production for Expo 67
. Some of Low's ideas were incorporated in 2001.
program, using media as a tool to bring about social change and combat poverty.
helped lead to the creation of the IMAX
format. Low co-directed the first IMAX 3D production Transitions
for Expo 86
in Vancouver
, as well as co-directing Momentum
, the first film in 48 frames per second IMAX HD for Expo 92
in Seville
, Spain
.
His son Stephen Low
is also a noted IMAX filmmaker.
, given to individuals for an outstanding career in Québec cinema. He is a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts
.
In 2002, the Large Format Cinema Association presented Low and the NFB with its Abel Gance
Award for outstanding work in large format filmmaking.
Order of Canada
The Order of Canada is a Canadian national order, admission into which is, within the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, the second highest honour for merit...
, RCA
Royal Canadian Academy of Arts
The Royal Canadian Academy of Arts is a Canadian arts-related institution founded in 1880, under the patronage of the Governor General of Canada, Sir John Douglas Sutherland Campbell, the Marquess of Lorne. Canadian landscape painter Homer Watson was a member and president of the Academy...
(born July 24, 1926) is a Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
animation and documentary filmmaker.
Born in Cardston, Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
, Low attended the Banff School of Fine Arts and the Calgary Institute of Technology, now known as the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology
Southern Alberta Institute of Technology
-Academics:SAIT Polytechnic offers two full baccalaureate degrees , four applied degrees, 66 diploma and certificate programs, 32 apprenticeship trades and 1,600 continuing education and corporate training courses....
. His career at the National Film Board of Canada
National Film Board of Canada
The National Film Board of Canada is Canada's twelve-time Academy Award-winning public film producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary, animation, alternative drama and digital media productions...
in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
spanned over five decades, on more than 200 productions, most often as director, producer or executive producer. He is currently retired and living in Montreal.
Low is a Mormon
Mormon
The term Mormon most commonly denotes an adherent, practitioner, follower, or constituent of Mormonism, which is the largest branch of the Latter Day Saint movement in restorationist Christianity...
.
Early work
Low's 1952 animated short, The Romance of Transportation in CanadaThe Romance of Transportation in Canada
The Romance of Transportation in Canada is a 1952 animated short directed by Colin Low animated by Wolf Koenig and Robert Verrall and narrated by Guy Glover. Eldon Rathburn composed the film score...
, won a Short Film Palme d'Or
Short Film Palme d'Or
The Short Film Palme d'Or is the highest prize given to a short film at the Cannes Film Festival. It is chosen by the same jury of the Cinéfondation....
at the Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
, a special BAFTA Award and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Short Subject, Cartoons.
His 1954 documentary Corral
Corral (film)
Corral is a 1954 National Film Board of Canada documentary by Colin Low, partly shot in the Cochrane Ranch in what is now Cochrane, Alberta....
received was named best documentary at the Venice Film Festival
Venice Film Festival
The Venice International Film Festival is the oldest international film festival in the world. Founded by Count Giuseppe Volpi in 1932 as the "Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica", the festival has since taken place every year in late August or early September on the island of the...
. He followed that with a second documentary shot in southern Alberta, the 1960 film Circle of the Sun
Circle of the Sun
Circle of the Sun is a 1960 short documentary film on Kainai Nation, or Blood Tribe, of Southern Alberta, which captured their Sun Dance ritual on film for the first time. Tribal leaders, who worried the traditional ceremony might be dying out, had permitted filming as a visual record.The film was...
, which marked the first time the Kainai Nation
Kainai Nation
The Kainai Nation is a First Nation in southern Alberta, Canada with a population of 7,437 members in 2005, and had a population of 9,035 members as of 9 February 2008...
's sacred Sun Dance
Sun Dance
The Sun Dance is a religious ceremony practiced by a number of Native American and First Nations peoples, primarily those of the Plains Nations. Each tribe has its own distinct practices and ceremonial protocols...
was filmed.
Influence on Ken Burns
Low received his second Palme d'Or for best short film at the Cannes Film FestivalCannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
, along with another BAFTA award and Oscar nomination for his 1957 documentary, City of Gold
City of Gold (documentary)
City of Gold is a 1957 Canadian documentary film by Colin Low and Wolf Koenig, chronicling Dawson City during the Klondike Gold Rush. The film is narrated by Pierre Berton and produced by the National Film Board of Canada.-Technique:...
, on the Klondike Gold Rush
Klondike Gold Rush
The Klondike Gold Rush, also called the Yukon Gold Rush, the Alaska Gold Rush and the Last Great Gold Rush, was an attempt by an estimated 100,000 people to travel to the Klondike region the Yukon in north-western Canada between 1897 and 1899 in the hope of successfully prospecting for gold...
, co-directed with Wolf Koenig
Wolf Koenig
Wolf Koenig is a Canadian film director, producer, animator, cinematographer, and a pioneer in Direct Cinema at the NFB.-Early life:...
. City of Gold made use of slow pans and zooms across archival photos and has been cited by Ken Burns
Ken Burns
Kenneth Lauren "Ken" Burns is an American director and producer of documentary films, known for his style of using archival footage and photographs...
as a key inspiration for the so-called Ken Burns effect
Ken Burns Effect
The Ken Burns effect is a popular name for a type of panning and zooming effect used in video production from still imagery.The name derives from extensive use of the technique by American documentarian Ken Burns...
.
Influence on Stanley Kubrick
In 1960, Low and Roman KroitorRoman Kroitor
Roman Kroitor is a Canadian filmmaker who is known as an early practitioner of Cinéma vérité, as co-founder of IMAX, and as creator of the Sandde hand-drawn stereoscopic animation system...
co-directed Universe, capturing the attention of Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick was an American film director, writer, producer, and photographer who lived in England during most of the last four decades of his career...
, who was preparing to make 2001: A Space Odyssey
2001: A Space Odyssey (film)
2001: A Space Odyssey is a 1968 epic science fiction film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick, and co-written by Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke, partially inspired by Clarke's short story The Sentinel...
. Low was invited to work on 2001 but had to decline due to his work on In the Labyrinth
In the Labyrinth
In the Labyrinth was a groundbreaking multi-screen presentation at Expo 67 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It used 35mm and 70mm film projected simultaneously on multiple screens and was the precursor of today's IMAX format.The film split elements across the five screens and also combined them for a...
, a multi-screen production for Expo 67
Expo 67
The 1967 International and Universal Exposition or Expo 67, as it was commonly known, was the general exhibition, Category One World's Fair held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, from April 27 to October 29, 1967. It is considered to be the most successful World's Fair of the 20th century, with the...
. Some of Low's ideas were incorporated in 2001.
Challenge for Change
Low worked with the people of Fogo Island, Newfoundland to shoot 27 films for the Challenge for ChangeChallenge for Change
Challenge for Change was a participatory film and video project created by the National Film Board of Canada in 1967, the Canadian Centennial...
program, using media as a tool to bring about social change and combat poverty.
IMAX
Low was involved in a series of firsts in the wide-screen genre. The experimental multi-screen production In the LabyrinthIn the Labyrinth
In the Labyrinth was a groundbreaking multi-screen presentation at Expo 67 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It used 35mm and 70mm film projected simultaneously on multiple screens and was the precursor of today's IMAX format.The film split elements across the five screens and also combined them for a...
helped lead to the creation of the IMAX
IMAX
IMAX is a motion picture film format and a set of proprietary cinema projection standards created by the Canadian company IMAX Corporation. IMAX has the capacity to record and display images of far greater size and resolution than conventional film systems...
format. Low co-directed the first IMAX 3D production Transitions
Transitions (film)
Transitions was the world's first IMAX film in 3D. It was created for Expo 86 in Vancouver. The film was co-directed by Colin Low and Tony Ianzelo and produced by the National Film Board of Canada.-External links:*...
for Expo 86
Expo 86
The 1986 World Exposition on Transportation and Communication, or simply Expo '86, was a World's Fair held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada from Friday, May 2 until Monday, October 13, 1986...
in Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
, as well as co-directing Momentum
Momentum (IMAX film)
Momentum was the first film shot and released in the IMAX HD film format, which ran at 48 frames per second.The film was created for the Canada pavilion at Seville Expo '92....
, the first film in 48 frames per second IMAX HD for Expo 92
Seville Expo '92
The Universal Exposition of Seville took place from Monday, April 20 to Monday, October 12, 1992 on La Isla de La Cartuja , Seville, Spain. The theme for the Expo was "The Age of Discovery" and over 100 countries were represented...
in Seville
Seville
Seville is the artistic, historic, cultural, and financial capital of southern Spain. It is the capital of the autonomous community of Andalusia and of the province of Seville. It is situated on the plain of the River Guadalquivir, with an average elevation of above sea level...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
.
His son Stephen Low
Stephen Low
Stephen Low is a Canadian film director and screenwriter who works extensively in the IMAX film format. Based in Montreal, Quebec, Low has directed numerous film documentaries including Titanica , Beavers , The Last Buffalo ,Across the Sea of Time, Super Speedway, Volcanoes of the Deep Sea and...
is also a noted IMAX filmmaker.
Lifetime awards
In 1996, Low was made a Member of the Order of Canada in recognition of his extraordinary contributions to cinema in Canada and around the world. In 1997, he was given the Prix Albert-TessierPrix Albert-Tessier
The Prix Albert-Tessier is an award by the Government of Quebec that is part of the Prix du Québec, given to individuals for an outstanding career in Québec cinema. It is awarded to scriptwriting, acting, composing music, directing, producing and cinematographic techniques. It is named in honour of...
, given to individuals for an outstanding career in Québec cinema. He is a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts
Royal Canadian Academy of Arts
The Royal Canadian Academy of Arts is a Canadian arts-related institution founded in 1880, under the patronage of the Governor General of Canada, Sir John Douglas Sutherland Campbell, the Marquess of Lorne. Canadian landscape painter Homer Watson was a member and president of the Academy...
.
In 2002, the Large Format Cinema Association presented Low and the NFB with its Abel Gance
Abel Gance
Abel Gance was a French film director and producer, writer and actor. He is best known for three major silent films: J'accuse , La Roue , and the monumental Napoléon .-Early life:...
Award for outstanding work in large format filmmaking.
External links
- Colin Low at National Film Board of CanadaNational Film Board of CanadaThe National Film Board of Canada is Canada's twelve-time Academy Award-winning public film producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary, animation, alternative drama and digital media productions...
- Interview with Colin Low (2007). Across Cultures Web site. Montreal: National Film Board of Canada. www.nfb.ca/acrosscultures.
- Film Reference Library entry
- Watch films by Colin Low online
- Colin Low: Recollections from a Distinguished Career, NFB.ca