Donald Brittain
Encyclopedia
Donald Brittain, O.C.
(June 10, 1928 – July 21, 1989) was a film director
and producer
with the National Film Board of Canada
.
Fields of Sacrifice
(1964) is considered Brittain's first major film as director.
His other notable directorial credits include the 1965 documentaries Ladies and Gentlemen... Mr. Leonard Cohen
and Memorandum
and the Genie Award
-winning 1979 documentary Paperland: The Bureaucrat Observed
. He also directed the first-ever IMAX
film, Tiger Child
for Expo '70
, and Earthwatch, a 70mm film for Expo 86
.
He wrote the 1975 Oscar-nominated short documentary Whistling Smith
. He co-directed the 1976 feature documentary Volcano: An Inquiry Into the Life and Death of Malcolm Lowry
garnered 6 Canadian Film Awards and an Academy Award nomination.
Brittain also directed the three-part CBC
-coproduced series The Champions
, chronicling the lives and battles of Canadian political titans René Lévesque
and Pierre Elliott Trudeau. His most ambitious project was The King Chronicle, a three-part 1987-88 television series about the remarkable career of Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King
.
He won the Gemini Award
for best screenplay and direction for the 1985 drama Canada's Sweetheart: The Saga of Hal C. Banks
.
As NFB producer, Brittain's credits included Arthur Lipsett
's A Trip Down Memory Lane
.
Often a narrator of his own documentaries, Brittain also lent his voice to the animated mockumentary
What on Earth!
. In 1990, he was posthumously appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in recognition of "his masterful visual records of our social and cultural past.
The Donald Brittain Award for the best political or social documentary at the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television
's Gemini Awards are named in his honour.
Brittain is interred in Montreal's Notre Dame des Neiges Cemetery
.
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...
(June 10, 1928 – July 21, 1989) was a film director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
and producer
Film producer
A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...
with 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...
.
Fields of Sacrifice
Fields of Sacrifice
Fields of Sacrifice is a 1964 documentary by Donald Brittain about Canadian war dead. The film visits former battlefields where over 100,000 Canadian soldiers lost their lives in World War I and World War II and examines Canadian military cemeteries and memorials from Hong Kong to...
(1964) is considered Brittain's first major film as director.
His other notable directorial credits include the 1965 documentaries Ladies and Gentlemen... Mr. Leonard Cohen
Ladies and Gentlemen... Mr. Leonard Cohen
Ladies and Gentlemen... Mr. Leonard Cohen is a 1965 documentary about Leonard Cohen, co-directed by Don Owen and Donald Brittain, and written by Brittain...
and Memorandum
Memorandum (film)
Memorandum is a one-hour 1965 documentary co-directed by Donald Brittain and John Spotton, following a Jewish Holocaust survivor on an emotional pilgrimage back to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Produced by John Kemeny for the National Film Board of Canada, the film received several awards...
and the Genie Award
Genie Award
Genie Awards are given out to recognize the best of Canadian cinema by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television. From 1949-1979, the awards were named the Canadian Film Awards...
-winning 1979 documentary Paperland: The Bureaucrat Observed
Paperland: The Bureaucrat Observed
Paperland: The Bureaucrat Observed is a 1979 documentary film critiquing bureaucracy, written and directed by Donald Brittain and produced by the National Film Board of Canada and CBC-TV.-Genie Awards:...
. He also directed the first-ever 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...
film, Tiger Child
Tiger Child
Tiger Child was the first IMAX movie ever made. It was directed by Canadian filmmaker Donald Brittain and produced by Roman Kroitor and Kichi Ichikawa. It premiered at Expo '70 in Osaka, Japan at the Fuji Group Pavilion....
for Expo '70
Expo '70
was a World's Fair held in Suita, Osaka, Japan between March 15 and September 13, 1970. The theme of the Expo was "Progress and Harmony for Mankind." In Japanese Expo '70 is often referred to as Ōsaka Banpaku...
, and Earthwatch, a 70mm film 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...
.
He wrote the 1975 Oscar-nominated short documentary Whistling Smith
Whistling Smith
Whistling Smith is a 1975 Canadian short documentary film about Vancouver policeman Sergeant Bernie "Whistling" Smith, directed by Marrin Canell. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short at the 48th Academy Awards....
. He co-directed the 1976 feature documentary Volcano: An Inquiry Into the Life and Death of Malcolm Lowry
Volcano: An Inquiry Into the Life and Death of Malcolm Lowry
Volcano: An Inquiry Into the Life and Death of Malcolm Lowry is a 1976 Canadian documentary film about writer Malcolm Lowry. Written and directed by Donald Brittain and John Kramer, it was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature....
garnered 6 Canadian Film Awards and an Academy Award nomination.
Brittain also directed the three-part CBC
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...
-coproduced series The Champions
The Champions (documentary miniseries)
The Champions is a three-part Canadian documentary mini-series on lives of Canadian political titans and adversaries Pierre Elliott Trudeau and René Lévesque....
, chronicling the lives and battles of Canadian political titans René Lévesque
René Lévesque
René Lévesque was a reporter, a minister of the government of Quebec, , the founder of the Parti Québécois political party and the 23rd Premier of Quebec...
and Pierre Elliott Trudeau. His most ambitious project was The King Chronicle, a three-part 1987-88 television series about the remarkable career of Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King
William Lyon Mackenzie King
William Lyon Mackenzie King, PC, OM, CMG was the dominant Canadian political leader from the 1920s through the 1940s. He served as the tenth Prime Minister of Canada from December 29, 1921 to June 28, 1926; from September 25, 1926 to August 7, 1930; and from October 23, 1935 to November 15, 1948...
.
He won the Gemini Award
Gemini Award
The Gemini Awards are annual television broadcasting industry awards in Canada.First awarded in 1986, the Geminis celebrate the achievements of TV members of the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television. Essentially, it presents awards for the best television productions in Canada. Awards are...
for best screenplay and direction for the 1985 drama Canada's Sweetheart: The Saga of Hal C. Banks
Canada's Sweetheart: The Saga of Hal C. Banks
Canada's Sweetheart: The Saga of Hal C. Banks is a Canadian docudrama, written and produced by Donald Brittain. It aired in 1985 on CBC Television....
.
As NFB producer, Brittain's credits included Arthur Lipsett
Arthur Lipsett
Arthur Lipsett was a Canadian avant-garde director of short experimental films.In the 1960s he was employed as an animator by the National Film Board of Canada . Lipsett's particular passion was sound. He collected pieces of sound from a variety of sources and fit them together to create an...
's A Trip Down Memory Lane
A Trip Down Memory Lane
A Trip Down Memory Lane is a 1965 experimental film by Arthur Lipsett, created by editing together images and sound clips from over fifty years of newsreel footage....
.
Often a narrator of his own documentaries, Brittain also lent his voice to the animated mockumentary
Mockumentary
A mockumentary , is a type of film or television show in which fictitious events are presented in documentary format. These productions are often used to analyze or comment on current events and issues by using a fictitious setting, or to parody the documentary form itself...
What on Earth!
What on Earth!
What on Earth! is a 1966 National Film Board of Canada animated short co-directed by Les Drew and Kaj Pindal, which takes a humorous look at car culture from the point of view of fictional Martians, who mistake automobiles for Earth's true inhabitants and people as their parasites...
Lifetime achievement awards and posthumous honours
In 1989, Brittain was the recipient of a Margaret Collier AwardMargaret Collier Award
The Margaret Collier Award is the lifetime achievement honor presented the Gemini Awards to a writer for their outstanding body of work in Canadian television...
. In 1990, he was posthumously appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in recognition of "his masterful visual records of our social and cultural past.
The Donald Brittain Award for the best political or social documentary at the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television
Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television
The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television is a Canadian non-profit organization created in 1979 to recognize over 4,000 Canadian film industry and television industry professionals...
's Gemini Awards are named in his honour.
Brittain is interred in Montreal's Notre Dame des Neiges Cemetery
Notre Dame des Neiges Cemetery
Founded in 1854, Cimetière Notre-Dame-des-Neiges is a 343-acre cemetery located in the borough of Côte-des-Neiges—Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The entrance and the grounds run along a part of chemin Côte-des-Neiges and up the slopes of Mount Royal...
.
External links
- Donald Brittain: Writer, filmmaker, storyteller at NFB.ca
- NFB biography
- Donald Brittain at The Canadian EncyclopediaThe Canadian EncyclopediaThe Canadian Encyclopedia is a source of information on Canada. It is available online, at no cost. The Canadian Encyclopedia is available in both English and French and includes some 14,000 articles in each language on a wide variety of subjects including history, popular culture, events, people,...
- Canadian Film Encyclopedia
- Museum of Broadcast Communications bio