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John Zaritsky

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John Zaritksy
Born
John Norman Zaritsky

(1943-07-13)13 July 1943
St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada
Died30 March 2022(2022-03-30) (aged 78)
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Alma materUniversity of Toronto
Occupations
  • Director
  • producer
  • writer
Years active1976–2016
AwardsAcademy Award
Gemini Award
CableACE Award
Alfred I. duPont–Columbia University Award
Golden Gavel Award
Hot Docs Special Jury Award
Chris Award
Golden Sheaf Award
Leo Award
Vancouver International Film Festival Award
ACTRA Award

John Zaritsky (13 July 1943 – 30 March 2022)[1] was a Canadian documentarian/filmmaker. His work has been broadcast in 35 countries and screened at more than 40 film festivals around the world; in 1983, his film Just Another Missing Kid won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

Early life and education

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Zaritsky was born in St. Catharines, Ontario, the eldest of four children of Yvonne Joan (née White), a nurse, and Dr. Michael Zaritsky, a physician of Ukrainian heritage. He graduated from Denis Morris Catholic High School in 1961,[2] then studied English and History at the University of Toronto's Trinity College, graduating in 1965.[3]

Journalism

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His first job was as a current affairs story editor at the CBC, but he left to take the job of police reporter at The Hamilton Spectator. He then moved to the Kitchener-Waterloo Record, where he was an education reporter, art critic and book reviewer. In 1968, he became a political reporter at the Toronto Star. In 1970, he received a Ford Foundation Fellowship to study at the Washington Journalism Center.[citation needed] In 1971, he went to work as a reporter at The Globe and Mail; in 1972, he won a National Newspaper Award for his investigative reporting,[citation needed] and a photography award from The Canadian Press. In 1973, he returned to the CBC as an investigative reporter; in 1975, the CBC created the documentary program the fifth estate and Zaritsky was one of five people tapped to create the show's films.[4][5]

Film career

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CBC - the fifth estate

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Zaritsky worked at the fifth estate until 1985, producing and directing the documentaries The Loser's Game, Charity Begins at Home, Caring for Crisler, Just Another Missing Kid, Bjorn Borg, and I'll Get There Somehow. Also for the CBC, he created a documentary about the creation of the fundraising song Tears Are Not Enough.[6] Just Another Missing Kid was screened internationally, was nominated for numerous awards, and won a 1982 ACTRA Award and the 1983 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.[7]

By 1982, Zaritsky had married producer Virginia Storring and the two formed their own production company, KA Productions. In 1985, Zaritsky left the CBC as an employee and, as contractors, he and Storring produced two films for the CBC--Tears Are Not Enough and The Real Stuff, a documentary about the Snowbirds which would later air on Frontline.[8] Their third documentary, produced with Robert M. Cooper, was 1986's Rapists: Can They Be Stopped?,[9] a film about possible treatments for sex offenders which won the 1987 CableACE Award for Best Informational Special.

Also in 1987, for the CBC, Zaritsky began work on his trilogy about birth defects caused by the anti-morning sickness drug Thalidomide. The first, Broken Promises was released in 1989.[10] The second, Extraordinary People, was released in 1999; No Limits: The Thalidomide Saga, a damning indictment of the German pharmaceutical company Grünenthal, was released at Vancouver's DOXA Documentary Film Festival in 2016.[11][12]

Zaritsky produced one other documentary for the CBC's Documentary Channel—2014's, A Different Drummer: Celebrating Eccentrics.[13]

PBS - Frontline

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In 1986, Zaritsky and Storring were contracted by PBS to produce documentaries for Frontline. They would stay with Frontline for ten years, producing My Husband is Going to Kill Me,[14] AIDS Quarterly: Born in Africa, My Doctor, My Lover,[15] Choosing Death (aka An Appointment With Death),[16] Romeo and Juliet in Sarajevo, Murder on Abortion Row,[17] and Little Criminals.[18] In 2006, Zaritsky produced and directed Right to Die?; it premiered in 2007 and Frontline released it as The Suicide Tourist in 2010.[19]

At the 6th Gemini Awards, Zaritsky won the award for Best Writing in an Information/Documentary Program or Series for My Doctor, My Lover. My Husband is Going to Kill Me won the American Bar Association's Golden Gavel Award, and Romeo and Juliet in Sarajevo won the Alfred I. duPont–Columbia University Award[citation needed]. At the 5th Gemini Awards, AIDS Quarterly: Born in Africa won the Best Direction in a Documentary and Best Writing in a Documentary awards; it also won the won a Robert F. Kennedy Foundation Award.[citation needed] Choosing Death, released in some markets as An Appointment With Death, won the Best Direction in an Information or Documentary Program or Series at the 8th Gemini Awards. The Suicide Tourist, released in some markets as Right to Die?, which documented the assisted suicide of Craig Ewert by the group Dignitas, won the Best Writing in a Documentary Program or Series award at the 23rd Gemini Awards and the Best Documentary Program award at the 2008 Leo Awards.[20] It also attracted extraordinary publicity in Britain when it aired there in December 2008. According to the Associated Press, "The documentary ... has been shown on Canadian and Swiss TV and at numerous film festivals, where it provoked little controversy. But it struck a raw nerve in Britain, where the divisive debate over assisted suicide remains unresolved."[21][22][23]

At this point, Zaritsky and Storring were living in Los Angeles. They divorced and, after spending the 1995–96 year as an Artist-in-Residence at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, Zaritsky moved to Vancouver.

Independent productions

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Zaritsky formed Point Grey Pictures (not to be confused with the company of the same name formed in 2011 by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg). In addition to completing the Thalidomide trilogy and making Right to Die?, he produced two films for the National Film Board of Canada—Ski Bums[24] and The Wild Horse Redemption.[25] He also created Men Don't Cry: Prostate Cancer Stories,[26] No Kidding: The Search for the World's Funniest Joke,[27] College Days, College Nights[28] and Leave Them Laughing.

To create College Days, College Nights, Zaritsky became Film Production Adjunct Professor in the Department of Theatre, Film and Creative Writing, at the University of British Columbia and, over the course of the 2003-04 academic year, had eight UBC film students follow the lives of 16 undergraduates. The 6-hour film aired in three parts on the CBC's Documentary Channel.[29] At the 20th Gemini Awards, Zaritsky won for Best Direction in a Documentary Series.

2010's Leave Them Laughing: A Musical Comedy About Dying follows singer and comedian Carla Zilber-Smith after she is diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's Disease.[30] At the 2010 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, the film won the Hot Docs Award for Best Canadian Feature Documentary Special Jury Prize. It also won the People's Choice Award for Best Canadian Documentary at the Vancouver International Film Festival,[31] the Directors' Choice Award at the 2011 Sedona International Film Festival,[32] the Audience Choice award for best Documentary at the Mill Valley Film Festival, Best of Festival at Calgary's Picture This...International Film Festival, and Best on the Edge in New Zealand's 2011 "Documentary Edge Film Festival."[citation needed]

In 2012 he directed Do You Really Want To Know? which recounts the stories of three families whose relatives died of Huntington's Disease. Members of each featured family underwent predictive testing to learn whether or not they have inherited the gene that causes the disease. Do You Really Want To Know? received two Golden Sheaf Awards at the Yorkton Film Festival:[33] Best Documentary (Science/Medicine/Technology), and Best Director (Non-Fiction); a Chris Award at the Columbus International Film & Video Festival for Best Documentary in the Science + Technology division,[34] and the Best Documentary award at the Okanagan Film Festival.[35] Its broadcast premiere was on 13 November 2012 on the Knowledge Network.

In 2017, filmmaker Jennifer DiCresce and cinematographer Michael Savoie produced the documentary Mr. Zaritsky on TV, which reviews Zaritsky's career and offers a behind-the-scenes look at Zaritsky's process.[36]

Personal life and death

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In 2010, Zaritsky married Vancouver caterer Annie Clutton. He died of congestive heart failure at Vancouver General Hospital on 20 March 2022, at age 78. He was survived by his wife, one step-daughter and two grandchildren.[37] At the time of his death, Zaritsky was working on his autobiography.

Filmography

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Sources

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  • "Zaritsky, John Norman," in: The Canadian Who's Who, Vol. 32, 1997, p. 1349.

References

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  1. ^ Sadaf Ahsan, "Oscar-winning documentarian John Zaritsky dies at 79". Toronto Star, 4 April 2022.
  2. ^ "DENIS MORRIS 1958 ~ 2008 (Anniversary Edition)" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 31 January 2009. Retrieved 18 December 2008.
  3. ^ Toronto International film Festival, Profile Archived 29 May 2008 at the Wayback Machine, 2007.
  4. ^ Glassman, Marc. "Death Comes for the Filmmaker". documentary.org. International Documentary Association. Retrieved 27 December 2022.
  5. ^ Nolan, Daniel (9 May 2022). "Obituary: Former Spectator reporter John Zaritsky..." The Hamilton Spectator. Retrieved 27 December 2022.
  6. ^ Newton, Steve (4 October 2015). "30 years ago today: Tears Are Not Enough film released in Canadian theatres". straight.com. The Georgia Straight. Retrieved 28 December 2022.
  7. ^ "Just Another Missing Kid". cbc.ca. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 27 December 2022.
  8. ^ "The Real Stuff (1987)". bfi.org.uk. British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 28 December 2022. Retrieved 28 December 2022.
  9. ^ "Rapists: Can They Be Stopped?". ojp.gov. U.S. Department of Justice. Retrieved 28 December 2022.
  10. ^ "Broken Promises". wellcomecollection.org. Wellcome Collection. Retrieved 28 December 2022.
  11. ^ Fisher, Gavin. "Vancouver filmmaker's doc exposes dark secrets..." cbc.ca. CBC News. Retrieved 28 December 2022.
  12. ^ Gail Johnson (4 May 2016). "John Zaritsky's No Limits reveals Nazi links to drug horrors". The Georgia Straight. Retrieved 9 August 2021.
  13. ^ "A Different Drummer — Celebrating Eccentrics". cbc.ca. CBC Documentary Channel. Retrieved 28 December 2022.
  14. ^ "My Husband is Going to Kill Me". pbs.org. PBS. Retrieved 28 December 2022.
  15. ^ Goodman, Walter (12 November 1991). "Review/Television; When a Psychiatrist Becomes a Lover". The New York Times. Retrieved 28 December 2022.
  16. ^ "Front cover image for Choosing death : a Health Quarterly/Frontline special Choosing death : a Health Quarterly/Frontline special". worldcat.org. WorldCat. Retrieved 28 December 2022.
  17. ^ "Murder on Abortion Row". pbs.org. PBS. Retrieved 28 December 2022.
  18. ^ "Little Criminals". pbs.org. PBS. Retrieved 28 December 2022.
  19. ^ "The Suicide Tourist". pbs.org. PBS. Retrieved 28 December 2022.
  20. ^ "2008 LEO AWARDS NOMINEES & WINNERS" (PDF). leoawards.com. Leo Awards. Retrieved 28 December 2022.
  21. ^ The New Zealand Herald Televised suicide causes uproar in Britain , 12 December 2008
  22. ^ Assisted Suicide for Healthy People?, 16 July 2009
  23. ^ Deaths reignite assisted-suicide debate 16 July 2009
  24. ^ Ski Bums. WorldCat. OCLC 813138123. Retrieved 28 December 2022 – via worldcat.org.
  25. ^ "The Wild Horse Redemption". nfb.ca. National Film Board of Canada. Retrieved 28 December 2022.
  26. ^ "Men Don't Cry: Prostate Cancer Stories". ffh.films.com. Films Media Group. Retrieved 28 December 2022.
  27. ^ "No Kidding: The Search for the World's Funniest Joke". idfa.nl. International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam. Retrieved 28 December 2022.
  28. ^ "College Days, College Nights". ffh.films.com. Films Media Group. Retrieved 28 December 2022.
  29. ^ Austin, Brenda. "UBC Reports March 3, 2005 - College Days, College Nights" (PDF). library.ubc.ca. University of British Columbia. Retrieved 28 December 2022.
  30. ^ "Hot Docs Review: Leave Them Laughing". panicmanual.com. Panic Manual. Retrieved 28 December 2022.
  31. ^ "Incendies nabs Vancouver film fest top prize". CBC News. 17 October 2010. Retrieved 6 February 2011.
  32. ^ "Award Winners: Past Festivals". sedonafilmfestival.com. Sedona International Film Festival. Retrieved 28 December 2022.
  33. ^ "YFF 2012 GSA Winners". Archived from the original on 15 October 2012. Retrieved 2 January 2013.
  34. ^ "2012 Awards Program" (PDF). Columbus Intl. Film & Video Festival. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 April 2017. Retrieved 2 January 2013.
  35. ^ "Off International 2012 Award Winners". Off International. Retrieved 2 January 2013.[permanent dead link]
  36. ^ Marsha Lederman, "John Zaritsky front and centre as subject of new documentary". The Globe and Mail, January 13, 2017.
  37. ^ Ahsan, Sadaf (4 April 2022). "Oscar-winning Canadian documentarian John Zaritsky dies at 79". CBC News. The Canadian Press. Retrieved 5 April 2022.
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