Filmmaker donates his collection to Ryerson
Toronto filmmaker Barry Avrich is giving his moguls and Shakespeares to Ryerson University.
Avrich, an award-winning documentarian who produced Sunday’s Canadian Screen Awards broadcast, has donated the original masters of his films, plus thousands of hours of interview footage and related archival materials, to Ryerson University’s Faculty of Communication and Design.
The Barry Avrich Collection includes his Moguls Series: films on such powerful and influential showbiz players as Lew Wasserman ( The Last Mogul), Harvey Weinstein ( Unauthorized: The Harvey Weinstein Project) and Bob Guccione ( Filthy Gorgeous: The Bob Guccione Story) that have been a cornerstone of Avrich’s 21-year moviemaking career.
Avrich has also directed many film productions of Stratford Festival stage performances of Shakespeare classics, among them The Taming of the Shrew, Antony and Cleopatra, Twelfth Night and Love’s Labour’s Lost.
“I came to Ryerson as a student from Montreal and it was here that I picked up my first film camera. Today, Ryerson is home to some of Canada’s leading programs in film and photography preservation, documentary media and media production,” said Avrich, who holds the title of distinguished visiting professor at Ryerson.
“My hope is that this collection will be used by students and researchers across campus for many years to come.” Peter Howell
Shatner goes back to stars in doc
Who better than a former Starfleet captain to explore the impact of the legendary series Star Trek on science and space exploration?
That’s the mission that William Shatner, a.k.a. Captain Kirk, has taken on in The Truth Is in the Stars, a new feature documentary commissioned by Bell Media’s The Movie Network. It debuts Sunday, March19 at 8:30 p.m. on TMN.
In the film, Shatner, 85, interviews celebrities, scientists and “thoughtleaders,” including Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, science broadcaster David Suzuki, actors Whoopi Goldberg, Jason Alexander and Ben Stiller, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson and theoretical physicist Michio Kaku, among others.
The interview locations include NASA mission control rooms, the USS space shuttle Enterprise and Cambridge, England, where Shatner chats with esteemed theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking.
The doc is written and directed by Craig Thompson, who’s an executive producer along with Shatner and Peter Raymont ( Shake Hands With the Devil).
After its TV premiere, the film will be available on demand. Debra Yeo
Cancer claims Amy Krouse Rosenthal
Amy Krouse Rosenthal, a popular author, filmmaker and speaker who brightened lives with her generous spirit — and broke hearts when she wrote of being terminally ill and leaving behind her husband Jason — died Monday at age 51.
Rosenthal had been diagnosed in 2015 with ovarian cancer.
A Chicago native, Rosenthal completed than more 30 books, including journals, memoirs and the bestselling picture stories Uni the Unicorn and Duck! Rabbit! She made short films and YouTube videos, gave TED talks and provided radio commentary for NPR, among others.
She also raised three children and had a flair for random acts of kindness, whether it was hanging dollar bills from a tree or leaving notes on ATM machines.
“I do what feels right to me. If it resonates or plants some seeds, great,” she told Chicago magazine in 2010.
While her books were noted for their exuberant tone, she started a very different conversation early this month with a widely read “Modern Love” column she wrote for the New York Times. Rosenthal told of learning about her fatal diagnosis and, in the form of a dating profile, offered tribute to Jason Brian Rosenthal. The essay was titled, “You May Want to Marry My Husband.”
“If you’re looking for a dreamy, let’sgo-for-it travel companion, Jason is your man. He also has an affinity for tiny things: taster spoons, little jars, a mini-sculpture of a couple sitting on a bench, which he presented to me as a reminder of how our family began,” she wrote.