Former Spec reporter became Oscar-winning documentary maker
Newspaper sparked interest in investigative reporting
Documentary filmmaker John Zaritsky liked to tell stories and he had a good one that day when he flew home from Hollywood after winning an Oscar in 1983.
The former Hamilton Spectator reporter won an Academy Award for best feature length documentary for his film “Just Another Missing Kid” which ran on CBC’s “The Fifth Estate” in 1981.
The 90-minute film was about the disappearance and murder of Ottawa teenager Eric Wilson while driving to Colorado, and the police and judicial indifference and bungling that hampered attempts to find his body and his murderers. The program won other awards, and was later bought from the CBC by TV networks around the world.
But that didn’t mean anything to Canada Customs officials when Zaritsky landed at the Toronto airport after the April 11 ceremony. Zaritsky got grilled by “a typical customs guy” over the value of the Oscar.
“He asked me what it was worth,” he told The Spec later that month. “With a straight face. He was serious. He wasn’t going to let me through.”
Zaritsky and his then-wife,
Virginia Storring, were soon placed in a room “reserved for dope smugglers and jewel thieves” and questioned further. He had listed the Oscar’s value as $10 based on a letter he had from the Academy on the price they’d pay if he had to sell it back if he fell on hard times. Finally, the couple asked to see a supervisor.
“After more questioning, he finally agreed to let us leave,” Zaritsky said. “But, first he asked whether the $10 was in American or Canadian funds. I said American. So he took our declaration form and changed the $10 to $12.”
That was just a little bump in the high-flying career of Zaritsky, who died March 30 of heart failure at age 79 in Vancouver.
His death was announced in a release from his wife, Annie Clutton. She and Zaritsky married about a decade ago. His first marriage to Storring ended in divorce.
“John took on the most impossible of topics and characters
and turned them into compelling and entertaining stories,” said Clutton.
Zaritsky worked on more than a dozen documentaries during a career that began in 1970 at the CBC and won more than 40 industry and film festival awards, including seven Gemini Awards. He and Storring did documentaries for “Frontline.”
Some of his other work included “Rapists: Can They Be Stopped?” (1985), “The Real Stuff” (about the Snowbirds aerobatic team, 1987), “Murder on Abortion Row” (1996), “Ski Bums” (2002), “The Suicide Tourist” (2008) and “No Limits: The Thalidomide Saga” (2016). His work was broadcast in 35 countries.
Zaritsky credited The Spectator for starting his rewarding career.
“My first job in journalism was at The Spec in 1966,” he said. “I was a real novice, a real rookie, wet behind the ears, but I covered my first murder there, and I guess that’s where my interest in investigative reporting began.”
Zaritsky was born in St. Catharines on July 13, 1943. His father, Michael, was a doctor and his mother, Yvonne, was a nurse. He studied literature at the University of Toronto and came to The Spec to work as a police and general assignment reporter.
He worked at the KitchenerWaterloo Record as an education reporter/art critic/book reviewer, and got a job as a political reporter at the Toronto Star in 1968. His first job at the CBC was as a story editor in its current affairs department.
He moved to the Globe and Mail in 1971 but left a year later to freelance in Europe for Canadian newspapers and magazines. He returned to the CBC in 1973 and set up his own production company in 1982.
Zaritsky later served as an artist in residence at the University of California at Berkeley. He settled in Vancouver more than two decades ago and became an instructor at the University of British Columbia.
His wife said one of his greatest joys in life was sharing stories with friends.
“In his memory he would like you to do two things,” Clutton said.
“Take a friend out for a beer or two and watch a locally-made documentary and allow your life to be changed a little.”
Zaritsky is survived by his wife, Annie Clutton, stepdaughter, Erin, and two grandchildren. He is also survived by his first wife, Virgnia Storring.