Roman Kroitor - Northernstars.ca

Roman Kroiter
b. December 12, 1926 in Yorkton, Saskatchewan
d. September 17, 2012

Image © 2010 by Lois Siegel

Roman Boghdan Kroitor, pictured above at the 2010 Ottawa International Animation Festival, is primarily known as a technical innovator having pioneered a number of new cinematographic approaches over several decades. He became interested in film after seeing a movie by Maya Deren, an influential experimental artist. He had completed his Master's degree in philosophy and psychology at the University of Manitoba and joined the National Film Board in 1949 as a production assistant and soon became an editor; he directed his first film, Rescue Party, in 1952. One of the first filmmakers to use the new lightweight cameras, in 1954 he produced and directed Paul Tomkowicz: Street-railway Switchman, an important early precursor of the direct cinema movement. His Labyrinth project (with Colin Low) was one of the most brilliant multi–screen efforts at Expo 67. He went on to be one of the co-founders of the Imax Corporation with Graeme Ferguson and Robert Kerr, and he produced and wrote Tiger Child, the first film partially shot in the revolutionary format, directed by Donald Brittain. Since the mid-1990s, Kroiter has been involved in the development of a new 3D animation technique called Sandde, an example of which is behind him in the photo above. Sandde is a hand-drawn, stereoscopic animation system, that Kroiter presented at the 2010 Ottawa International Animation Festival on October 23. The multi-dimensional effect of the layered animation was described as being "amazing." The first film to be created using the Sandde system was the 2-minute 7-second IMAX 3D animated film Paint Misbehavin'.

Tom Perlmutter, Government Film Commissioner and NFB Chairperson, said this upon learning of Roman Kroiter's passing, "Roman Kroitor was a remarkable man who has made out-sized contributions to cinema as a filmmaker, producer and creative and technical innovator. He was a legend whose relentless pace of inventiveness continued throughout a long and productive career. His death is a terrific loss to the NFB, Canada and the world of cinema."

An interview with Roman Kroiter,

Features & TV Movies:
VR indicates Direct-to-Video Release

Rescue Party (1952)
Paul Tomkowicz: Street-railway Switchman (1952)
Farm Calendar (1955)
The Great Plains (1956)
L’Année B la ferme (1957)
Glenn Gould: On the Record (1959, with Wolf Koenig)
<Glenn Gould On & Off The Record> Glenn Gould: Off the Record (1959, with Wolf Koenig)

Universe (1960, with Colin Low)
Festival in Puerto Rico (1961)
Lonely Boy (1961, with Wolf Koenig)
The Living Machine (1962)
Above the Horizon (1964, with Hugh O’Connor)
Canadian Businessmen (1964, with Wolf Koenig)
Stravinsky (1965, with Wolf Koenig)
Labyrinth (1967, with Colin Low)
IBM Close-up (1968)

Code Name Running Jump (1972)
Exercise Running Jump II (1972)
Circus World (1974)
In the Labyrinth (1979, with Colin Low, Hugh O’Connor)

Echoes of the Sun (1990)
Rolling Stones at the Max (1991, with Julien Temple, David Douglas, Noel Archambault)
Paint Misbehavin’ (1996)

Credits as a Producer:

Paul Tomkowicz: Street-railway Switchman (1952, co-producer with Tom Daly)
Blood and Fire, Candid Eye series (1958, co-producer with Wolf Koenig)
Country Threshing (1958, co-producer with Wolf Koenig)
The Days Before Christmas (1958, co-producer with Wolf Koenig)
A Foreign Language (1958, co-producer with Wolf Koenig)
Memory of Summer (1958, co-producer with Wolf Koenig)
Pilgrimage (1958, co-producer with Wolf Koenig)
Police (1958, co-producer with Wolf Koenig)
The Back-breaking Leaf (1959, co-producer with Wolf Koenig)
La Battaison (1959, co-producer with Wolf Koenig)
The Canadians (1959, executive producer)
Emergency Ward (1959, co-producer with Wolf Koenig)
End of the Line (1959, co-producer with Wolf Koenig)
Glenn Gould – Off the Record (1959, co- producer with Wolf Koenig)
Glenn Gould – On the Record (1959, co-producer with Wolf Koenig)

The Cars in Your Life (1960, co-producer with Wolf Koenig)
I Was a Ninety-pound Weakling (1960, co-producer with Wolf Koenig)
The Days of Whiskey Gap (1961, co-producer with Wolf Koenig)
Festival in Puerto Rico (1961, producer)
Lonely Boy (1961, producer)
University (1961, co-producer with Wolf Koenig)
The Living Machine (1961, co-producer with Tom Daly)
Above the Horizon (1964, co-producer with Hugh O’Connor, Tom Daly)
The Hutterites, 1964 (co-producer with Tom Daly)
Legault’s Place, 1964 (co-producer with Tom Daly)
Nobody Waved Good-bye, (1964, co-producer with Donald Owen)
Toronto Jazz (1964, producer)
The Baymen (1965, co-producer with Peter Jones)
Stravinsky (1965, producer)
Two Men of Montreal (1965, co-producer with Donald Brittain, John Kemeny, Tom Daly)
Little White Crimes (1966, co-producer with John Kemeny)
Labyrinth (1967, co-producer with Tom Daly)
IBM Close-up (1968, producer)

Tiger Child (1970, co-producer with Iichi Ichikawa)
Code Name Running Jump (1972, producer)
Exercise Running Jump II (1972, director; writer; producer)
Circus World (1974, producer)
Man Belongs to the Earth (1974, co-producer with Graeme Ferguson)
Man the Hunter - Caribou (1974, executive producer)
Propaganda Message (1974, co-producer with Wolf Koenig)
Man the Hunter - Fishing (1975, executive producer)
Man the Hunter - Seal Hunting (1975, executive producer)
Bargain Basement (1976, producer)
For Gentlemen Only (1976, executive producer)
Listen Listen Listen (1976, executive producer)
Schefferville 4th Arctic Winter Games (1976, co-producer with Dennis Sawyer)
Striker (1976, executive producer)
The World is Round (1976, executive producer)
L’Âge de la machine (1977, co-producer with Jacques Bobet)
Back Alley Blue (1977, executive producer)
Bekevar Jubilee (1977, executive producer)
Breakdown (1977, executive producer)
Flora: Scenes from a Leadership Convention (1977, co-executive producer with Arthur Hammond)
Happiness Is Loving Your Teacher (1977, executive producer)
Henry Ford’s America (1977, co- producer with Donald Brittain and Paul Wright)
Hold the Ketchup (1977, executive producer)
I Wasn’t Scared (1977, co-producer with Vladimir Valenta)
Nature’s Food Chain (1977, executive producer)
One Man (1977, co-producer with Michael Scott, James de B. Domville, Tom Daly, Vladimir Valenta)
Sail Away (1977, executive producer)
Strangers at the Door (1977, co-producer with John Howe, Maxine Samuels)
Oh Canada (1978, co-producer with Wolf Koenig, Robert Verrall, Dorothy Courtois)
Easter Eggs (1978, executive producer)
Margaret Laurence, First Lady of Manawaka (1978, executive producer)
The Point (1978, executive producer)
The Red Dress (1978, co-executive producer with Dieter Nachtigall)
The Russels (1978, executive producer)
So Long to Run (1978, executive producer)
Teach Me to Dance (1978, co-producer with Vladimir Valenta, John Howe)
Voice of the Fugitive (1978, executive producer)
The War is Over (1978, executive producer)
In the Labyrinth (1979, co-producer with Tom Daly)
Bravery in the Field (1979, co-producer with Stefan Wodoslawsky; executive producer)
Gopher Broke (1979, co-producer with Stefan Wodoslawsky; executive producer)
Love on Wheels (1979, executive producer)
Northern Composition (1979, executive producer)
Revolution's Orphans (1979, co-producer with Rob Iveson)
Twice Upon a Time (1979, co-producer with Stefan Wodoslawsky)
Why Men Rape (1979, executive producer)

Acting Class (1980, executive producer)
Challenger: An Industrial Romance (1980, executive producer)
Challenger: An Industrial Romance [short version (1980, executive producer)
Coming Back Alive (1980, co-producer with Wolf Koenig)
Maritimes Dig (1980, executive producer)
Nose and Tina (1980, executive producer)
Prehistoric Artifacts, New Brunswick (1980, executive producer)
This was the Beginning, Part 1: The Invertebrates (1980, executive producer)
This was the Beginning, Part 2: The Vertebrates, 1980 (executive producer)
Arthritis: A Dialogue with Pain (1981, co-executive producer with Robert Verrall)
Baxter Earns His Wings (1981, executive producer)
First Winter (1981, executive producer)
Hail Columbia! (1981, co-producer with Graeme Ferguson)
Where the Buoys Are (1981, executive producer)
Laughter in My Soul (1983, co-executive producer with Robert Verrall)
Starbreaker (1984, producer; co-executive producer with Robert Verrall)
Skyward (1985, co-producer with Susumu Sakane)
A Freedom to Move (1985, executive producer)
We Are Born of Stars (1985, producer)
Heart Land (1987, co-producer with Sally Dundas)

Echoes of the Sun (1990, co-producer with Fumio Sumi, Sally Dundas)
Flowers in the Sky (1990, co-producer with Charles Konowal)
The Last Buffalo (1990, co-producer with Sally Dundas)
Imagine (1993, co-producer with Hyok-Kyu Kwon)
Paint Misbehavin’ (1996, co-producer with Steve Hoban)

CyberWorld (2000, co-producer with Sally Dundas, Steven Hoban, Hugh Murray)