B: September 19, 1935 in Toronto, Ontario
D: February 21, 2016 in Toronto, Ontario
Don Owen studied anthropology at the University of Toronto and began his career writing “sponsored films” before joining the National Film Board in 1960. In 1963, while he was with the NFB’s Unit B, he was assigned to direct a half-hour docudrama about a probation officer and a juvenile delinquent. He disobeyed orders and instead delivered the edgy, urgent, now legendary feature Nobody Waved Good-Bye. It was the first film to give Toronto a cinematic identity and remains an inspired work that blends cinéma-vérité with fiction. It received critical acclaim and became an icon of English-speaking Canadian filmmaking. Owen followed up Nobody with two more features: the intriguing Notes for a Film about Donna and Gail and The Ernie Game, a perceptive drama of late 1960s Canuck Zeitgeist. Leaving the Board in 1969, Owen directed several shorts and unsatisfactory dramas for television, including Unfinished Business, a 1984 sequel to Nobody Waved Good-Bye. |
Features & TV Movies: Runner (1962) |
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