Brigitte Berman

Hugh Hefner and Brigitte Berman (center, in red) at the performance of Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival

Brigitte Berman (born Paech ; * 1952 in Frankfurt am Main ) is a German-Canadian film director , screenwriter and producer , mainly of documentaries . She won an Oscar for her documentary Artie Shaw: Time Is All You've Got .

Life

Her mother Ursula Wilhelmina Atkinson-Berman (1925–2008) was a businesswoman who ran a bakery, a souvenir shop and a chain for women's clothing, among other things. She came from Wattenscheid and emigrated with her son to Hamilton in Canada in 1950 . She later returned temporarily to Germany, where her daughter Brigitte was born in 1952. Brigitte Berman came to Canada when she was 12. She has German and Canadian citizenship and speaks English, German and French.

Berman studied English and Film at Queen's University in Kingston , where she received a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in 1971 and a Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) the following year. The fact that she opted for the (then new) course in film was mainly due to the influence of the Canadian lecturer and film critic Peter Harcourt (1931–2014), with whom she worked on several university projects.

After graduating, Berman began working for the CBC , initially as a researcher in the area of current affairs. She later worked as a director and producer for CBC, among other things, she worked in this role from 1981 to 1984 on the TV news program Take 30 . At the same time she worked in her free time on a documentary about the American jazz musician Bix Beiderbecke ( Bix: 'Ain't None of Them Play Like Him Yet' , 1981). The film won several festivals, including a bronze Hugo at the Chicago International Film Festival .

While working on Bix , Berman had interviewed jazz musician Artie Shaw and decided to make a documentary about him. As before, she worked with executive producer Don Haig. Their work involved a four day interview with Shaw and extensive research. In late 1984, Berman quit her job at CBC to complete the film. Artie Shaw: Time Is All You've Got won an Academy Award for Best Documentary at the 1987 Academy Awards (along with Down and Out in America ). After the completion of the film, Berman worked on various film projects in London for a few months and finally returned to Toronto , where she lives.

In other documentaries, Berman portrayed the Canadian artist and geographer Robert Bateman ( Robert Bateman: A Celebration of Nature , 1984), the actor Gordon Pinsent ( The River of My Dreams , 2016) and Playboy founder Hugh Hefner ( Hugh Hefner: Playboy , Activist and Rebel , 2009). She worked for three years on the film about Hefner, which she had originally met because he was interested in her film Bix . It has screened at various film festivals such as the Toronto International Film Festival . In 2018, Berman brought out another documentary about Hefner, which mainly deals with his previous television programs Playboy's Penthouse and Playboy After Dark .

Berman was married to the film producer Victor Solnicki (1938-2016). He had worked on the film Hugh Hefner's After Dark but died before it was finished.

Filmography (selection)

1975–1976: In Good Company (TV series)
1977–1981: Quarterly Report (television broadcast)
1980: How Music Came to the Garden City (TV documentary)
1980: Elmira (television documentary)
1981–1984: Take 30 (TV show, 90 episodes)
1981: Bix: 'Ain't None of Them Play Like Him Yet' (documentary)
1982: The Many Faces of Black (TV documentary)
1983: The Osbornes: A Very Special Family (TV documentary)
1983: Judy Chicago and the Dinner Party (TV documentary)
1984: Robert Bateman: A Celebration of Nature (TV documentary series)
1985: Artie Shaw: Time Is All You've Got (documentary)
1994: The Circle Game
1998: Testing the Limits
2001: Le porte-bonheur (TV movie)
2002: Ta voix dans la nuit (TV movie)
2009: Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel (documentary)
2016: The River of My Dreams (documentary)
2018: Hugh Hefner's After Dark: Speaking Out in America (documentary)

Web links

Commons : Brigitte Berman - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ Brigitte Berman bfi.org.uk. Retrieved January 14, 2019.
↑ Ursula Wilhelmina Atkinson-Berman. In: Peace Arch News. October 17, 2008. Retrieved January 14, 2019.
↑ ^a ^b Berman, Brigitte. In: Who's who in Canadian film and television. Academy of Canadian Film & Television, Ontario 1991.
↑ ^a ^b Portrait of a playboy. queensu.ca. Retrieved January 14, 2019.
↑ ^a ^b ^c Josée Miville-Dechêne: Oscar nominee Brigitte Berman: High on the feeling. In: Cinema Canada. April 1987, No. 140, p. 17 ( online, PDF ).
^ The 59th Academy Awards, 1987 oscars.org. Retrieved January 14, 2019.
↑ Ryan Porter: Canadian Oscar winner Brigitte Berman examines politics of Hugh Hefner's talk show. The Canadian Press at The Guardian . September 2, 2018. Retrieved January 14, 2019.

personal data
SURNAME	Berman, Brigitte
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Paech, Brigitte (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German-Canadian documentary filmmaker
DATE OF BIRTH	1952
PLACE OF BIRTH	Frankfurt am Main

[1] Brigitte Berman bfi.org.uk. Retrieved January 14, 2019.

[2] Ursula Wilhelmina Atkinson-Berman. In: Peace Arch News. October 17, 2008. Retrieved January 14, 2019.

[who-3] Berman, Brigitte. In: Who's who in Canadian film and television. Academy of Canadian Film & Television, Ontario 1991.

[queensu-4] Portrait of a playboy. queensu.ca. Retrieved January 14, 2019.

[cc-5] Josée Miville-Dechêne: Oscar nominee Brigitte Berman: High on the feeling. In: Cinema Canada. April 1987, No. 140, p. 17 ( online, PDF ).

[6] The 59th Academy Awards, 1987 oscars.org. Retrieved January 14, 2019.

[7] Ryan Porter: Canadian Oscar winner Brigitte Berman examines politics of Hugh Hefner's talk show. The Canadian Press at The Guardian . September 2, 2018. Retrieved January 14, 2019.