Colin Low
Colin Archibald Low (born July 24, 1926 in Cardston , Alberta , † February 24, 2016 in Montreal , Québec ) was a Canadian film director , producer and animator .
Life
Colin Low grew up on a ranch in western Canada and studied fine arts at the Banff School of Fine Arts and the Calgary Institute of Technology. He joined the National Film Board of Canada in 1945 through a summer school program led by Norman McLaren at the time . At the NFB he was initially responsible as a graphic artist for the drawing of film titles. He went to Sweden to study for a short time in 1948, but returned to Canada in 1949. Low became a film director and in 1950 head of the animation department of Unit B of the NFB, which in turn was headed by Tom Daly . Unit B was considered "a world-renowned source of innovative films that have now become classics of documentary films". Unit B's international successes also included Low's own animated film The Romance of Transportation in Canada , which received an Oscar nomination and won a Palme d' Or. In 1957 Low made his first documentary Corral (1954) with Wolf Koenig ; 1957 followed with City of Gold, a documentary film that, like The Romance of Transportation in Canada, won a Golden Palm and was nominated for an Oscar. From 1964 Low worked as a co-director on the experimental multi-screen film Labyrinth , which caused a sensation at Expo 67 and was later worked up in parts for television as In the Labyrinth . As a result, global interest in large screen formats increased; Labyrinth is regarded as a guide for the development of IMAX and OMNIMAX (later IMAX Dome ).
Low became executive producer of Studios C of the NFB in 1972 and directed over 100 documentaries by 1976. From 1976 he was the head of Regional Production, which included five production companies in different regions of Canada.
Low always showed a great interest in new film technologies and saw his own films as an opportunity to experiment. In 1980, Atmos was his first large-screen film, OMNIMAXX. He was also involved in the first 3D film Born of Stars (1985), was the director of the first IMAX 3D film Transitions (1986), which was shown at Expo 86 in Vancouver , and was the director of the first IMAX HD film Momentum ( 1992) director. Critics recognized him as "a tireless technology innovator and one of the true visionaries of Canadian documentary film." In 2002, Low received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Large Format Cinema Association (LFCA) for his contributions to the development of IMAX and big screen cinema. Low was named a member of the Order of Canada in 1996 for "his exceptional contributions to cinema in Canada and around the world" . In 1997 he received the Prix Albert-Tessier for his cinematic life's work . He was also a member of the Royal Canadian Academy .
Low officially retired from the film business in 1997, but continued to appear as a film producer and publish articles on innovations in the field of film technology. Low's son Stephen Low is also active as a film producer.
Filmography (selection)
- 1948: The Fight: Science Against Cancer
- 1953: The Romance of Transportation in Canada
- 1954: Corral
- 1957: City of Gold
- 1958: The Living Stone
- 1960: Circle of the Sun
- 1960: The Sky Above Us (Universe)
- 1961: The Days of Whiskey Gap
- 1961: Very Nice, Very Nice
- 1962: My Financial Career
- 1964: The Hutterites
- 1967: Billy Crane Moves Away
- 1970: The Winds of Fogo
- 1979: Atmos
- 1985: Born of Stars
- 1985: Urgence
- 1989: The First Emperor of China
- 1992: momentum
- 2000: Moving Pictures
Awards (selection)
- 1953: Grand Prix (from 1955 Goldene Palme ) - Prix du film d'animation - court métrage, for The Romance of Transportation in Canada
- 1957: Goldene Palme - Prix du documentaire - court métrage, for City of Gold
- 1958: Canadian Film Award, best film of the year, for City of Gold
- 1959: Golden Mikeldi at the Bilbao International Festival of Documentary and Short Films for City of Gold
- 1961: Oscar nomination , Best Documentary Short Film , for The Sky Above Us (Universe)
- 1961: BAFTA , Best Animated Short Film , for The Sky Above Us (Universe)
- 1961: Canadian Film Award, best film of the year, for The Sky Above Us (Universe)
- 1964: Oscar nomination, Best Animated Short Film category, for My Financial Career
- 1971: BAFTA nomination, Best Short Film , for The Winds of Fogo
literature
- Colin Low . In: Jeff Lenburg: Who's who in animated cartoons . Applause, New York 2006, p. 216.
Web links
- Colin Low in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Films by Colin Low at the NFB
- Colin Low biography at NFB
- Biography and filmography on the Canadian Film Cyclopedia
Individual evidence
- ↑ Colin Low, Quebec documentary filmmaker, dead at 89. In: cbc.ca. CBC News, February 24, 2016, accessed February 25, 2016.
- ↑ See nfb approx
- ^ "A world-famous source of innovative films that have become documentary classics". See Tom Daly ( English, French ) In: The Canadian Encyclopedia . Retrieved July 28, 2019.
- ↑ At that time, only the producers were nominated, but not the directors, so Tom Daly was nominated for an Oscar.
- ↑ NFB pioneer Tom Daly dies at age 93 . In: The Canadian Press , September 21, 2011.
- ↑ See biography of Colin Low on onf-nfb.gc.ca ( Memento of the original from October 14, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ "an unflagging innovator of technology and one of the true visionaries of Canadian documentary." Cf. tiff.net ( Memento of the original of March 13, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ See tiff.net
- ↑ "His extraordinary contributions to cinema in Canada and around the world." Cf. onf-nfb.gc.ca ( Memento of the original from October 14, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ See festival-cannes.fr
- ↑ See festival-cannes.fr
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Low, Colin |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Low, Colin Archibald (full name) |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Canadian film director, film producer and animator |
DATE OF BIRTH | July 24, 1926 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Cardston , Alberta , Canada |
DATE OF DEATH | February 24, 2016 |
Place of death | Montreal , Quebec , Canada |