Roland Hallé

Roland Hallé (born March 20, 1930 in Lévis , Canada ; † May 26, 2018 in Québec , Canada) was a Canadian filmmaker and Oscar winner .

Live and act

Hallé began his professional career as a traveling salesman and vacuum cleaner salesman. In the late 1960s he went into business for himself and founded his own company, a small insurance company. In 1972, the French-Canadian, who had suffered a deep life crisis - one of his daughters had died at the age of 14 - moved with his children to Europe for two years, where he became a cineast in Cannes, France, on the occasion of a film festival visit. In 1974 the family returned to North America. Roland Hallé settled in the United States and enrolled at Boston University . There he studied media at the School of Public Communication.

In order to graduate with a Masters degree, Hallé had to submit his own film. The result was called Karl Hess: Toward Liberty and was a portrait of a reactionary US publicist and political advisor to the Republicans, who, like Hallé, made a 180-degree about-face not only politically but also with regard to future fields of activity. For this work Hallé and his film partner Peter W. Ladue received an Oscar in the category Best Short Documentary in 1981 . His follow-up work Urge to Build was also nominated for the Academy Award in 1982, but this time came away empty-handed. After a long break from filming, the Canadian tried again as a filmmaker in 1988, but the result, The First Killing Frost , went virtually unnoticed by the public. After that, Roland Hallé lost his interest in filmmaking and eventually became a yoga teacher.

Filmography (complete)

• 1980: Karl Hess: Toward Liberty (short documentary, director, production)
• 1981: Urge to Build (short documentary, director, producer)
• 1989: The First Killing Frost (feature film. Director, production, screenplay)

Web links

• Obituary on journaldequebec.com
• Roland Hallé in the Internet Movie Database (English)