Brigitte Berman

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Brigitte Berman (born 1951) is a Canadian documentary filmmaker, most noted for her 1985 film Artie Shaw: Time Is All You've Got . [1]

Contents

Early life and work

Originally from West Germany, she moved to Canada with her family in childhood and studied film at Queen's University. [2]

She joined the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation as a researcher in the early 1970s, later becoming a creator of television documentaries for the network's documentary series Take 30 . [2]

Film career

Her first theatrical documentary film, Bix: Ain't None of Them Play Like Him Yet, was a profile of jazz musician Bix Beiderbecke and was released in 1982. [3]

Artie Shaw: Time Is All You've Got was released in 1985. [4] The film, which profiled Artie Shaw, was a Genie Award nominee for Best Feature Length Documentary at the 7th Genie Awards in 1986, [5] and a co-winner with Down and Out in America of the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film at the 59th Academy Awards in 1987. [6]

She subsequently enrolled at the Canadian Film Centre as part of its inaugural class in 1987. [7]

In 1994 her narrative feature debut, The Circle Game, premiered at the 1994 Toronto International Film Festival. [8]

In the mid-1990s Shaw sued Berman on the grounds that as Time Is All You've Got had become more critically and commercially successful than had been expected, he was entitled to receive a greater share of the film's profits than he had originally agreed to in the 1980s. [9] His lawsuit was dismissed in Ontario Superior Court in 1997. [10]

She subsequently directed a number of television films before returning to documentary filmmaking in the late 2000s with Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel (2009). [11] She also later released the Gordon Pinsent documentary The River of My Dreams in 2016, [12] and Hugh Hefner's After Dark: Speaking Out in America in 2018. [13]

Restorations

A restored print of Ain't None of Them Play Like Him Yet was screened at various film festivals in 2021. [14]

A new print of Time Is All You've Got screened in the TIFF Classics program at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival in advance of being permanently archived in the collection of the Film Reference Library. [15]

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References

  1. ↑ Bruce Bailey, "Canadian makes a pair of fine documentaries on jazz greats Shaw, Bix". Montreal Gazette , August 2, 1986.
  2. 1 2 Josée Miville-Dechêne, "Brigitte Berman: High on the feeling". Cinema Canada , April 1987.
  3. ↑ Mark Miller, "A reverent look at the young man with the horn". The Globe and Mail , September 11, 1982.
  4. ↑ Peter Goddard, "Film captures Shaw's frustration". Toronto Star , September 3, 1985.
  5. ↑ Jay Scott, "Joshua, American Cousin lead pack in Genie pursuit". The Globe and Mail , February 14, 1986.
  6. ↑ Jay Scott, "Platoon, Hannah share Oscar's favor Vietnam war film named best picture". The Globe and Mail , March 31, 1987.
  7. ↑ "Film school gets its first 12 students". Vancouver Sun , November 18, 1987.
  8. ↑ Catherine Dunphy, "Friends pulled together to make The Circle Game: Relationship saga mines depth of Canadian talent". Toronto Star , September 11, 1994.
  9. ↑ "Big Band star Artie Shaw sues film-maker over documentary". Edmonton Journal , December 14, 1996.
  10. ↑ "Bandleader Artie Shaw loses lawsuit over film". Saskatoon Star-Phoenix , March 10, 1997.
  11. ↑ Katherine Monk, "Pyjamas, bunny tails and social activism; Canadian filmmaker explores Hugh Hefner's more serious side in new documentary". Vancouver Sun , September 11, 2009.
  12. ↑ Norman Wilner, "The River Of My Dreams is respectful, reverent and dull". Now , January 25, 2017.
  13. ↑ Ryan Porter, "Toronto-based filmmaker Brigitte Berman examines politics of Hugh Hefner's talk show". CTV News, September 3, 2018.
  14. ↑ Jason Gorber, "Bix and Brigitte Berman: restoring a jazz film classic". Point of View , December 7, 2021.
  15. ↑ Pat Mullen, "TIFF Announces Luminary-Filled Wavelengths and Classics". Point of View , August 11, 2023.
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