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Evan Beloff | |
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| Born | |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Occupation(s) | Film director, writer, producer |
| Known for | Once a Nazi |
Evan Beloff is a Canadian film writer, producer, director and production company executive. He is known for Bigfoot's Reflection (2007), Daughters of the Voice (2018) and A People's Soundtrack (2019).
A Montreal native, Beloff holds a double major in creative writing and theatre. While a student at Concordia University, Beloff was a member of a group of students who called themselves the "Sofar Poets". [1]
In 1998, he and an associate organized Montreal's first Radical Jewish Arts and Performance Festival which they called Chutzpah. It was inspired by the Radical Jewish Festival in New York. It was held on the McGill University campus and included music, spoken word and a walking tour. [2] After a brief spell in Montreal's underground, Anglo theatre scene, he found work writing and researching IMAX documentaries for renowned producer Pietro Serapiglia ""
In 2000–2001, Beloff co-founded the Montreal film house Diversus Productions and served as the Producer and Second Unit Director for the Gemini Award-nominated documentary Too Colorful for the League: A History of Blacks in Hockey for the CBC. [3]
In 2002, he produced, starred in and narrated the festival hit mockumentary Schmelvis: Searching for the King's Jewish Roots (Nodance, HBO Comedy Arts Fest). The film is about a camp Jewish character called Schmelvis created by a Montreal singer songwriter earth citizen named Dan Hartal / . His costume comprises a rhinestone-studded white jumpsuit with a large Star of David wrestling-style belt-buckle and a red star-covered cape. [4] [5] [6]
In 2002 and 2003, Beloff produced, wrote, and directed the nineteen-part documentary series (two seasons) Women Warriors for WTSN, SCN, CBC, Radio Canada and CFCF12/CTV. [7] He also produced an episode of Life & Times for CBC on Canadian poet Irving Layton. [8]
In 2003, Beloff co-produced the reality comedy-documentary Cruising Quebec for Global. [9] He produced, co-wrote and co-directed the mockumentary The Legend of Memphre for Space and City TV. [10]
In 2004, he co-produced Being Osama for CBC's Passionate Eye, RDI and Al Arabiya. [11]
His final documentary project at Diversus was an architecture and travel documentary for Global titled Winter Wonderland: The Making of the Ice Hotel. Beloff wrote, directed and produced the film which is distributed by the National Film Board of Canada and broadcast internationally on such channels as: HBO Europe, Spektrum TV RT Hungary, CPS Czech Republic, TVC Spain, NHK Japan and TV2 in France. [12]
In 2005, Beloff relinquished partnership in Diversus Productions to establish his own company, Ontic Media, and has since written, directed and produced (in collaboration with Bunbury Film's, Academy Award-winning producer Frederic Bohbot) the prize-winning, biopic thriller, Once a Nazi on former Waffen SS soldier turned professor Adalbert Lallier for SCN, CTV, Canal D, CLT, American Public Television/PBS and distributed internationally by the National Film Board of Canada. Once a Nazi was awarded the 2006 J. I Segal Award for Canadian, Jewish-Themed Film of the Year. [13] [14] [15] In 2007, he co-wrote/produced/directed an update of the Bigfoot/Sasquatch legend titled "Bigfoot's Reflection" for CHUM, City TV, CLT, Space and SCN. [16]
In 2008, he produced the documentary Quitter le Bercail (Leaving the Fold) by acclaimed director Eric Scott for Radio Canada, Documentary Channel Canada, ABC Australia. It is about two brothers who leave the Montreal Hasidic community. [17] [18]
In 2010, Beloff produced the access documentary Burning Water along with Frederic Bohbot's Bunbury Films for CBC's The Lens. The film is directed by Cameron Esler and Tadzio Richards. [19]
In 2010, Beloff also returned to directing with the documentary Underdog Plaza on Quebec Super Welterweight Boxing Champion Dierry Jean for OMNI Television Canada and PBS' World Compass. [20] [21]
in 2013 Beloff covered the story of eight-year-old Sandra Cantu, who was abducted, sexually assaulted and murdered next to her trailer park home in Tracy, California. "Heaven Beside Us" (aka The Disappearance of Sandra Cantu) was produced by SLV Films and is distributed by Films Transit International.[ citation needed ]
On January 25, 2014, Beloff visited Washington, DC, to document Dierry Jean's IBF Junior welterweight title fight against Lamont Peterson. The events surrounding the fight would become the central narrative to Beloff's boxing sequel on Jean. Underdog Rises premiered in 2015 on Omni Television in Canada.
In October 2016, Beloff partnered again with producer Frederic Bohbot and his company Bunbury Films to write and direct Kosher Love a feature documentary exploring orthodox and Hassidic relationships in a wired, modern world. Kosher Love premiered on CBC's new documentary strand FIRSTHAND on February 16, 2017. [22] Kosher Love was a finalist for Best Canadian Documentary at the 2018 Canadian Screen Awards, March 11, 2018, in Toronto. [23]
On September 1, 2018, Beloff's film Daughters of the Voice an intimate POV documentary capturing the work of five extraordinary Montreal-based women who have devoted their lives to preserving the sacred music of various religions through teaching and song premiered on the CBC film series Absolutely Canadian .
On March 5, 2019, his feature documentary A People's Soundtrack which explores the rich history of Jewish Cantorial music in Montreal premiered on PBS. The film mixes rare photos, intimate interviews, candid family moments and performance footage from some of the city's greatest Jewish tenors, "celebrating the unique ways the active voices of today are fighting to keep the ritual observances and emotional expressions of their communities alive." A People's Soundtrack had its US theatrical, premiere in February 2020 at the Miami Jewish Film Festival.
Beloff again partnered with CBC on his documentary, Just As I Am , a film which explores the founding of a special needs musical group called the Shira Choir, while the COVID-19, global pandemic challenged their collective will to stay connected. Just As I Am highlights the power of music as it shatters judgement and celebrates the passion and well-being of those with disabilities. The film had its small, screen premiere broadcast on September 25, 2021 [24] [25] [26] [27] Just As I Am had its US theatrical, premiere in January 2022 at the Miami Jewish Film Festival.
On April 15, 2021, Beloff was commissioned to write and direct a follow-up to his popular, award-nominated documentary Kosher Love. Meet. Pray. Love: Return of The Love Rabbi premiered September 24, 2022 on CBC. [28] The film had its first US screening at the 26th Annual, 2023 Miami Jewish Film Festival which took place from January 12–26. [29]
Beloff has also begun preliminary development on the documentary Rip It Up & Start Again: Jews, The Holocaust & Punk based on Steven Lee Beeber's influential, multi-biography "The Heebie-Jeebies at CBGB's: A Secret History of Jewish Punk". [30]
Evan is also in development on an intimate, portrait docu-series profiling men of various ages struggling with mental health and how distress manifests differently in men since the start of the pandemic.[ citation needed ]
During the filming of Just As I Am , Evan met autistic, artist Benjamin Lachapelle [31] and in February 2024 CBC agreed to license his feature documentary on Ben's art, environmentalism and the story of unpaid caregivers fighting for equal rights in Canada. Ben's Animals is slated for broadcast in the fall of 2025.[ citation needed ]
Evan is the recipient of a CTV Producer's Fellowship from the Banff International Television Festival (2000). [32] as well as a Gemini nomination for best sports documentary- Too Colourful for the league: a history of Black hockey players (2001), a JI Segal Award for Canadian Jewish-themed film of the year - Once a Nazi (2006), and a Canadian Screen Award nomination for Best Canadian Documentary - Kosher Love (2018)
Beloff hosts a podcast with his doc collaborator Noah Leon. "Let's Not Be Lazy Fillmakers" is available on multiple platforms including Spotify and Acast. [33]
Beloff is a strict vegetarian. [34]
Irving Peter Layton, OC was a Romanian-born Canadian poet. He was known for his "tell it like it is" style which won him a wide following but also made him enemies. As T. Jacobs notes in his biography (2001), Layton fought Puritanism throughout his life:
Layton's work had provided the bolt of lightning that was needed to split open the thin skin of conservatism and complacency in the poetry scene of the preceding century, allowing modern poetry to expose previously unseen richness and depth.
Alanis Obomsawin, is an Abenaki American-Canadian filmmaker, singer, artist, and activist primarily known for her documentary films. Born in New Hampshire, United States and raised primarily in Quebec, Canada, she has written and directed many National Film Board of Canada documentaries on First Nations issues. Obomsawin is a member of Film Fatales independent women filmmakers.
The Montreal World Film Festival, commonly abbreviated MWFF in English or FFM in French, was an annual film festival in Montreal, Quebec, Canada from 1977 to 2019. Founded and run throughout its lifetime by Serge Losique, it was the only competitive film festival in North America accredited by the FIAPF..
Léa Pool C.M. is a Canadian and Swiss filmmaker who taught film at the Université du Québec à Montréal. She has directed several documentaries and feature films, many of which have won significant awards including the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury, and she was the first woman to win the prize for Best Film at the Quebec Cinema Awards. Pool's films often opposed stereotypes and refused to focus on heterosexual relations, preferring individuality.
Je me souviens is a 2002 documentary film about antisemitism and pro-Nazi sympathies in Quebec during the 1930s through post World War II made by Montreal filmmaker Eric Richard Scott. The title of the film is French for I remember, and is the official motto of Quebec. The film was inspired by The Traitor and the Jew (1992-1993), a history of Quebec from 1929-1939, showing the links among antisemitism, nationalism, and fascism among Quebec Catholic intellectuals.
Reuben Joshua Poupko is a Canadian-American Orthodox rabbi. He has served as spiritual leader of the Beth Israel Beth Aaron Congregation synagogue in Montreal since 1986, and sits as co-chair of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs' Canadian Rabbinic Caucus.
Baron Peter Von Puttkamer is a Canadian filmmaker known for his unique approach to adventure documentary series for network television, and for his work with Indigenous communities in his country and around the world. He has won major international awards for his work as a writer, director and producer, and was recently nominated for the 2015 Environmental Media Awards for his Nat Geo series, Biggest & Baddest, which he directed and co-produced with his wife and business partner, Sheera Von Puttkamer. For over thirty years, the couple has run Gryphon Productions and has a catalog that includes hundreds of finished films and videos, many that have appeared on television and cable networks globally and continue to be used in classrooms and outreach centers as educational and advocacy videos.
Max Wallace is a New York Times-bestselling author and historian specializing in the Holocaust, human rights in sport, and popular culture. He is also an award-winning filmmaker, and long-time disability advocate.
Moze Mossanen is a Canadian independent writer, director and producer who has created a body of critically acclaimed film and TV work blending drama, music, performance and documentary. Most recently, he wrote and directed the documentary feature, You Are Here: A Come From Away Story. His other works include Year of the Lion, a dance film adaptation of the novel, Dangerous Liaisons, and Nureyev, a docu-drama about the life of the Russian dancer Rudolf Nureyev.
Ben Addelman is a Canadian filmmaker. He is known for directing five documentaries: Discordia, Bombay Calling, Nollywood Babylon, Kivalina vs. Exxon, and Plastic People.
Too Colourful for the League is a 52-minutes 2001 Canadian documentary film made for CBC-TV, directed by Daniel Cross and Mila Aung-Thwin and produced by Diversus Productions. The film was produced by Evan Beloff, Ari Cohen and Max Wallace, who were nominated for a Gemini Award for best documentary. It was written by Max Wallace and co-produced by Daniel Cross.
Nik Sheehan is a Canadian documentary filmmaker, who established an international reputation with No Sad Songs (1985), the first major documentary on AIDS. The film cited by world-renowned specialist Dr. Balfour Mount as "the best film on the planet this year".
Reel Injun is a 2009 Canadian documentary film directed by Cree filmmaker Neil Diamond, Catherine Bainbridge, and Jeremiah Hayes that explores the portrayal of Native Americans in film. Reel Injun is illustrated with excerpts from classic and contemporary portrayals of Native people in Hollywood movies and interviews with filmmakers, actors and film historians, while director Diamond travels across the United States to visit iconic locations in motion picture as well as American Indian history.
Felix and Meira is a 2014 Canadian drama film directed by Maxime Giroux, and starring Martin Dubreuil, Hadas Yaron, and Luzer Twersky. It is about an improbable affair between two Montreal residents - one a married woman from a devoutly Jewish family and community, and the other a single French Canadian man with his own family issues.
The March of the Living Digital Archive Project, begun in 2013, aims to gather Holocaust testimony from Canadian survivors who have participated in the March of the Living. Since 1988, Holocaust survivors have traveled to Poland with young students on the March of the Living to share their Holocaust stories in the locations they transpired.
CBC Docs POV is a Canadian television point-of-view documentary series, which airs on CBC Television. The series premiered in fall 2015 under the title Firsthand, replacing Doc Zone, after the CBC discontinued its internal documentary production unit, and was renamed CBC Docs POV in 2017. The series airs one documentary film each week, commissioned from external producers rather than being produced directly by the CBC; some, but not all, films screened as part of the series have also had longer versions separately released as theatrical feature documentaries.
You Are What You Act is a 2018 Canadian documentary film written and directed by Albert Nerenberg, and produced by Frédéric Bohbot. Commissioned by the Documentary Channel and Canal D, the film points out how film actors often become their roles and suggests these principles apply to ordinary people in terms of actualizing confidence, heroism, health and even love.
Kosher Love is a 2017 Canadian documentary film of love as understood by Orthodox and Hasidic Jews. The documentary was directed by filmmaker Evan Beloff and aired on the CBC-TV television channel. The film was also entered into Jewish Film Festivals in Canada, the United States, and in Poland.
Yisroel Bernath is an American Hassidic rabbi, actor, screenwriter and podcaster active in Canada. Bernath is spiritual director at Chabad of NDG and the Jewish Chaplain at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Coined by the Montreal Gazette as the "Love Rabbi" and the "Hipster Rabbi" by Viceland, he is a well-known matchmaker and relationship coach. He is the subject of the CBC Documentaries Kosher Love and its sequel, Meet, Pray, Love: Return of the Love Rabbi.
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