Just Another Missing Kid

Last updated
Just Another Missing Kid
Directed by John Zaritsky
Produced by Glenn Sarty
John Zaritsky
CinematographyJohn Griffin
Edited byGordon McClennan
Production
company
CBC
Distributed byCBC
Release date
  • 7 April 1981 (1981-04-07)
Running time
90 minutes
CountryCanada
LanguageEnglish

Just Another Missing Kid is a 1981 Canadian documentary film, directed by John Zaritsky, about the search for a missing Ottawa teenager. [1]

Contents

Summary

Eric Wilson had left his native Ottawa in July 1978 in a Volkswagen camper on a trip to Boulder, Colorado. Somewhere in Nebraska, he disappeared. The movie traces how his family and a private investigator work to find out what had happened. The film focuses on how little help the various police forces were and is an indictment of the apathy and bureaucracy of the legal system on both sides of the border. Raymond Hatch and Bertram Davis, hitchhikers Wilson had picked up, eventually confessed to the murder. The long-time criminal and drifter Hatch, who had committed the murder, was sentenced to 26 years in prison, but was released after serving 13. In 1994, he stabbed his girlfriend with a knife and was convicted of assault for which he served 9 months in jail. In a follow-up to the story from 1995, The Fifth Estate reported that Hatch had resumed his drifting. He died in 2000. [2]

Accolades

Originally produced by CBC Television for the documentary news program The Fifth Estate, it was broadcast on CBC television to much acclaim in 1981. It was released in theatres in the United States in 1982. It was nominated for several international awards and won the 1983 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. [3] [1]

Controversy

In this film, Zaritsky broke new ground for documentaries by having the interview subjects recreate their actions for the camera. This caused some controversy as some critics and filmmakers felt these recreations did not make it a true documentary. In later years, Zaritsky himself agreed the technique should not be used.[ citation needed ] However, it has since been widely used by other documentary filmmakers.

Adaptation

The story was later re-told in fictionalized form in a made-for-television movie called Into Thin Air. The film starred Ellen Burstyn as the mother and was aired in 1985.

Preservation

The Academy Film Archive preserved Just Another Missing Kid in 2007. [4]

Related Research Articles

The Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film is an award for documentary films. In 1941, the first awards for feature-length documentaries were bestowed as Special Awards to Kukan and Target for Tonight. They have since been bestowed competitively each year, with the exception of 1946. Copies of every winning film are held by the Academy Film Archive.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Norman Jewison</span> Canadian filmmaker (1926–2024)

Norman Frederick Jewison was a Canadian filmmaker. He was known for directing films which addressed topical social and political issues, often making controversial or complicated subjects accessible to mainstream audiences. Among numerous other accolades, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director three times in three separate decades, for In the Heat of the Night (1967), Fiddler on the Roof (1971), and Moonstruck (1987). He was nominated for an additional four Oscars, three Golden Globe Awards, and a Primetime Emmy Award, and won a BAFTA Award. He received the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences's Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award in 1999.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Film Board of Canada</span> Public film and digital media producer and distributor

The National Film Board of Canada is Canada's public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary films, animation, web documentaries, and alternative dramas. In total, the NFB has produced over 13,000 productions since its inception, which have won over 5,000 awards. The NFB reports to the Parliament of Canada through the Minister of Canadian Heritage. It has bilingual production programs and branches in English and French, including multicultural-related documentaries.

<i>The Fifth Estate</i> (TV program) Canadian television newsmagazine

The Fifth Estate is an English-language Canadian investigative documentary series that airs on the national CBC Television network.

Robert Duff McKeown, is a Canadian investigative reporter and former all-star and championship football player. He has also worked with NBC and CBS. McKeown returned to the CBC in November 2002 to host its investigative program, The Fifth Estate, a show which he had hosted from 1981 to 1990. Previously, McKeown spent eight years working for Dateline NBC as a correspondent and five years with CBS News.

Noam Gonick, is a Canadian filmmaker and artist. His films include Hey, Happy!, Stryker, Guy Maddin: Waiting for Twilight and To Russia with Love. His work deals with homosexuality, social exclusion, dystopia and utopia.

John Zaritsky was a Canadian documentarian/filmmaker. His work has been broadcast in 35 countries and screened at more than 40 film festivals around the world; in 1983, his film Just Another Missing Kid won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

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).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Donald Shebib</span> Canadian film director (1938–2023)

Donald Everett Shebib was a Canadian film and television director. Shebib was a central figure in the development of English Canadian cinema who made several short documentaries for the National Film Board of Canada and CBC Television in the 1960s before turning to feature films, beginning with the influential Goin' Down the Road (1970) and what many call his masterpiece, Between Friends (1973). He soon became frustrated by the bureaucratic process of film funding in Canada and chronic problems with distribution as well as a string of box office disappointments. After Heartaches (1981), he made fewer films for theatrical release and worked more in television.

Paul Jay is a journalist, filmmaker, is the founder, editor-in-chief, and host of theAnalysis.news, a news analysis service. He was the founder, CEO and senior editor of The Real News Network (TRNN). Jay was born and raised in Toronto, Ontario and holds dual-citizenship with the United States. Jay is the nephew of screenwriter Ted Allan. A past chair of the Canadian Independent Film Caucus, the main organization of documentary filmmakers in Canada, Jay is the founding chair of the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival. He chaired the Hot Docs! board for its first five years.

Mark Simms is a Canadian filmmaker, community activist and martial artist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Max Wallace</span> Canadian journalist

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.

The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television's 23rd Gemini Awards were held on November 28, 2008, to honour achievements in Canadian television. The awards show, which was hosted by Jason Priestley, took place at the John Bassett Theatre in Toronto and was broadcast on Showcase and E!.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Ridgen</span> Canadian filmmaker

David Ridgen is an independent Canadian filmmaker born in Stratford, Ontario. He has worked for CBC Television, MSNBC, NPR, TVOntario and others. He is currently the writer, producer and host of CBC Radio’s true-crime podcast series, Someone Knows Something and The Next Call.

Brian McKenna was a Canadian documentary film director. He was best known for his films on Canadian history and exploration of the world at war.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canadian Screen Awards</span> Canadian media awards

The Canadian Screen Awards are awards given for artistic and technical merit in the film industry recognizing excellence in Canadian film, English-language television, and digital media productions. Given annually by the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television, the awards recognize excellence in cinematic achievements, as assessed by the Academy's voting membership.

John Kastner was a four-time Emmy Award-winning Canadian documentary filmmaker whose later work focused on the Canadian criminal justice system. His films included the documentaries Out of Mind, Out of Sight (2014), a film about patients at the Brockville Mental Health Centre, named best Canadian feature documentary at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival; NCR: Not Criminally Responsible (2013), exploring the personal impact of the mental disorder defence in Canada; Life with Murder (2010), The Lifer and the Lady and Parole Dance, and the 1986 made-for-television drama Turning to Stone, set in the Prison for Women in Kingston, Ontario.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brian Vallée</span> Canadian author (1940–2011)

Brian Michael Vallée (1940–2011) was a Canadian author, journalist, documentary film producer, screenwriter, and public speaker. He is best known for his work reflecting on domestic violence and his role with CBC's award-winning documentary program The Fifth Estate. His first non-fiction book, Life With Billy focused on the life of Jane Hurshman, an abused wife whose legal case resulted in battered wife syndrome becoming a legal defense in Canadian courts.

The Donald Brittain Award is a Canadian television award, presented by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television to honour the year's best television documentary on a social or political topic. Formerly presented as part of the Gemini Awards, since 2013 it has been presented as part of the Canadian Screen Awards. The award may be presented to either a standalone broadcast of a documentary film, or to an individual full-length episode of a news or documentary series; documentary films which originally premiered theatrically, but were not already submitted for consideration in a CSA film category before being broadcast on television, are also considered television films for the purposes of the award.

Kevin Eastwood is a Canadian documentary filmmaker and film and television producer. He is best known for directing the CBC Television documentaries Humboldt: The New Season and After the Sirens and the Knowledge Network series Emergency Room: Life + Death at VGH and British Columbia: An Untold History. His credits as a producer include the movies Fido, Preggoland and The Delicate Art of Parking, the television series The Romeo Section, and the documentaries Haida Modern, Haida Gwaii: On the Edge of the World and Eco-Pirate: The Story of Paul Watson.

References

  1. 1 2 Ahsan, Sadaf (4 April 2022). "Oscar-winning Canadian documentarian John Zaritsky dies at 79". CBC News. The Canadian Press. Retrieved 5 April 2022.
  2. "CBC News: the fifth estate - Just Another Missing Kid - Update". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from the original on November 5, 2012. Retrieved 29 June 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  3. 1983|Oscars.org
  4. "Preserved Projects". Academy Film Archive.