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The story behind the lensIt's hard to believe world-renowned documentarian Peter Wintonick, who's produced, directed, written, edited or consulted on more than 100 films, earned immense public and critical acclaim, and recently, won a Premier's Award, ever doubted film was his ideal art form. SHARON ASCHAIEK, SPECIAL TO THE SUN |
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 [ 2007-03-07 ] |
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World renowned documentarian Peter Wintonick recently won a Premier's Award. "Everything I know now and every success i've ever achieved... can be traced back, in a direct line to the very practical and cinematically immersive experience I had at the Film Centre at Algonquin College," he says.
"I studied journalism and existential German philosophy at Carleton University, and I left feeling a bit dissatisfied and wanting to learn something practical," says the 53-year-old Ottawa native. "I had been considering film, but it was a leap of faith for me."
His early inclination toward the medium, however, suggested he was on the right track: at age 10, while his Grade 4 classmates were writing essays, he was filming his neighbours with a traditional movie camera for his own video essays.
In 1972, motivated by the advice of a former professor, Wintonick acted on his inner film junkie and enrolled in Algonquin College's two-year post-graduate Film Production program.
Camera work, editing processes, sound recording and mixing and light theory were just some of the topics covered, and Wintonick discovered he had a knack for them all.
"DIFFERENT HATS"
"We were all trying on different hats at that stage and learning about all the different parts of the filmmaking process," he says. "The great thing about film is that it pulls from many other art forms ... you have to be a bit of a renaissance woman to become a good filmmaker."
He recalls the curriculum was both current and practical, and taught by hands-on teachers working in the industry. He also remembers he and his fellow students had access to high-end professional equipment to exercise their skills.
But the most valuable part of his education, Wintonick says, was the collaboration his teachers were able to foster in the classroom.
"Our teachers were very good educators who knew how important it was to get us to work in teams, because film is a very collective art form," he says.
Wintonick's technical prowess combined with his people skills got him quickly noticed by the industry. The summer after his first year at Algonquin, he was recruited by Montreal's International Cinemedia Centre Ltd. to work as an assistant editor on campaign films and public service announcements for the Liberal Party of Canada.
Upon graduating in 1974, Wintonick was more than ready to work in the field, and retuned to the Montreal firm to work on more sponsored films.
He then moved into documentary filmmaking, editing, directing and/or producing films such as Ron Mann's Poetry in Motion (1982), The New Cinema, a feature documentary on independent filmmakers, (1984), and British Columbian filmmaker Nettie Wild's A Rustling of Leaves: Inside The Philippine Revolution (1988).
PRODUCTION COMPANY
At the end of the 1980s, he founded with two partners the independent production company Necessary Illusions (www.necessaryillusions.ca), which develops, produces and distributes feature-length documentary cinema, television and "now" media on social, cultural and political issues.
His company's first production, Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media (1992) -- a witty, self-reflexive portrait on the noted American linguist, intellectual and political activist, enjoyed tremendous success and has been a major boost to Wintonick's career and to the documentary film industry in general.
"I'm very proud of that film; it's complex, but it's very accessible, entertaining and graphically interesting," he says. "It takes big issues and makes them palatable and illustrates them in original ways."
Wintonick's love affair with his art form goes far beyond just making films: he's deeply interested in both the health of the industry and the impact its output has on viewers.
To that end, he helps develop young, independent filmmakers; writes about film for international cinema magazines, papers and websites; co-founded DOC, the Documentary Organization of Canada; teaches in universities and colleges; and was recently Thinker in Residence for the Premier of South Australia, researching and writing recommendations on media literacy.
In addition to the dozens of awards his films have garnered at film festivals worldwide, Wintonick himself has also won the Governor General's Prize in Media Arts, Canada's highest such honour, and the aforementioned Premier's Award for Ontario college graduates in the Creative Arts & Design category.
As he said in his heartfelt acceptance speech for that award in February, one that earned a standing ovation from the 800 educators, businesspeople and government ministers in the room:
"Everything I know now and every success I've ever achieved ... can be traced back, in a direct line to the very practical and cinematically immersive experience I had at the Film Centre at Algonquin College. It was there I began to really learn how to learn, and what to learn."
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