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Donald Code Brittain, OC (June 10, 1928 – July 21, 1989) was a film director and producer with the National Film Board of Canada. Career [ edit ] Fields of Sacrifice (1964) is considered Brittain's first major film as director. [1]
May 2, 2010 · Donald Brittain, filmmaker (b at Ottawa, Ont 10 June 1928; d at Montréal, Qué 21 July 1989). After several years with the Ottawa Journal, he joined the NFB in 1955. He soon became one of the most respected Canadian documentary filmmakers. In 1962 he produced the 13-part series, Canada at War.
Donald Brittain is Canada’s most renowned and honoured English documentary filmmaker. Working as a director and writer, he explored Canada's social and cultural past, often rescuing aspects from the nation’s collective amnesia.
Working with Donald Brittain was an adventure. You never knew what each day would bring, and he was a man who believed in the gods of documentary. He knew that on the days when those gods were smiling down on him, magic would happen. But he was also a man who loved to play games.
Donald Brittain is still remembered with affection by friends and colleagues across Canada nearly two decades after his passing. They recall a man without pretense – an old-fashioned figure dressed in rumpled clothes and a St. Louis Browns’ baseball jacket whose keen eye for story structure and vivid narrative style was second to none.
Donald Brittain was born on 10 June 1928 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. He was a writer and director, known for Fields of Sacrifice (1963), Memorandum (1966) and Dreamland: A History of Early Canadian Movies 1895-1939 (1974). He died on 21 July 1989 in Montréal, Québec, Canada.
Donald Brittain: Filmmaker. Kent Martin. 1992 1 h 34 min. A close look at one of the best documentary filmmakers in the world, this retrospective of Brittain films also offers a glimpse of the man and the restless energy that informed his work.
