Roman Kroitor (December 12, 1926 – September 17, 2012) was a Canadian filmmaker who was known as a pioneer of Cinéma vérité, as the co-founder of IMAX, and as the creator of the Sandde hand-drawn stereoscopic 3D animation system. He was also the original inspiration for The Force. His prodigious output garnered numerous awards, including two BAFTA Awards, three Cannes Film Festival awards, and two Oscar nominations.
Early life Roman Boghdan Kroitor was born in Yorkton, Saskatchewan, to Ukrainian immigrants Peter and Tatiana (Shewchuk), both of whom were teachers. Peter died when Roman was four; Tatiana moved the family to Winnipeg and continued teaching. Roman attended the University of Manitoba, graduating in 1951 with a Master of Arts in Philosophy.
National Film Board of Canada In 1949 and 1950, Kroitor attended the Summer Intern program at the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) in Ottawa. Upon graduation from university, he was hired full-time, working as a production assistant and later as a film editor.Canadian Film Encyclopedia (accessed Aug 5, 2007) His first film, 1953's Rescue Party laid the foundation for his pioneering Cinéma vérité style, and he went on to produce influential films such as Lonely Boy, Glenn Gould: On the Record, Glenn Gould: Off the Record, and the concert film Stravinsky. By 1958, Kroitor was producing documentaries; by 1964, he was one of the producers leading the NFB into the production of fiction films.
IMAX After seeing the ground-breaking NFB documentary Universe (1960), Stanley Kubrick tried to recruit Kroitor and Colin Low to work on 2001: A Space Odyssey. They declined because, with Hugh O'Connor and Tom Daily, they were working on a large-scale multi-screen film. This was In the Labyrinth, which the NFB exhibited at Expo 67 in Montreal. The film caused a sensation and, in the same year Kroitor and his friend and colleague, the director Graeme Ferguson, left the NFB as employees, but physically stayed, founding Multi-Screen Corporation (later IMAX Corp.) in the NFB's Montreal studios (with two other friends, Robert Kerr and engineer Bill Shaw). The Multi-Screen process involved a purpose-built camera, and 70mm film projected horizontally rather than vertically, with each frame the size of a postcard.Youngblood, Gene: Expanded Cinema, London: Studio Vista, 1970.
In 1970, for Expo 70 in Osaka, Kroitor produced the first IMAX film, the 17-minute Tiger Child, directed by Donald Brittain. In 1973, he returned to the NFB as a producer in charge of the Drama department, but continued to make IMAX films until his retirement. In 1990, he co-directed the first IMAX feature film, Stones at the Max. He also produced the first IMAX stereoscopic (S3D) film, We Are Born of Stars (anaglyph, 1985), and co-produced the first full-color OMNIMAX (IMAX Dome) S3D film, Echoes of the Sun (alternate-eye, 1990).
SANDDE While working to create traditional (actuality) and early CG films in a stereoscopic format, Kroitor became frustrated with the lack of direct interaction between the desires of (right-brained) artists and the results on film, because everything had to pass through the (left-brained) mathematicians and programmers. He conceived of the SANDDE hardware and software system as a way to allow artists to directly draw, in full stereoscopic 3D, what they want the audience to see.
George Lucas and The Force Kroitor was credited by Star Wars creator George Lucas as being the origin of the concept of The Force, an important thematic element in the Star Wars films.Wired 13.05: Life After Darth As reported by The Globe and Mail, Lucas first heard about "the force" in a conversation between Kroitor and Warren Sturgis McCulloch, an artificial intelligence guru, in 21-87, a 1963 collage film made by the NFB's Arthur Lipsett. Disagreeing with McCulloch's assertion that humans are nothing more than highly complex machines, Kroitor argued: "Many people feel that in the contemplation of nature and in communication with other living things, they become aware of some kind of force, or something, behind this apparent mask which we see in front of us, and they call it God."
Personal life and death In 1955, Kroitor married Janet Ferguson (Graeme Ferguson's sister); they had five children and lived in Montreal. On September 17, 2012, he died at the age of 85.
Filmography National Film Board of Canada
Age of the Beaver - documentary short, Colin Low 1952 - editor Rescue Party - documentary short 1953 - director Paul Tomkowinkz: Street-Railway Switchman - documentary short 1953 - co-writer with Stanley Jackson, co-editor and co-producer with Tom Daly, director Farm Calendar - documentary 1955 - writer, director To Serve the Mind - documentary short, Stanley Jackson 1955 - co-writer with Stanley Jackson Introducing Canada - documentary short, Tom Daly 1956 - co-editor with Tom Daly City of Gold - documentary short, Colin Low & Wolf Koenig 1957 - writer The Great Plains - documentary short 1957 - editor, director It's a Crime - animated film, Wolf Koenig 1957 - writer L'année à la ferme – documentary short 1957 – writer, director Blood and Fire - documentary, Terence Macartney-Filgate 1958 - co-producer with Wolf Koenig Country Threshing - documentary short, Wolf Koenig 1958 - co-producer with Wolf Koenig The Days Before Christmas - documentary short, Wolf Koenig, Stanley Jackson & Terence Macartney-Filgate 1958 - co-editor with René Laporte & Wolf Koenig, co-producer with Wolf Koenig A Foreign Language - documentary short, Stanley Jackson 1958 - co-producer with Wolf Koenig Memory of Summer - documentary short, Stanley Jackson 1958 - co-producer with Wolf Koenig Pilgrimage - documentary short, Terence Macartney-Filgate 1958 - co-producer with Wolf Koenig Police - documentary short, Terence Macartney-Filgate 1958 - co-producer with Wolf Koenig The Back-Breaking Leaf - documentary short, Terence Macartney-Filgate 1959 - co-producer with Wolf Koenig La Battaison - documentary short, Wolf Koenig 1959 - co-producer with Wolf Koenig The Canadians - documentary short, Tom Daly 1959 - executive producer Emergency Ward - documentary short, William Greaves 1959 - co-producer with Wolf Koenig End of the Line - documentary short, Terence Macartney-Filgate 1959 - co-producer with Wolf Koenig Glenn Gould - Off the Record - documentary short 1959 - co-director and co-producer with Wolf Koenig Glenn Gould - On the Record - documentary short 1959 - co-director and co-producer with Wolf Koenig The Cars in Your Life - documentary short Terence Macartney-Filgate 1960 - co-producer with Wolf Koenig I Was a Ninety-pound Weakling - documentary short, Wolf Koenig & Georges Dufaux 1960 - co-producer with Wolf Koenig Universe - documentary short 1960 - writer, co-director with Colin Low The Days of Whiskey Gap - documentary short, Colin Low 1961 - co-producer with Wolf Koenig Festival in Puerto Rico - documentary short 1961 - co-director and co-editor with Wolf Koenig, producer University - documentary, Stanley Jackson 1961 - co-producer with Wolf Koenig Lonely Boy - documentary short 1962 - producer, co-director with Wolf Koenig The Living Machine - documentary 1962 - co-producer with Tom Daly, director Toronto Jazz - documentary short, Don Owen 1963 - producer Above the Horizon - documentary short 1964 - co-director with Hugh O'Connor, co-producer with Hugh O'Connor & Tom Daly The Hutterites - documentary short, Colin Low 1964 - co-producer with Tom Daly Legault’s Place - documentary short, Suzanne Angel 1964 - co-producer with Tom Daly Nobody Waved Goodbye - feature, Don Owen 1964 - co-producer with Don Owen The Baymen, documentary short, Rex Tasker 1965 - co-producer with Peter Jones Two Men of Montreal - documentary, Suzanne Angel, Donald Brittain & Don Owen 1965 - co-producer with Donald Brittain, John Kemeny & Tom Daly Little White Crimes - short film, George Kaczender 1966 - co-producer with John Kemeny Stravinsky - documentary 1966 - producer, co-director with Wolf Koenig In the Labyrinth - short film 1967 - co-director with Colin Low, Hugh O'Connor, co-producer with Tom Daly Tiger Child - short film, IMAX, Donald Brittain 1970 – writer, co-producer with Ichi Ichikawa Circus World, 1974 – director, producer, co-editor with Jackie Newell Propaganda Message - animated short, Barrie Nelson 1971 - co-producer with Wolf Koenig Man the Hunter: Caribou - documentary short, Dennis Sawyer 1974 - executive producer Man the Hunter: Fishing - documentary short, Dennis Sawyer 1975 - executive producer Man the Hunter: Seal Hunting - documentary short, Dennis Sawyer 1975 - executive producer Bargain Basement - short film, John N. Smith 1976 - producer For Gentlemen Only - documentary short, Michael J.F. Scott 1976 - executive producer Listen Listen Listen - documentary, Barbara Greene 1976 - executive producer Schefferville 4th Arctic Winter Games - documentary short, Dennis Sawyer 1976 - co-producer with Dennis Sawyer Striker - short film, Robert Nichol 1976 - executive producer The World is Round - documentary, Ian McLaren 1976 - executive producer The Machine Age - short film, Gilles Carle 1977 - co-producer with Jacques Bobet Back Alley Blue - documentary short, Bill Reid 1977 - executive producer Bekevar Jubilee - documentary short, Albert Kish 1977 - executive producer Breakdown - short film, Peter Thurling 1977 - executive producer Flora: Scenes from a Leadership Convention - documentary, Peter Raymont 1977 - co-executive producer with Arthur Hammond Happiness Is Loving Your Teacher - short film, John N. Smith 1977 - executive producer Henry Ford's America - documentary, Donald Brittain 1977 - co- producer with Donald Brittain & Paul Wright Hold the Ketchup - documentary short, Albert Kish 1977 - executive producer I Wasn’t Scared - short film, Giles Walker 1977 - co-producer with Vladimir Valenta Nature’s Food Chain - documentary short, Bernard Devlin 1977 - executive producer One Man - feature, Robin Spry 1977 - co-producer with Michael J.F. Scott, James de B. Domville, Tom Daly & Vladimir Valenta Sail Away - documentary short, Bruce Mackay 1977 - executive producer Strangers at the Door - short film, John Howe 1977 - co-producer with John Howe & Maxine Samuels Oh Canada - animated short, Barrie Nelson 1978 - co-producer with Wolf Koenig, Robert Verrall & Dorothy Courtois Easter Eggs - documentary short, Yurij Luhovy 1978 - executive producer Margaret Laurence, First Lady of Manawaka - documentary, Robert Duncan 1978 - executive producer The Point - documentary, Robert Duncan 1978 - executive producer The Red Dress - documentary short, Michael J.F. Scott 1978 - co-executive producer with Dieter Nachtigall The Russels - short film, Susan Huycke, Kenneth McCready, Mort Ransen & Bill Reid 1978 - executive producer So Long to Run - short film, Charles Lapp 1978 - executive producer Teach Me to Dance - short film, Anne Wheeler 1978 - co-producer with Vladimir Valenta & John Howe Voice of the Fugitive - short film, René Bonnière 1978 - executive producer The War is Over - short film, René Bonnière 1978 - executive producer Bravery in the Field - short film, Giles Walker 1979 - executive producer, co-producer with Stefan Wodoslawsky Gopher Broke - short film, Peter Thurling 1979 - executive producer, co-producer with Stefan Wodoslawsky Love on Wheels - short film, Ben Low & Ian Rankin 1979 - executive producer Northern Composition - documentary short, Bruce Mackay & Gary Toole 1979 - executive producer Revolution's Orphans - documentary short, John N. Smith 1979 - co-producer with Rob Iveson Twice Upon a Time... (Il était deux fois) - short film, Giles Walker 1979 - co-producer with Stefan Wodoslawsky Why Men Rape - documentary, Douglas Jackson 1979 - executive producer Acting Class - documentary short, John N. Smith 1980 - executive producer