Harry Gulkin (November 14, 1927 – July 23, 2018) was a Canadian film and theatre producer, arts director, and project manager from

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

, Quebec. He produced the

Golden Globe The Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association beginning in January 1944, recognizing excellence in both American and international film and television. Beginning in 2022, there are 105 members of t ...

-winning film ''

Lies My Father Told Me ''Lies My Father Told Me'' is a 1975 Canadian drama film made in Montreal, Quebec. It was directed by Ján Kadár and stars Jeffrey Lynas as an orthodox Jewish boy growing up in 1920s Montreal. The film received the Golden Globe Award for Best Fo ...

''.

Life and career

Gulkin was born in

, the son of Raya (née Shinderman) and Peter Gulkin, who were

Russian Jewish The history of the Jews in Russia and areas historically connected with it goes back at least 1,500 years. Jews in Russia have historically constituted a large religious and ethnic diaspora; the Russian Empire at one time hosted the largest pop ...

immigrants. Shortly before World War II ended, Gulkin left

Baron Byng High School Baron Byng High School was an English-language public high school on Saint Urbain Street in Montreal, Quebec, opened by Governor General of Canada Julian Byng, 1st Viscount Byng of Vimy in 1921. The school was attended largely by working-class Je ...

and entered the merchant marines. When his service ended, he returned to Montréal and began social advocacy work. Gulkin then joined the ''

Canadian Tribune The Communist Party of Canada (french: Parti communiste du Canada) is a federal political party in Canada, founded in 1921 under conditions of illegality. Although it does not currently have any parliamentary representation, the party's can ...

'', a communist weekly. There, he worked as an art critic and business manager. He renounced communism in 1956 after the atrocities of the Stalin regime in the Soviet Union were admitted. He then became a marketing executive at Steinberg's supermarket chain. In 1970, he decided that he wanted to make films. His first major success was the 1975 drama ''

''. Adapted from the story by

Ted Allan Alan Herman (January 26, 1916 – June 29, 1995), known professionally as Ted Allan, was a Canadian screenwriter, author, and poet, several of whose books were made into motion pictures. In 1975, he received a nomination for the Academy Award for ...

, the film was nominated for an

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

for best screenplay, and won a

for best foreign film. From 1983 to 1987, Gulkin was director of the Saidye Bronfman Centre for the Arts. In 1987, he began a 20-year tenure as a project manager with the Société de développement des entreprises culturelles.

Filmography

*1975 – ''

'' *1978 – '' Two Solitudes'' *1978 – '' Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang'' *1985 – '' Bayo'' *2005 – ''Red Dawn on Main Street''

Personal life

Gulkin married Ruth Penner in 1950 and had two children from that marriage: Catherine (b. 1954) and James Peter (b. 1957). He married Marie Murphy in 1990. In the 2012 documentary film ''

Stories We Tell ''Stories We Tell'' is a 2012 Canadian documentary film written and directed by Sarah Polley and produced by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). The film explores her family's secrets—including one intimately related to Polley's own identi ...

'', it was revealed that he was the biological father of the film's director, Sarah Polley, through an affair with Polley's married mother, Diane Elizabeth Polley (née MacMillan). His granddaughter is singer-songwriter Corey Gulkin (formerly known as Corinna Rose) whose song "Green Mountain State" (together with The Rusty Horse Band) can be heard during the credits of his daughter Sarah Polley's movie ''Take This Waltz'' (and also in the movie trailer). Corey's song "All the Things I'll Forget''"'' is a homage to her grandfather. Corey also has a short appearance in the documentary feature ''Harry Gulkin: Red Dawn on Main Street''.Documentary feature ''Harry Gulkin: Red Dawn on Main Street (2004)''
at youtube.com (with Corey Gulkin at 45:05 min)

References

1927 births 2018 deaths Canadian film producers People from Montreal Anglophone Quebec people Quebec civil servants Canadian theatre directors Canadian people of Russian-Jewish descent {{Canada-film-producer-stub