Peter Kenneth Wintonick (June 10, 1953 – November 18, 2013) was a Canadian independent
documentary film
A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...
maker based in
Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...
. A winner of the 2006
Governor General's Award
The Governor General's Awards are a collection of annual List of awards presented by the Governor General of Canada, awards presented by the Governor General of Canada, recognizing distinction in numerous academic, artistic, and social fields.
Th ...
in Visual and Media Arts, former
Thinker in Residence for the Premier of
South Australia
South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...
, prolific award-winning filmmaker, he was one of Canada's best known international documentarians.
Biography
Born in
Trenton, Ontario
Trenton (2001 population 16,770) is a large unincorporated community in Central Ontario in the municipality of Quinte West, Ontario, Canada. Located on the Bay of Quinte, it is the starting point for the Trent-Severn Waterway, which continues n ...
in 1953, Wintonick was the son of John Wintonick and Norma Latham. He was of Ukrainian descent.
He founded Necessary Illusions Productions with Mark Achbar, and subsequently ran it with Francis Miquet. Wintonick was a co-founder of
DocAgora, an event inserted into various film festivals showcasing cutting-edge digital strategies. He co-directed, with his daughter,
Mira Burt-Wintonick, the 2009 documentary ''PilgrIMAGE'', a film about documentary filmmaking.
Wintonick died of
cholangiocarcinoma on November 18, 2013, aged 60.
Select filmography
*''
Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media'' (1992) with
Mark Achbar
Mark Achbar (born in Ottawa in 1955)
is a Canadian filmmaker, best known for '' The Corporation'' (2003) and '' Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media'' (1994).
Biography
Achbar is a graduate of Syracuse University's Fine Arts Fil ...
and Francis Miquet
*''
Cinéma Vérité: Defining the Moment'' (1999) with the
National Film Board of Canada
The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; french: Office national du film du Canada (ONF)) is Canada's public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary f ...
*''
Seeing is Believing: Handicams, Human Rights and the News'' (2002) winner of the Dan & Ewa Abraham and Tammy Abraham Award for Films of Conflict & Resolution at the 2002
Hamptons International Film Festival
The Hamptons International Film Festival (HIFF) is an international film festival founded in 1992, by Joyce Robinson. The festival has since taken place every year in East Hampton, New York. It is usually an annual five-day event in mid-October ...
and
Gemini Award nominee, co-directed with
Katerina Cizek
Katerina Cizek is a Canadian documentary director and a pioneer in digital documentaries. She is the Artistic Director, Co-Founder and Executive Producer of the Co-Creation Studio at MIT Open Documentary Lab (Massachusetts Institute of Technolog ...
Other work
In early 2005, at the invitation of the premier of South Australia, he filled the post of
Thinker in Residence, examining the future of documentaries and the
digital revolution with a focus on educational and cultural legislation.
Governor General's Award
Wintonick was the winner of a 2006
Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts. His body of work includes dramatic features, theatrical documentaries, educational and socio-political works.
Legacy
In 2014, a new award called the Peter Wintonick Award was given at
Sheffield Doc/Fest
Sheffield DocFest (formerly styled Sheffield Doc/Fest), short for Sheffield International Documentary Festival (SIDF), is an international documentary festival and Marketplace held annually in Sheffield, England.
The Festival includes film sc ...
to ''
Vessel''. The award was presented by Martin Rosenbaum, who read a message from Wintonick's daughter Mira, which said that she was very happy to see the award go to "a filmmaker who embodies his activist spirit." Wintonick's film ''Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media'' was also screened at the festival.
He is the subject of his daughter Mira's 2019 film ''
Wintopia
''Wintopia'' is a Canadian documentary film, directed by Mira Burt-Wintonick and released in 2019. Originally conceived as an attempt to complete ''Utopia'', an unfinished documentary film her father, Peter Wintonick, was working on at the time of ...
''.
[Alex Rose]
"Montreal filmmaker Peter Wintonick is the subject of a very personal new film"
'' Cult MTL'', March 26, 2021.
References
External links
Necessary IllusionsDocAgoraSeeing is BelievingFilms we Like*
Obituary at ReelScreen
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wintonick, Peter
1953 births
2013 deaths
Film directors from Ontario
Canadian documentary film directors
People from Quinte West
Anglophone Quebec people
Deaths from cholangiocarcinoma
Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts winners
Canadian people of Ukrainian descent