Robin Spry (October 25, 1939 – March 28, 2005) was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

film director and television producer and screenwriter. Spry was perhaps best known for his documentary films '' Action: The October Crisis of 1970'' and '' Reaction: A Portrait of a Society in Crisis'' about

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

October Crisis The October Crisis (french: Crise d'Octobre) refers to a chain of events that started in October 1970 when members of the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) kidnapped the provincial Labour Minister Pierre Laporte and British diplomat James C ...

Profile

Robin Spry was born in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

to Canadian broadcast pioneer

Graham Spry Graham Spry, CC (February 20, 1900 - November 24, 1983) was a Canadian broadcasting pioneer, business executive, diplomat and socialist. He was the husband of Irene Spry and father of Robin Spry, Richard Spry and Lib Spry. Life He was born in ...

and economic historian

Irene Spry Irene Mary Spry, OC (née Biss: Standerton, Transvaal Colony, August 28, 1907 – Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, December 16, 1998) was an economic historian and social democrat awarded two honorary doctorates and named to the Order of Canada for her co ...

. After studies at

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

and the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 millio ...

, Spry began his filmmaking career in 1964 at the

National Film Board 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 fi ...

in Montreal, earning a place on its payroll in 1965 and remaining there until stepping down in 1978. While at the NFB Spry built a reputation as a documentarist engaged with the issues of the day, with films on abortion, youth rebellion, and contemporary politics. His ''

Prologue A prologue or prolog (from Greek πρόλογος ''prólogos'', from πρό ''pró'', "before" and λόγος ''lógos'', "word") is an opening to a story that establishes the context and gives background details, often some earlier story that ...

'' documented the riots at the

1968 Democratic National Convention The 1968 Democratic National Convention was held August 26–29 at the International Amphitheatre in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Earlier that year incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson had announced he would not seek reelection, thus making ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, weaving narrative with archival footage to become, in 1969, the first Canadian film to appear at the

Venice Film Festival The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival ( it, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival he ...

. His

Canadian Film Award The Canadian Film Awards were the leading Canadian cinema awards from 1949 until 1978. These honours were conducted annually, except in 1974 when a number of Quebec directors withdrew their participation and prompted a cancellation. In the 1970s ...

-winning documentary ''Action: The October Crisis of 1970'' (1973) used a similar approach to tell the story of the kidnapping of British diplomat

James Richard Cross James Richard Cross (29 September 1921 – 6 January 2021) was an Irish-born British diplomat who served in India, Malaysia and Canada. While posted in Canada, Cross was kidnapped by members of the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) durin ...

and the murder of

Pierre Laporte Pierre Laporte (25 February 1921 – 17 October 1970) was a Canadian lawyer, journalist and politician. He was deputy premier of the province of Quebec when he was kidnapped and murdered by members of the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) ...

. Spry also tried his hand at other aspects of the film trade, acting as a

producer Producer or producers may refer to: Occupations *Producer (agriculture), a farm operator *A stakeholder of economic production *Film producer, supervises the making of films **Executive producer, contributes to a film's budget and usually does not ...

filmmaker Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, castin ...

screenwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. ...

actor An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), li ...

cinematographer The cinematographer or director of photography (sometimes shortened to DP or DOP) is the person responsible for the photographing or recording of a film, television production, music video or other live action piece. The cinematographer is the ch ...

and

film editor Film editing is both a creative and a technical part of the post-production process of filmmaking. The term is derived from the traditional process of working with film which increasingly involves the use of digital technology. The film edit ...

, and appearing in several colleagues' films, including

Denys Arcand Georges-Henri Denys Arcand (; born June 25, 1941) is a French Canadian film director, screenwriter and producer. His film ''The Barbarian Invasions'' won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film in 2004. His films have also been nominated three f ...

's ''Québec, Duplessis et après" ''(1972), reading out sections of the 1837 Durham Report. Spry starred in the 1981 hostage film '' Kings and Desperate Men''. In the mid-1970s Spry left the NFB to focus on production work, founding Telescene and then, upon its bankruptcy in 2000, continuing to work with other production firms in Montreal. Among the films he produced were

Léa Pool Léa Pool C.M. (born 8 September 1950) is a Swiss-Canadian filmmaker who taught film at the Université du Québec à Montréal. She has directed several documentaries and feature films, many of which have won significant awards including the ...

's ''À corps perdu'' (1988),

André Forcier André Forcier (born Marc-André Forcier on July 19, 1947) is a Canadian film director and screenwriter. His work has been linked to Latin American magic realism by its use of fantasy but is firmly rooted in Quebec's reality. His unromanticized, e ...

's ''Une histoire inventée'' (1990), and John Hamilton's ''The Myth of the Male Orgasm'' (1993); he was also responsible for a number of television series, such as ''The Lost World''. Other notable works included the 1995 mini-series, ''Hiroshima'', about the events leading up to the

atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki The United States detonated two atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August 1945, respectively. The two bombings killed between 129,000 and 226,000 people, most of whom were civilians, and remain the onl ...

, which won a Canadian

Gemini Award The Gemini Awards were awards given by the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television between 1986–2011 to recognize the achievements of Canada's television industry. The Gemini Awards are analogous to the Emmy Awards given in the United States ...

and was nominated for an American

Emmy The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

, as well as earlier films '' One Man'' (1977), ''

Drying Up the Streets ''Drying Up the Streets'' is a 1978 Canadian feature from Robin Spry produced by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Synopsis This film was originally planned as a one-hour drama for the CBC's '' For the Record'', series but was expanded into ...

'' (1978), and ''Suzanne'' (1980). Spry died in an early-morning road accident on March 28, 2005 in

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 ...

, leaving behind a son, Jeremy, and a daughter, Zoé, whom he had fathered by journalist Carmel Dumas (from whom he was divorced at the time of his death). The first season of

Charlie Jade ''Charlie Jade'' is a science fiction television series filmed mainly in Cape Town, South Africa. It stars Jeffrey Pierce in the title role, as a detective from a parallel universe (fiction), parallel universe who finds himself trapped in our univ ...

was dedicated to his memory, as mentioned in the credits of the final episode, as was

Air Crash Investigation ''Mayday'', entitled ''Air Crash Investigation'' in Canada (alternatively known as ''Air Crash Investigations'' on Seven Network), New Zealand, South Africa, the United Kingdom (alternatively known as ''Air Crash: Disaster Revealed'' on 5Selec ...

's episode "Mistaken Identity".

Filmography

Fiction

*''Illegal Abortion'' (Short film, 1966) *''

'' (1970) *''Downhill'' (Short film, 1973) *'' One Man'' (1977) *''

'' (TV movie, 1978) *''Don't Forget'' (TV movie aka ''Je me souviens'', 1979) (Created for TV series '' For the Record'') *'' Suzanne'' (1980) *''Winnie'' (Short film, 1981) *''Keeping Track'' (1986) *'' Hitting Home'' (aka ''Obsessed'', 1987) *''

Malarek ''Malarek'' is a Canadian drama film, directed by Roger Cardinal and released in 1988.Gerald Pratley, ''A Century of Canadian Cinema''. Lynx Images, 2003. . p. 135. Based on the memoirs of Canadian investigative journalist Victor Malarek, the fil ...

'' (film, 1988) *''A Cry in the Night'' (TV movie, 1992) *''

Urban Angel ''Urban Angel'' is a Canadian television drama series, which aired on CBC Television from 1991 to 1993.

'' (TV series, 1991-1992)

Documentaries

*''Miner'' (Short film, 1965) *''Change in the Maritimes'' (Short film, 1966) *''Level 4350'' (Short film, 1966) *''Ride for Your Life'' (Short film, 1966) *''Flowers on a One-Way Street'' (Short film, 1967) *'' Action: The October Crisis of 1970'' (1973) *'' Reaction: A Portrait of a Society in Crisis'' (Short film, 1973) *''Face'' (Short film, 1975) *''To Serve the Coming Age'' (1983) *''Stress and Emotion'' (TV documentary, 1984) (Created for TV series ''The Brain'')

References

External links

*
CTV.ca Filmmaker Robin Spry dies in Mtl. car accidentRobin Spry - The Canadian EncyclopediaRobin Spry - Northern StarsWatch films by Robin Spry at NFB.ca
{{DEFAULTSORT:Spry, Robin 1939 births 2005 deaths Anglophone Quebec people Accidental deaths in Quebec Alumni of the London School of Economics Canadian film editors Canadian film producers Canadian male film actors Film directors from Montreal Film directors from Toronto Male actors from Montreal Male actors from Toronto Road incident deaths in Canada National Film Board of Canada people Writers from Montreal Writers from Toronto 20th-century Canadian screenwriters