Ronald Mann (born June 13, 1958), credited professionally as Ron Mann, is 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 ...

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

director Director may refer to: Literature * ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine * ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker * ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty Music * Director (band), an Irish rock band * ''D ...

. His work includes the films ''

Imagine the Sound ''Imagine the Sound'' is a 1981 Canadian documentary film about the once-controversial genre of free jazz, directed by Ron Mann. It serves as Mann's feature film directorial debut. Background ''Imagine the Sound'' marks Mann's feature film dire ...

'' (1981); ''

Comic Book Confidential ''Comic Book Confidential'' is an American/Canadian documentary film, released in 1988. Directed by Ron Mann and written by Mann and Charley Lippincott, the film is a survey of the history of the comic book medium in the United States from the 193 ...

'' (1988); ''

Grass Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns an ...

'' (1999) and ''

Go Further ''Go Further'' is a 2003 documentary film by Ron Mann starring Woody Harrelson and a group of other environmental activists riding around in a large, bio-fueled bus. The tour was called the Simple Organic Living Tour and it was produced by cause- ...

'' (2003), both of which feature

Woody Harrelson Woodrow Tracy Harrelson (born July 23, 1961) is an American actor and playwright. He is the recipient of various accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award and two Screen Actors Guild Awards, in addition to nominations for three Academy Award ...

; '' In the Wake of the Flood'' (2010), which features author Margaret Atwood; and '' Altman'' (2014), about the life and career of film director Robert Altman. Mann has served as mentor to and worked with many filmmakers from the

Toronto New Wave The Toronto New Wave refers to a loose-knit group of filmmakers from Toronto who came of age during the 1980s and early 1990s. History Atom Egoyan, John Greyson, Ron Mann, Bruce McDonald, Don McKellar, Peter Mettler, Jeremy Podeswa and Patricia ...

of the 1980s, including

Atom Egoyan Atom Egoyan (; hy, Աթոմ Եղոյեան, translit=Atom Yeghoyan; born July 19, 1960) is a Canadian filmmaker. He was part of a loosely-affiliated group of filmmakers to emerge in the 1980s from Toronto known as the Toronto New Wave. Egoyan ...

, Bruce McDonald,

Jeremy Podeswa Jeremy Podeswa (born 1962) is a Canadian film and television director. He is best known for directing the films '' The Five Senses'' (1999) and ''Fugitive Pieces'' (2007). He has also worked as director on the television shows '' Six Feet Under ...

, and

Peter Mettler Peter Mettler (born September 7, 1958) is a Swiss-Canadian film director and cinematographer. He is best known for his unique, intuitive approach to documentary, evinced by such films as '' Picture of Light'' (1994), '' Gambling, Gods and LSD'' ( ...

Career

1970s–1980s

A graduate of the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

, Mann began making films at a young age, creating Super 8mm films in the 1970s. Mann began making short films while in high school and studied briefly at

Vermont Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...

Bennington College Bennington College is a private liberal arts college in Bennington, Vermont. Founded in 1932 as a women's college, it became co-educational in 1969. It claims to be the first college to include visual and performing arts as an equal partner in ...

before receiving a B.A. in film from the

. His 1973 student film, ''The Strip'', documented the historic

Yonge Street Yonge Street (; pronounced "young") is a major arterial route in the Canadian province of Ontario connecting the shores of Lake Ontario in Toronto to Lake Simcoe, a gateway to the Upper Great Lakes. Once the southernmost leg of provincial H ...

strip. Mann did not attend film school; instead, he learned filmmaking first-hand and using his own funds. In an interview with ''Now'', he described this process:

Every film was my last movie, I would go into debt, make another film to get myself out of debt. That's how I actually needed to keep going.

Mann made his first feature, ''

,'' in his early twenties. The film, released in 1981, deals with the once-controversial genre of

free jazz Free jazz is an experimental approach to jazz improvisation that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s when musicians attempted to change or break down jazz conventions, such as regular tempos, tones, and chord changes. Musicians duri ...

. Critic and film historian

Jonathan Rosenbaum Jonathan Rosenbaum (born February 27, 1943) is an American film critic and author. Rosenbaum was the head film critic for ''The Chicago Reader'' from 1987 to 2008, when he retired. He has published and edited numerous books about cinema and has ...

has said that ''Imagine the Sound'' "may be the best documentary on free jazz that we have." In 1984, he made his only fiction film, ''

Listen to the City ''Listen to the City'' is a 1984 Canadian drama film directed by Ron Mann. Normally a documentary filmmaker, this is Mann's only fictional feature. The film stars P.J. Soles, Jim Carroll, Sandy Horne, and Michael Glassbourg. Featured in small or c ...

''. Mann has also made numerous short films, including ''Echoes Without Saying'' (1983), about the publishing and printing company

Coach House Press Coach House Books is an independent book publishing company located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Coach House publishes experimental poetry, fiction, drama and non-fiction. The press is particularly interested in writing that pushes at the boundar ...

and its founder

Stan Bevington Stan Bevington is a Canadian book publisher who founded Coach House Books. Life and work In 1965, Stan Bevington, a typesetter, newly transplanted to Toronto from Edmonton, rented an old coach house and installed an antique Challenge Gordon p ...

, and ''Marcia Resnick's Bad Boys'' (1985), about the New York based photographer. Mann found success with his 1988 documentary ''

''. The film is a survey of the history of the

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

medium in the United States from the 1930s to the 1980s, as an art form and in social context. ''Confidential'' was first released theatrically in Canada in 1988, and in the United States on April 27, 1989. The film received the 1989 Genie Award for Best Feature Length Documentary from the

Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television is a Canadian non-profit organization created in 1979 to recognize the achievements of the over 4,000 Canadian cinema of Canada, film industry and television in Canada, television industry professionals ...

.''Comic Book Confidential'' award listing
''Canadian Awards Database'';

, 1989. Caryn James of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' found the film deft and intelligent—it "takes off when it abandons the archives and focuses on the creators," but "it plays to the converted," and its attempt to relate comics to social context is "fleeting."James, Caryn (June 14, 1989)
"Review/Film; Comic Books as Sociology and Popular Art"
''The New York Times.''

1990s–2000s

Mann continued to make documentaries throughout the 1990s and 2000s. His 1999 film was ''Grass'', a documentary about the history of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

government's war on marijuana in the 20th century. Narrated by actor

, it premiered at the 1999 Toronto International Film Festival and won the Genie Award for Best Feature Length Documentary. His 2003 film, ''

'', saw him re-team with Harrelson on a film that followed a group of environmental activists riding around in a large, bio-fueled bus. The film debuted at the

South by Southwest South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in m ...

Film Festival in March 2003, and at the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a permane ...

in September 2003, where it was first runner-up for the

People's Choice Award The People's Choice Awards is an American awards show, recognizing people in entertainment, voted online by the general public and fans. The show has been held annually since 1975, with the winners originally determined using Gallup Polls until ...

. It was also nominated for a Genie Award for Best Documentary. In 2003, Mann co-founded a film distribution company called FilmsWeLike with Gary Topp. FilmWeLike's curation has been described by ''

Vice A vice is a practice, behaviour, or habit generally considered immoral, sinful, criminal, rude, taboo, depraved, degrading, deviant or perverted in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a negative character t ...

'' as a "veritable auteur smorgasbord." In 2009, he released a documentary on mushrooms and

mushroom hunting Mushroom hunting, mushrooming, mushroom picking, mushroom foraging, and similar terms describe the activity of gathering mushrooms in the wild, typically for culinary use. This practice is popular throughout most of Europe, Australia, Japan ...

called '' Know Your Mushrooms''.

2010s–present

In 2014, Mann directed the Robert Altman-based documentary '' Altman''.

Peter Bradshaw Peter Bradshaw (born 19 June 1962) is a British writer and film critic. He has been chief film critic at ''The Guardian'' since 1999, and is a contributing editor at ''Esquire''. Early life and education Bradshaw was educated at Haberdasher ...

of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' praised the film. His latest film is '' Carmine Street Guitars'' (2018). The film depicts Carmine Street Guitars, a long-running guitar store in New York City. It premiered at the 75th Venice International Film Festival, and had its Canadian premiere at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival. It went into general theatrical release in April 2019."Carmine Street Guitars lets its love of music lovers shine"
''

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part ...

'', April 4, 2019.

Impact

Mann has served as mentor to and worked with many filmmakers from the

of the 1980s, including

, Bruce McDonald,

, and

Filmography

*''

'' (1981) *'' Poetry in Motion'' (1982) *''

'' (1988) *'' The Twist'' (1992) *'' Dream Tower'' (1994) *''

'' (1999) *''

'' (2003) *'' Tales of the Rat Fink'' (2006) *'' Know Your Mushrooms'' (2008) *'' In the Wake of the Flood'' (2010) featuring author Margaret Atwood *'' Altman'' (2014) *'' Carmine Street Guitars'' (2018)

References

External links

*
Ron Mann's websiteRon Mann archives
at the University of Toronto Media Commons {{DEFAULTSORT:Mann, Ron 1959 births Living people Canadian documentary film directors University of Toronto alumni Film directors from Toronto Directors of Genie and Canadian Screen Award winners for Best Documentary Film