Donald Brittain

Donald Brittain studied at Glebe Collegiate Institute. The recorded working language is English. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are documentary film and docudrama. Places of work recorded in the authority are Canada. Employment is recorded with National Film Board of Canada. Distinctions recorded are Officer of the Order of Canada, Gemini Award, Genie Awards and Canadian Film Award.

• Name — Donald Brittain • Born — 10 June 1928 • Birthplace — Ottawa, Ontario • Died — 21 July 1989 • Place of death — Montreal, Quebec • Known for — Filmmaker • Awards — Order of Canada

Fields of Sacrifice (1964) is considered Brittain's first major film as director. His other notable directorial credits include the 1964 feature documentary Bethune, 1965 documentaries Ladies and Gentlemen... Mr. Leonard Cohen and Memorandum and the Genie Award-winning 1979 documentary Paperland: The Bureaucrat Observed. He also directed the first-ever IMAX film, Tiger Child for Expo '70, and Earthwatch, a 70mm film for Expo 86. He wrote the 1975 Oscar-nominated short documentary Whistling Smith. He co-directed the 1976 feature documentary Volcano: An Inquiry Into the Life and Death of Malcolm Lowry which garnered 6 Canadian Film Awards and an Academy Award nomination. Brittain also directed the three-part CBC-coproduced series The Champions, chronicling the lives and battles of Canadian political titans René Lévesque and Pierre Elliott Trudeau. His most ambitious project was The King Chronicle, a three-part 1987–88 television series about the remarkable career of Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King. He won the Gemini Award for best screenplay and direction for the 1985 drama Canada's Sweetheart: The Saga of Hal C. Banks. As NFB producer, Brittain's credits included Arthur Lipsett's A Trip Down Memory Lane. Often a narrator of his own documentaries, Brittain also lent his voice to the animated mockumentary What on Earth!