David Secter is a Canadian film director. He is best known for the 1965 film '' Winter Kept Us Warm'', the first English Canadian film ever screened at the

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films ...

Geoff Pevere Geoff Pevere (born October 1957) is a Canadian lecturer, author, broadcaster, teacher, arts and media critic, currently the program director of the Rendezvous With Madness Film Festival in Toronto.John Semley, "Can we play with madness?: Toronto' ...

"David Secter, the Varsity visionary: How a low-budget student movie went to Cannes and influenced a generation of Toronto filmmakers"
''

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 par ...

'', June 25, 2011. Widely considered a key milestone in the development of

Canadian film Cinema in Canada dates back to the earliest known display of film in Saint-Laurent, Quebec, in 1896. The film industry in Canada has been dominated by the United States, which has utilized Canada as a shooting location and to bypass British fil ...

, ''Winter Kept Us Warm'' was a gay-themed independent film written, directed and funded entirely by Secter, who is gay,. while he was a student at 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 ...

. Secter released a second film in Canada, titled '' The Offering'', in 1966;Martin Knelman, "He shoots The Offering in July". ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

'', May 19, 1966. however, the film was more poorly received than ''Winter Kept Us Warm'', and because Secter had largely worked with non-union crew, the

International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts of the United States, Its Territories and Canada, known as simply the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE or ...

intervened to prevent the film from being screened theatrically anywhere outside of Toronto."Stagehands' union tells Secter 'you talk too much'". ''

'', December 1, 1966. At the time of ''The Offering's'' premiere, other projects Secter reportedly had in development included a drama series for

CBC Television CBC Television (also known as CBC TV) is a Canadian English-language broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster. The network began operations on September 6, 1952. Its French- ...

, a thriller film to be shot in

Haliburton County Haliburton is a county of Ontario, Canada, known as a tourist and cottage area in Central Ontario for its scenery and for its resident artists. Minden Hills is the county seat. Haliburton County and the village of Haliburton are named after Tho ...

, and a documentary film about the history of IATSE. However, none of the other projects came to fruition, and instead he moved to New York City to pursue opportunities in the much larger American film and theatre industry. He initially was slated to direct

Cher Cher (; born Cherilyn Sarkisian; May 20, 1946) is an American singer, actress and television personality. Often referred to by the media as the Honorific nicknames in popular music, "Goddess of Pop", she has been described as embodying female ...

's 1969 film ''

Chastity Chastity, also known as purity, is a virtue related to temperance. Someone who is ''chaste'' refrains either from sexual activity considered immoral or any sexual activity, according to their state of life. In some contexts, for example when ma ...

'', but dropped out of the project. In New York, he lived with several other experimental filmmakers in a clothing-optional, drug- and sex-friendly

commune A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to: Administrative-territorial entities * Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township ** Communes of ...

, and worked as a theatre director. He released the low-budget sex comedy '' Getting Together'' (also titled ''Feelin' Up'' in some releases) in 1976, and later moved to Los Angeles. He did not work on another film until '' Cyberdorm'' in 1997. In the early 1990s, Secter's nephew Joel Secter rented ''Getting Together'' from his local video store in Winnipeg, not knowing that his uncle had directed films. After discovering his uncle's name in the credits, Joel contacted David to discuss his career in film. These discussions culminated in Joel Secter's debut as a filmmaker with the 2005 documentary '' The Best of Secter and the Rest of Secter''. In the film, David revealed that he is

HIV-positive The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of ''Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the immun ...

. Also in 2005, David Secter directed and released a documentary film on the Gay Games, titled '' Take the Flame! Gay Games: Grace, Grit, and Glory''.. He is interviewed in

Matthew Hays Matthew Hays is a Canadian film critic, writer, film festival programmer and academic. He won a Lambda Literary Award for his 2007 book '' The View from Here: Conversations with Gay and Lesbian Filmmakers''. Hays teaches film studies, journalism ...

Lambda Literary Award Lambda Literary Awards, also known as the "Lammys", are awarded yearly by Lambda Literary to recognize the crucial role LGBTQ writers play in shaping the world. The Lammys celebrate the very best in LGBTQ literature.The awards were instituted i ...

-winning 2007 book '' The View from Here: Conversations with Gay and Lesbian Filmmakers''.

References

External links

Website of ''The Best of Secter & the Rest of Secter'' documentary.
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Secter, David Film directors from Winnipeg People with HIV/AIDS Canadian gay writers LGBT film directors Writers from Winnipeg Jewish Canadian writers Living people Place of birth missing (living people) 1943 births Canadian screenwriters LGBT screenwriters LGBT Jews Jewish Canadian filmmakers 21st-century LGBT people