Amnon Buchbinder (June 17, 1958 - November 30, 2019) was an American-born Canadian screenwriter and film director,Patricia Robertson
"Film stories feed the soul"
''

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'', March 4, 2006. most noted for his feature films '' The Fishing Trip'' and '' Whole New Thing''.Bill Rankin, "Believable characters keep Whole New Thing from getting old". ''

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'', October 4, 2005. Born in Missouri, he moved to Canada with his family in childhood, before studying film at the

California Institute of the Arts The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) is a Private university, private art school in Santa Clarita, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the US created specifically for ...

. He was based in

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

in the early 1980s, where he was a board member of the

Pacific Cinematheque The Cinematheque (legal name: Pacific Cinémathèque Pacifique), founded in 1972, is a Canadian charity and non-profit film institute, media education centre, and film exhibitor based in Vancouver, British Columbia. The organization's mission is ...

and a programmer for the

Vancouver International Film Festival The Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) is an annual film festival held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, for two weeks in late September and early October. The festival is operated by the Greater Vancouver International Film Festi ...

. He made a number of short films, most notably 1983's ''Oroboros'', before studying directing at the

Canadian Film Centre The Canadian Film Centre (CFC) is a charitable organization founded in 1988 by filmmaker Norman Jewison in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Originally launched as a film school, today it provides training, development and advancement opportunities for ...

. He joined the faculty of

York University York University (), also known as YorkU or simply YU), is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's third-largest university, and it has approximately 53,500 students, 7,000 faculty and staff, ...

as a professor of screenwriting in the film department in 1995, and eventually became chair of the department."Passings: Amnon Buchbinder, filmmaker, director and screenwriter"

, December 4, 2019. ''The Fishing Trip'', his first feature film as a director, was written by

Michelle Lovretta Michelle Lovretta is a Canadian television writer and producer best known as the creator and executive producer of the television series ''Lost Girl'' and '' Killjoys''. She has also written for ''Instant Star'', ''Relic Hunter'', '' Mutant X'' and ...

, one of his students at York.Judy Gerstel, "Toronto teens get lost in their Fishing Trip roles". ''

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part of Torstar's Daily News Brands (Torstar), Daily News Brands division. ...

'', November 13, 1988. In 2005 he published the screenwriting text ''The Way of the Screenwriter'', and released ''Whole New Thing'' as his second feature film. Following ''Whole New Thing'' he worked on ''Mortal Coil'', a television pilot. Although it was never picked up to series, he published a novel based on it in 2014. In 2015 he released the film ''Traveling Medicine Show'', a compilation of three short

docufiction Docufiction (or docu-fiction) is the cinematographic combination of documentary film, documentary and fiction, this term often meaning narrative film. It is a film genre which attempts to capture reality such as it is (as direct cinema or ciné ...

films in which he and his own family had played fictionalized versions of themselves. The following year he released his final film, the interactive documentary ''Biology of Story''. Buchbinder died on November 30, 2019, of

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Buchbinder, Amnon 1958 births 2019 deaths 20th-century Canadian screenwriters 20th-century Canadian male writers 21st-century Canadian screenwriters 21st-century Canadian novelists 21st-century Canadian male writers Canadian male novelists Canadian male screenwriters Film directors from Toronto Screenwriters from Toronto American emigrants to Canada Jewish Canadian screenwriters Academic staff of York University Canadian Film Centre alumni Screenwriting instructors Novelists from Toronto