Roger Blais (February 6, 1917 – November 9, 2012) was a Canadian film director and producer, who played a key role in the development and expansion of the Quebec division of the National Film Board of Canada."NFB stalwart loved telling stories of his native Quebec to rest of country and world"
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'', November 26, 2012. As a filmmaker, he was most noted for the films '' Royal Journey'' and '' Grierson'', both of which won the Canadian Film Award for Best Feature Length Documentary in 1952 and 1973, respectively.Maria Topalovich, ''And the Genie Goes To...: Celebrating 50 Years of the Canadian Film Awards''.

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, 2000. .

Background

Born in

Giffard Giffard is an Anglo-Norman surname, carried by a number of families of the Peerage of the United Kingdom and the landed gentry. They included the Earl of Halsbury, Earls of Halsbury and the Giffards of Chillington Hall, Staffordshire. Notable peop ...

, Quebec, he studied painting at the École des Beaux-Arts in Quebec City before enlisting as a war artist during World War II; however, he actually spent much of the war as a non-combatant soldier in the English countryside after the general of the regiment to which he had been assigned refused to have an artist under his command on the grounds that the war would be won with guns rather than paintbrushes. When he returned to Canada, he married Louise Bellavance, and joined the National Film Board as an animator.

NFB career

With the National Film Board, he began to transition from animation to the documentary department. His first significant NFB work was ''Fridolinons'', a 1945 short film of three sketches performed by Gratien Gélinas as his comedic character Fridolin. In 1964, he was selected as head of audiovisual production for Expo 67, overseeing all film and television aspects of the event. He held this role until the fair ended, before returning to the National Film Board. In 1973 Blais released his most famous film, ''Grierson'', a documentary portrait of NFB founder and documentary film innovator

John Grierson John Grierson (26 April 1898 – 19 February 1972) was a pioneering Scottish documentary maker, often considered the father of British and Canadian documentary film. In 1926, Grierson coined the term "documentary" in a review of Robert J. Fla ...

Honours

He was named an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2000,"Government House honours 103". ''

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'', July 14, 2000. and a Knight of the

Order of Quebec The National Order of Quebec, termed officially in French as ''l'Ordre national du Québec'', and in English abbreviation as the Order of Quebec, is an order of merit in the Canadian province of Quebec. Instituted in 1984 when Lieutenant Gov ...

in 2005.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Blais, Roger 1917 births 2012 deaths Canadian documentary film directors Canadian documentary film producers National Film Board of Canada people Film directors from Quebec Officers of the Order of Canada Knights of the National Order of Quebec People from Quebec City