Ron Kelly (born June 11, 1929 in
Vancouver,
British Columbia) is a Canadian
film director
A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, p ...
and
screenwriter
A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based.
...
.
He began his career with the
CBC film unit, directing many
short
Short may refer to:
Places
* Short (crater), a lunar impact crater on the near side of the Moon
* Short, Mississippi, an unincorporated community
* Short, Oklahoma, a census-designated place
People
* Short (surname)
* List of people known as ...
and
documentary films between 1952 and 1964. He traveled to France, Spain and Mexico producing and directing documentaries independently from 1956 to 1958. From 1959 to 1962 he studied at
Pinewood Studios
Pinewood Studios is a British film and television studio located in the village of Iver Heath, England. It is approximately west of central London.
The studio has been the base for many productions over the years from large-scale films to te ...
, England, on a Canadian Arts Council fellowship and while there produced and directed documentaries for the
BBC, CBC and National Office of Film, UK. In 1967 he co-wrote and directed the feature film
Waiting for Caroline
''Waiting for Caroline'' is a 1967 Canadian drama film directed by Ron Kelly (filmmaker), Ron Kelly and starring Alexandra Stewart, François Tassé, and William Needles.Gerald Pratley, ''A Century of Canadian Cinema''. Lynx Images, 2003. . p. 233 ...
, as a commemoration of Canada's centennial year. ''Waiting for Caroline'' was distributed internationally by United Artists, Hollywood. In Hollywood in 1968, Kelly directed for Twentieth Century Fox Studios and Disney Studio. In 1970 he returned to Canada, writing, directing and producing dramas and documentaries for the
NFB and CBC. His most recent film is ''Victims of Victims'' (2004), a documentary exploration of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Awards and recognition
Ron Kelly received the
Palme d'Or for England at the
Cannes Film Festival, 1962 for ''The Tearaways''. In 1965 he received a
Canadian Film Award for Best Direction for his film
The Gift, a documentary on
Hiroshima
is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui h ...
, and again in 1967 for an episode of the TV Series
Wojeck
''Wojeck'' is a Canadian dramatic television series, which aired on CBC Television from 1966 to 1968. It was arguably the first successful drama series on English Canadian television.
Plot
Steve Wojeck is a crusading big city coroner who regul ...
entitled ''The Last Man in the World''. The latter also received the
Golden Globe Award
The Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association beginning in January 1944, recognizing excellence in both American and international film and television. Beginning in 2022, there are 105 members of t ...
at Monte Carlo. Kelly's television productions of ''The Open Grave'' (a 1964 episode of the TV series
Horizon
The horizon is the apparent line that separates the surface of a celestial body from its sky when viewed from the perspective of an observer on or near the surface of the relevant body. This line divides all viewing directions based on whether i ...
) and
The Megantic Outlaw
''The Megantic Outlaw'' is a Canadian historical drama television film, directed by Ron Kelly and broadcast by CBC Television in 1971. (1970) were also winners of Canadian Film Awards, and ''The Open Grave'' won the
Prix Italia in Genoa. ''The Irish'' received 1st prize for documentaries at the New York Film Festival, and the Atlanta Film Festival and the Chicago Film Festival's Gold Bear Award in 1975.
Partial filmography
*''
The Open Grave
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in E ...
'' (1964)
*''
Centennial Travellers
{{other uses, Centennial (disambiguation), Centenary (disambiguation)
A centennial, or centenary in British English, is a 100th anniversary or otherwise relates to a century, a period of 100 years.
Notable events
Notable centennial events at a ...
'' (Documentary, 1965)
*''
Quo Vadis, Mrs. Lumb?'' (Documentary, 1965)
*''
The Gift'' (1965)
*''
Valley in a River
A valley is an elongated low area often running between Hill, hills or Mountain, mountains, which will typically contain a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers ...
'' (Documentary, 1966)
*''
The Last Man in the World'' (1966)
*''
Waiting for Caroline
''Waiting for Caroline'' is a 1967 Canadian drama film directed by Ron Kelly (filmmaker), Ron Kelly and starring Alexandra Stewart, François Tassé, and William Needles.Gerald Pratley, ''A Century of Canadian Cinema''. Lynx Images, 2003. . p. 233 ...
'' (1967)
*''
King of the Grizzlies
''King of the Grizzlies'' is a 1970 adventure film directed by Ron Kelly and written by Jack Speirs, Rod Peterson and Norman Wright as a loose adaptation of Ernest Thompson Seton's 1900 novel ''Biography Of A Grizzly''. The film stars John Yesn ...
'' (1970)
*''
The Megantic Outlaw
''The Megantic Outlaw'' is a Canadian historical drama television film, directed by Ron Kelly and broadcast by CBC Television in 1971. '' (1971)
*''
Springhill'' (1972)
References
External links
*
Complete Ron Kelly Filmography at CITWF
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kelly, Ron
1929 births
Living people
Film directors from Vancouver
Canadian male screenwriters
Canadian documentary film directors
National Film Board of Canada people
Canadian television directors
Disney people
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation people
Writers from Vancouver
Best Director Genie and Canadian Screen Award winners