Tom Radford (born March 12, 1946) is a Canadian documentary filmmaker from

Edmonton Edmonton is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Central Alberta ...

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

.Tom Murray
"Tom Radford"
''

The Canadian Encyclopedia ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' (TCE; ) is the national encyclopedia of Canada, published online by the Toronto-based historical organization Historica Canada, with financial support by the federal Department of Canadian Heritage and Society of Com ...

'', March 22, 2010. A cofounder with Anne Wheeler and P. J. Reese of the Filmwest Associates studio, Radford is most noted for films on the history, culture and politics of

Western Canada Western Canada, also referred to as the Western provinces, Canadian West, or Western provinces of Canada, and commonly known within Canada as the West, is a list of regions of Canada, Canadian region that includes the four western provinces and t ...

. Born in Edmonton, Radford was the son of diarist Gertrude Hogg and the grandson of a former editor of the ''

Edmonton Journal The ''Edmonton Journal'' is a daily newspaper published in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It is part of the Postmedia Network. History The ''Journal'' was founded in 1903 by three local businessmen — John Macpherson, Arthur Moore and J.W. Cunn ...

''. He studied Canadian history at the

University of Alberta The University of Alberta (also known as U of A or UAlberta, ) is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford, the first premier of Alberta, and Henry Marshall Tory, t ...

, but left halfway through his master's program to begin working on his first documentary film, ''Ernest Brown: Pioneer Photographer''. The film won the Golden Sheaf Award for Best of Festival at the

Yorkton Film Festival Yorkton Film Festival (YFF) is an annual film festival held in late May in Yorkton, Saskatchewan, Canada. In 1947, the Yorkton Film Council (YFC) was founded and in 1950 the first international documentary film festival officially opened in we ...

in 1973; in 1975, he won both Best of Festival and Best Director at Yorkton for ''The Man Who Chooses the Bush''. In 1980 Radford left Filmwest to launch the Northwest Studio of the

National Film Board of Canada The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; ) is a Canadian public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary films, animation, web documentaries, and altern ...

, serving as executive producer of the division until 1985. He was subsequently a founding partner in the National Screen Institute, and in the commercial firms Film Frontiers, Great North Productions and Clearwater Media. His other films have included ''Land'' (1971), ''Death of a Delta'' (1972), ''Every Saturday Night'' (1973), ''The Forests and Vladimir Krajina'' (1978), ''Life After Hockey'' (1989), ''The Buffalo Ground'' (1995), ''Tickling the Dragon's Tail'' (1999), ''The Honour of the Crown'' (2000), ''Arctic Dreamer: The Lonely Quest of Vilhjalmur Stefansson'' (2003), ''Tar Sands: The Selling of Alberta'' (2008) and '' Lost Years: A People's Struggle for Justice'' (2011), as well as episodes of the television documentary series ''

West West is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some Romance langu ...

'', '' Pacificanada'', ''

The Nature of Things ''The Nature of Things'' (formerly, ''The Nature of Things with David Suzuki'') is a Canadian television series of documentary programs. It debuted on CBC Television on 6 November 1960. Many of the programs document nature and the effect th ...

'' and '' A Scattering of Seeds''. He won the Gemini Award for Best Science and Nature Documentary at the 26th Gemini Awards in 2011 for "Code Breakers", a ''Nature of Things'' episode he produced in collaboration with director

Niobe Thompson Niobe Thompson is a Canadian anthropologist and documentary film maker. The founder of Handful of Films, he produces and hosts one-off and series documentaries in partnership with CBC Television, CBC's science-and-nature program ''The Nature of Th ...

; he also previously won Gemini Awards in 1988 for ''Foster Child'' and in 2004 for ''Arctic Dreamers'', and received nominations for ''Tipping Point: The Age of the Oil Sands'' and ''The Perfect Runner''. He was inducted as a member of the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada () is a Canadian state order, national order and the second-highest Award, honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the Canadian Centennial, ce ...

in 2020.Josee St-Onge
"'Such a surprise': Edmonton filmmaker awarded Order of Canada"

CBC News CBC News is the division of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the news gathering and production of news programs on the corporation's English-language operations, namely CBC Television, CBC Radio, CBC News Network, and CBC ...

Edmonton, November 27, 2020.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Radford, Tom 1946 births Living people Canadian documentary film directors Canadian documentary film producers Film directors from Edmonton Members of the Order of Canada National Film Board of Canada people University of Alberta alumni Canadian Screen Award winners