TORONTO, October 5, 2000 -- Canada's Norman Jewison, one of the world's great cinema artists, whose 23 feature films have won 12 Academy Awards and more than forty nominations, will open the first Canadian retrospective of his work, They Call Me Mr. Jewison, at the Bloor Cinema on Friday, October 13, at 7 p.m.

Sponsored by York University's Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies as part of its year-long celebration of The Triumph of Canadian Cinema, the retrospective is a tribute to the Canadian film director whose storytelling in motion pictures has confronted many of the moral dilemmas of our times, and brought distinction to the tradition of Hollywood directing. The tribute also recognizes an international film giant who has sought to develop and preserve the artistic vision of Canadians through the Canadian Film Centre, which he founded in 1986 to offer advanced training to promising Canadian film artists.

"Norman Jewison's films display a fundamental humanism that is central to the Canadian social and political psyche," says Seth Feldman, film professor at York University and coordinator of The Triumph of Canadian Cinema series as this year's Robart's Chair in Canadian Studies. "It is often argued that the important Hollywood directors have been those, like Jewison, who, year-on-year, produce a consistently high-quality product in any number of genres that is informed by an equally consistent vision."

Feldman, who is widely published on Canadian cinema and television and a founder and past president of the Film Studies Association of Canada, says Jewison's unique visual style and dexterity in many genres reserve a special place for him in world film history.

Jewison will open the retrospective with an introduction to his latest film, The Hurricane, about the wrongfully convicted former boxer, Rubin Hurricane Carter, the third film in his powerful trilogy on racial injustice, which includes In the Heat of the Night (Best Picture, 1967) and A Soldier's Story (1984). He will answer questions from the audience following the screening.

Jewison's entire body of work -- a litany of titles that reads like the signposts of the last three decades in feature film history -- has been honoured by the Hollywood Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences with the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award. The films chosen for the retrospective are: The Hurricane, Moonstruck, In the Heat of the Night, A Soldier's Story, Fiddler on the Roof, The Russians Are Coming, The Thomas Crown Affair, The Cincinnati Kid, Agnes of God, And Justice for All.

All films will be screened at the Bloor Cinema, 506 Bloor Street West. General admission is $7, and $4 for York students. Passes for all 10 films can be purchased at the Bloor Cinema box office or the Robarts Centre.

Jewison's many awards include the prize of the Guild of German Art House Cinemas at the Berlin Film Festival in 1999 for The Hurricane, and that festival's Silver Bear award for Moonstruck in 1987. He is a three-time nominee for a Golden Globe award as best director for In the Heat of the Night (1967), Fiddler on the Roof (1971), and The Hurricane (1999). He is also the recipient of the Outstanding Achievement in Directing award at the Hollywood Film Festival this year.

The Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies at York University appoints the Robarts Chair annually to focus the research efforts of the centre on a vital component of the developing Canadian social, cultural and political scene. This distinguished position is typically filled by a senior scholar with strong links to the community, whose understanding of new developments in his/her field can have an impact on the community. Last year's chair was Susan Swan, writer and York professor, whose year-long Millennial Wisdom Symposium featured novelists, historians and archeologists examining our perceptions and representations of the past.

For details on the film retrospective schedule see The Triumph of Canadian Cinema web site at: www.robarts.yorku.ca.

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For further information, please contact:

Seth Feldman
Robarts Chair in Canadian Studies
York University
(416) 736-2100, ext. 77553
sfeldman@yorku.ca

Susan Bigelow
Media Relations
York University
(416) 736-2100, ext. 22091
sbigelow@yorku.ca
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