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Montreal Gazette
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Montreal Gazette
Brownstein: Late, great filmmaker Peter Pearson will get the memorial service he deserves — in a movie theatre
By Bill Brownstein The decision by his son Louis would have left Peter Pearson smiling — or more likely chortling, in his own inimitable fashion. An acclaimed Montreal director, film executive and fierce advocate for the arts, Pearson died last month at 87 at the long-term Ste. Anne's Hospital in Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue following a three-year struggle with the devastating effects of dementia and Parkinson's disease. Louis Pearson decided the best way — the only way — to honour his dad would be to hold his memorial Friday morning at, appropriately, a movie theatre: the Cinéma du Musée, inside the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. 'This was the only fitting place for his send-off,' says Louis Pearson, a TVA exec. 'Our place of worship was the movie theatre. The way some would convene at their place of worship, we would go the movies every other week. He had such a passion for film. He had such a passion for life.' In December 2023, with support from friends like Margaret Atwood and Ken Dryden as well as Louis, Peter Pearson was appointed an officer of the Order of Canada for his 'groundbreaking contributions as a filmmaker and for his tireless advocacy of Canadian film and television.' 'It brings tears to my eyes. … I'm very moved,' Pearson told me at the time. 'It's such a surprise and honour to be in such rarefied company. I don't know if I deserve this.' He did. Pearson served as president of the Directors Guild of Canada, executive director of Telefilm Canada and chair of the Council of Canadian Filmmakers. And when he decided to retire from the film business, he set up the Cinémagique club for local cinephiles, providing close to 1,000 members with premières of everything from arty Euro to highly touted American indie to homegrown Québécois fare, followed by analyses from the films' writers and directors. Pearson's contributions as a filmmaker were groundbreaking: among them, The Best Damn Fiddler From Calabogie to Kaladar (1968) — which won eight Canadian Film Awards, including best picture, and launched the career of his close pal Margot Kidder — and Paperback Hero (1973), winner of a slew of honours and featuring Keir Dullea, star of Stanley Kubrick's monumental 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). In addition to the nearly two dozen films he made for the National Film Board of Canada and others, Pearson made his mark on the small screen as a producer of CBC's This Hour Has Seven Days in the 1960s and as producer-director of CBC's much-lauded six-part series Ken Dryden's Home Game (1990), based on the latter's bestseller The Game. Pearson and Dryden became great buddies as a result of their collaboration on the series, which took them everywhere from Montreal to Moscow. 'Peter was immersed with life,' the legendary Habs netminder notes in a phone interview. 'He tried to make sense of life and he also tried to make nonsense of it. He was interested in so many things and always had a fascinating take on things. He was funny, smart, a great storyteller — just great company. 'He was very much a character, but a real character, a compelling character, not a self-focused character. He was a performer, but he wasn't self-indulgent.' Dryden, who lives in Toronto, recalls taking in a Canadiens game at the Bell Centre with Pearson, in what was one of the filmmaker's last public outings. 'Peter was struggling physically at the time, but, as usual, he was never not interesting, still adept at capturing the essence of it all,' Dryden says. 'His joy was always enjoying the moment.' No doubt about that, as those of us who had the privilege of spending time with him can attest. Prior to his illnesses, Pearson, gregarious and forever with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes, was always the life of the party and never held back from voicing his opinions on everything from hockey to politics to culture and, of course, film. He had no use for cheap sentiment. 'He was one of a kind,' says Louis, married and the father of two. 'Apart from his love of film, he also had a passion for opera, standing on chairs and belting out arias at parties, sometimes even in the proper key. He had a passion for baseball, and was a fervent Expos season-ticket holder. He could even recall the opening-day lineup for the Cleveland Indians — in 1948! And he had a passion for storytelling and embellishing it from time to time for dramatic effect.' Close friend Peter Raymont was always blown away by Pearson's love of life. 'I loved his passion for life, for people, for film, for everything. He had such enormous energy and gusto,' says Raymont, director of Shake Hands With the Devil: The Journey of Roméo Dallaire (2004), co-director and producer of Margaret Atwood: A Word After a Word After a Word Is Power (2019) and executive producer of Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and the Band (2019). Raymont will be singing the Phil Ochs tune When I'm Gone in tribute to Pearson at Friday's memorial. 'The point of the song is do it while you're alive, and Peter certainly did that,' Raymont says. 'What Peter did for me and so many others was to inspire us to be our best. He was very supportive of me and so many others in our careers. I'm so forever grateful to him.' Ever cognizant of Pearson's accomplishments and passions, Louis points out what to him was his dad's greatest attribute. 'He was also the greatest dad. We went on all kinds of amazing adventures together, catching sports events and operas. He came to my baseball games. He coached my hockey team,' points out Louis, before taking on a more wistful tone. 'As an adult two decades back, when I had cancer, he picked me up for every treatment. He was so attentive, shepherding me through the whole ordeal. 'Really, he shone his light wherever he was in his life.'
CBC
04-02-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Montreal filmmaker Ayana O'Shun explores the impact of absent fathers in new documentary
A new documentary, La Fête des Pères (Father's Day), premieres Tuesday night at the Cinéma du Musée in Montreal. Directed by Montreal filmmaker and one of CBC Quebec's 2024 Black Changemakers Ayana O'Shun, the film delves into the profound impact of absent fathers on Black families across North America. For O'Shun, this exploration isn't just societal, it's deeply personal.
