Lonely Boy (film)

Lonely Boy
VHS cover
Directed by	Wolf Koenig Roman Kroitor
Produced by	Roman Kroitor
Starring	Paul Anka
Edited by	John Spotton
Distributed by	National Film Board of Canada (NFB)
Release date	1962
Running time	27 min.
Country	Canada
Language	English

Lonely Boy is a 1962 cinéma vérité documentary about the former teen sensation Paul Anka. The film takes its name from Anka's hit song, "Lonely Boy", which he performs to screaming fans in the film. This short documentary makess use of hand-held cameras to record intimate backstage moments.

Co-directed by Roman Kroitor and Wolf Koenig, this National Film Board of Canada production won a Canadian Film Award as top film of the year and was nominated at the BAFTA Awards for its best short film prize.

Lonely Boy was a substantial influence on the Peter Watkins film Privilege. Watkins had studied it in preparation for filming and his film deals with the phenomenal popularity of a pop singer and its abuse for political motives. One scene showing the central character, Steven Shorter, at a table with a venue owner is virtually a one-to-one reproduction of a scene in Lonely Boy, even using the same name (Uncle Julie) for the like-mannered venue owner. The cinéma verité style of Lonely Boy was also adopted, and one DVD release of Privilege included Lonely Boy as well as an excerpt of an essay on that film as extra features. The film's importance in the evolution of documentary film making was explored in the film Cinéma Vérité: Defining the Moment.

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