Robin Spry
| Robin Spry | |
|---|---|
| Born |
October 25, 1939 Toronto, Canada |
| Died | March 28, 2005 (aged 65) Montreal, Canada |
| Occupation |
Film director Film producer Screenwriter |
| Years active | 1965 - 2005 |
Robin Spry (October 25, 1939 – March 28, 2005) was a Canadian film director and television producer and screenwriter.
Spry was perhaps best known for his documentary films Action: The October Crisis of 1970 and Reaction: A Portrait of a Society in Crisis about Quebec's October Crisis.
Robin Spry was born in Toronto, Ontario to Canadian broadcast pioneer Graham Spry and economic historian Irene Spry.
After studies at Oxford University and the London School of Economics, Spry began his filmmaking career in 1964 at the National Film Board in Montreal, earning a place on its payroll in 1965 and remaining there until stepping down in 1978. While at the NFB Spry built a reputation as a documentarist engaged with the issues of the day, with films on abortion, youth rebellion, and contemporary politics. His Prologue documented the riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, weaving narrative with archival footage to become, in 1969, the first Canadian film to appear at the Venice Film Festival. His Canadian Film Award-winning documentary Action: The October Crisis of 1970 (1973) used a similar approach to tell the story of the kidnapping of British diplomat James Richard Cross and the murder of Pierre Laporte. Spry also tried his hand at other aspects of the film trade, acting as a producer, filmmaker, screenwriter, actor, cinematographer and film editor, and appearing in several colleagues' films, including Denys Arcand's Québec, Duplessis et après" (1972), reading out sections of the 1837 Durham Report. Spry starred in the 1981 hostage film Kings and Desperate Men.
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