Warrendale (1967)
Producers: Patrick Watson and
George Desmond (for CBC)
(100 min.)

A work of compassion and brutal honesty, Warrendale depicts life in a group home for emotionally disturbed children in north Toronto. Using a confrontational method espoused by psychologist John Brown, the staff continually challenges their at-risk adolescents to act out their fears, love and anger. When the children are told that their chef has suddenly and unexpectedly died, the scene of their grief is one of the most devastating ever filmed. Banned by the CBC and the BBC, Warrendale won the Prix d’art et essai at Cannes.

A Married Couple (1969
Writer/producer: Allan King
Associate director/cinematographer: Richard Leiterman
(96 min.)

Billy and Antoinette Edwards are attractive, affluent, live large in a downtown house and have a fine baby son, Bogart. But there’s trouble in paradise. Antoinette is tired of being treated like a trophy wife. Billy doesn’t like being tested by her all the time. Brave and narcissistic, Billy and Antoinette willingly spar, seduce and strike blows at each other in this actuality drama ‘that, in its utter nakedness, makes John Cassavetes’ Faces look like early Doris Day,’ according to Time.

Six War Years (1975)
Producer: Robert Sherrin (for CBC)
Writer: Norman Klenman, adapting the book by Barry Broadfoot
Starring: Blair Brown, Janet Amos, Claire Coulter, Thomas Hauff
(57 min.)

King evokes one of this country’s most exciting epochs in this stylish reminiscence of what Canadians experienced during World War Two. By combining dramatic recreations with documentary footage, he creates a unique mélange that makes the oral histories from that time lively and relevant again. Featuring startlingly fresh performances by a who’s who of Toronto’s emerging theater scene, Six War Years offers frank and juicy accounts of what loving, winning and dying was like back then.

Who Has Seen the Wind (1977)
Producer: Allan King
Writer: Patricia Watson
Starring: Brian Painchaud, Douglas Junor, Gordon Pinsent, Helen Shaver, Thomas Hauff, José Ferrer
(101 min.)

Small-town life in Depression-era Saskatchewan is evoked in this gentle, moving adaptation of W.O. Mitchell’s classic novel. Brian (Painchaud), a serious young lad, grows wiser as he experiences the rhythms of life and death on the prairie. In the film’s most moving scene, Brian finally is able to cry over the death of his father, just as a windstorm strikes the wheat field where he is standing alone. Popular with Canadian audiences, the film won the 1977 Golden Reel Award for biggest domestic box office.

Dying at Grace (2003)
Producer: Allan King
Executive producer: Kathy Avrich-Johnson
Commissioning editor: Rudy Buttignol
(148 min.)

The Salvation Army’s Grace Health Centre in downtown Toronto is the setting for King’s bravest and most unsettling film. A diverse collection of the center’s residents allowed King and his crew to film their final days. These include Carmela Nardone, a hard-working Italian immigrant; Joyce Bone, bereft of family but outwardly witty; Eda Simac, a feisty career woman; Rick Pollard, hell-raiser and ex-member of the Satan’s Choice biker gang; and Lloyd Greenway, a loved church-going gay man. Confronting society’s deepest fear, this film depicts with compassion the dramas that unfold as death becomes inevitable.

Memory for Max, Claire, Ida and Company (2005)
Producer: Allan King
Executive producer: Kathy Avrich-Johnson
Commissioning editor: Rudy Buttignol
(112 min.)

King continues his exploration of aging and mortality with this life-embracing look at people coping with dementia. Working at the Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care in north Toronto, King’s crew concentrates on Max, his girlfriend Claire, and their mutual friend Ida, while offering briefer profiles of other residents in the long-term facility. Still genial and a gentleman at his advanced age, Max charms the romantic Claire with his songs and quiet manners. King’s compassion lets us see Max and his friends as full human beings, still surviving and enjoying themselves.