Mort Ransen
Born(1933-08-16)16 August 1933
Montreal, Canada
Died4 September 2021(2021-09-04) (aged 88)
Salt Spring Island, British Columbia
Occupation(s)Director, writer, editor, producer
Years active1961–2003

Mort Ransen (August 16, 1933 – September 4, 2021) was a Canadian film and television director, editor, screenwriter and producer, best known for his Genie Award-winning 1995 film Margaret's Museum.[1]

Early life

Ransen was born Moishe Socoransky to Ukrainian immigrants, the youngest of four children in the Yiddish-speaking household of Shimmel and Fanny (née Bordoff) Socoransky. He attended Baron Byng High School, where a teacher suggested that he pursue a career in acting. He left school after grade nine and went to New York, where he studied under the highly-regarded acting teacher Peggy Feury. He returned to Montreal, changed his name and began building an acting and directing career in theatre.[2]

Career

In 1960, Ransen was hired by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). Over the next 24 years, he would direct, write, edit and/or produce 21 films for the NFB. He was also teaching film studies classes at McGill University, where he gave his students cameras to create the celebrated 1968 film Christopher's Movie Matinee. He left the NFB in 1984 and directed film and TV projects for other producers. He would then create two additional films produced by the NFB: Ah... the Money, the Money, the Money: The Battle for Saltspring, and his most successful film, Margaret's Museum.[3]

Ransen was also credited for many years as director of the 1969 documentary film You Are on Indian Land.[4] As a professional filmmaker and NFB employee, he had assisted film student Mike Kanentakeron Mitchell in making the film, but NFB policy at that time led to Ransen being credited as the director rather than Mitchell.[4] Ransen always opposed that, saying that it was properly Mitchell's film, and the film's directorial credit was reassigned to Mitchell in 2017.[4]

In 1997, Ransen moved to Salt Spring Island, British Columbia to live as a (self-described) 'hippie'. He did some theatre work and formed his own company, Ranfilm Productions, through which he created three more films, including the critically-acclaimed My Father's Angel.

Personal life and death

Ransen was married twice and had four children. He had been with his partner, theatre director Libby Mason, since 2000. After developing dementia, Ransen spent the last year of his life in a care home and died in Saltspring Island’s Lady Minto/Gulf Islands Hospital on September 4, 2021.[5]

Filmography

Awards

Jacky Visits the Zoo (1962)

No Reason to Stay (1966)

Christopher's Movie Matinee (1968)

Falling from Ladders (1969)

Untouched and Pure (1970)

Mortimer Griffin and Shalinsky (1985)

Margaret's Museum (1995)

My Father's Angel (1999)

References

  1. ^ Mort Ransen Archived 2011-09-07 at the Wayback Machine at northernstars.ca.
  2. ^ Ferrier MacKay, Susan (26 September 2021). "Filmmaker Mort Ransen..." The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 28 January 2023.
  3. ^ "Production Personnel: Mort Ransen". onf-nfb.gc.ca. National Film Board of Canada. Retrieved 28 January 2023.
  4. ^ a b c Tracey, Andrew (24 February 2017). "Now Reconciled: Nearly 50 years later, the director of a landmark First Nations film gets his rightful recognition". The Review. Toronto International Film Festival. Retrieved 4 May 2017.
  5. ^ Ferrier MacKay, Susan (26 September 2021). "Filmmaker Mort Ransen..." The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 28 January 2023.

External links

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