Norman Jewison series fetes storied film career

Norman Jewison's first stint as a movie director left him so awestruck that he forgot to yell "Action!" at the start of the shooting. But the Canadian filmmaker quickly transitioned into the role and eventuallyproduced a celebrated body of work, which is being honoured in a new retrospective.

The Toronto International Film Festival kicks off the series Justice for All: The Films of Norman Jewison in Toronto Thursday evening with a screening of his hit 1987 romance Moonstruck, with actress Olympia Dukakis and screenwriter John Patrick Shanley,both of whom won Oscars for their work in the film.They will be joiningJewison at the event.

'It's nice they're honouring a Torontonian who got lucky in the film business.' Norman Jewison

The retrospective, which runs until Aug. 31, will see theinfluential Jewison return for an on-stage conversation as well as a reunion with former boxer Rubin Carter subject of his film The Hurricane. TIFF Bell Lightbox will screen such acclaimed Jewison films as In the Heat of the Night, Fiddler on the Roof, The Thomas Crown Affair, And Justice for All, Agnes of God, A Soldier's Story and Jesus Christ Superstar.

"I think it's nice they're honouring a Torontonian who got lucky in the film business," Jewison told CBC News.

"I think timing is everything in life," he added, after noting that he landed his first gig as a movie director (the 1962 film 40 Pounds of Trouble) through a serendipitous backstage meeting with star Tony Curtis, who visited the set of a Judy Garland TV special Jewison was directing.

The 85-year-old recalled advice about seizing the moment he received early on from Senator Robert Kennedy again during a chance meeting in 1966, when both were in an Idaho hospital waiting for their sons, who had each broken a leg in the same ski race.

"This could be a very important film, Norman," 84-year-old Jewison recalled Kennedy saying after listening to plot details of In the Heat of the Night.

"He's the only person that ever said that about In the Heat of the Night before it was made or when it was being made. He said 'Timing is everything, in politics and in art and in life itself.' I'll never forget that and he was absolutely right."

Motivated by passions

The seminal 1967 drama, which earned five Oscars and has become one of Jewison's most acclaimed titles, starred Sidney Poitier as a black police detective struggling to clear his name and solve a murder in a racist southern town.

"I think filmmakers make films about subjects that they care about. You're motivated by your passions for certain things and I just have a big thing about any kind of racism or that kind of prejudice. I just think it's unfounded and doesn't make common sense," Jewison said.

Even before he served as a director for CBC in Canada and for CBS in New York in the 1950s, Jewison aspired to tackle racism on film after a visit to Memphis left an indelible impression.

Just discharged from the Canadian navy following the Second World War, Jewison boarded a bus and, without a thought, sat at the back which, according to a hand-painted sign, was just meant for blacks. When challenged by the bus driver, Jewison chose to disembark instead of moving to the front.

"There are so many thousands and thousands of black soldiers, sailors [and]airmen who are fighting for this country and giving their lives. And when they come home, they have to sit on back of the bus or they can't drink out of a fountain or they can't go to [a certain] bathroom," he recalled thinking at the time.

"I didn't think that was right, so with Canadian fair play pounding in my heart, I said to myself 'If I ever get a chance to make a statement about racism, I will.' And I had a chance to make that movie."

Booster of Canadians

Also thefounder of the much-praised Canadian Film Centre, Jewison is easilyone of Canadian cinema's success stories.A Companion of the Order of Canada and recipient of the Thalberg Memorial Award from the U.S. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for his body of work, his most recent accolades includea star-packed salute from New York's Film Society of Lincoln Centeranda lifetime achievement honour from the Directors Guild of America.

Still, he is quick to acknowledge the achievements of other Canadiansand laments that the country doesn't do so more often.

"There's a tendency to put things down here, I find. I don't think we celebrate our artists like we should. Other countries celebrate them! So when you get somebody in Toronto, some politician who's acouncillor on the city council and he doesn't know who Margaret Atwood is, that's shocking to me. I'm just absolutely shocked! The world knows who Margaret Atwood is, why doesn't he?" Jewison declared.

"I've made a lot of films about betrayal maybe that's my genre and I felt that Margaret Atwood was betrayed. I felt that all Canadian artists were betrayed by a statement like that. I see Canadian actors, painters, writers, artists, business people and scientists go to other countries and they're so successful. Nobody here talks about it. I don't know where that comes from. I don't know why we don't want to celebrate success."

Perhaps because of this, the homegrown acknowledgement by TIFF which is joined by Ontario broadcaster TVO in paying tribute to Jewison is particularly special to the filmmaker.

"I think it feels good to be honoured by your own family, by your own country. That's what's kind of nice about it. It's not an academy thing in Los Angeles or some place in America. It's here in Toronto. I think Toronto has become a major film centre in the world," he said.

On Friday, TV Ontario will air a special tribute to Jewison drawn from nearly four decades of interviews from Saturday Night at the Movies.