Person
Julian Biggs
Port Perry, Ontario, Canada
Julian Biggs (1920–1972) was a director and producer with the National Film Board of Canada and its first Director of English Production. Over the course of his 20-year career, he…
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Julian Biggs (1920–1972) was a director and producer with the National Film Board of Canada and its first Director of English Production. Over the course of his 20-year career, he created 146 films, two of which (Herring Hunt (1953) and Paddle to the Sea (1966)) were nominated for Academy Awards. His film 23 Skidoo (1964) received two BAFTA nominations, including the BAFTA United Nations award. Biggs was born and raised in Port Perry, in southern Ontario. When World War II broke out in 1939, he joined the Canadian Army and then transferred to the Canadian Navy, where he spent the rest of the war serving on mine-sweepers. He then attended the University of Toronto and, in 1951, was hired as a production assistant by the National Film Board of Canada. He directed his first film, The Son, a year later. From 1956 to 1958, Biggs produced the Perspective series (paralleled by the similar series in French Passe-partout), which was 35 30-minute dramas with an emphasis on social themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, adolescence, the elderly, racial problems etc. One such film, Monkey on the Back, directed by Biggs, was a bleak, tragic story of man's unsuccessful struggle to free himself from drug addiction. Similar to Robert Anderson's Drug Addict (1948), which had been banned in the U.S., it was the type of film that caused the NFB to reconsider its role in producing socially relevant films. There was an unwritten policy and priority to shift away from social realism to the 'art' of film.
Filmography
Movies and shows, newest first
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1970
A Little Fellow from Gambo: The Joey Smallwood Story
Movie Producer
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1966
Paddle to the Sea
Movie Producer
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1966
Notes for a Film About Donna & Gail
Movie Producer
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1966
Each Day That Comes
Movie Producer
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1965
Buster Keaton Rides Again
Movie Producer
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1965
The Railrodder
Movie Producer
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1965
High Steel
Movie Producer
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1964
23 Skidoo
Movie Director
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1964
Phoebe
Movie Producer
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1963
Three Grandmothers
Movie Director
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1963
Portrait of the Artist
Movie Director
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1962
Alexander Galt: The Stubborn Idealist
Movie Director
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1962
Georges-Étienne Cartier - The Lion of Québec
Movie Producer
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1961
Lord Durham
Movie Producer
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1961
Robert Baldwin: A Matter Of Principle
Movie Producer
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1961
Joseph Howe: The Tribune of Nova Scotia
Movie Director
More credits
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1961
Louis-Joseph Papineau: The Demi-God
Movie Producer
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1959
Lord Elgin: Voice of the People
Movie Director
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1958
Family of Ghana
Movie Director
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1957
Crossroads
Movie Producer
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1957
The Barrier
Movie Producer
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1957
Howard
Movie Producer
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1957
Fires of Envy
Movie Producer
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1957
Wolfe and Montcalm
Movie Producer
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1957
Encounter at Trinity
Movie Producer
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1956
Fighter Wing
Movie Producer
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1956
The Shepherd
Movie Director
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1956
Sable Island
Movie Producer
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1954
Dresden Story
Movie Director
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1953
Herring Hunt
Movie Director
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1952
With the Canadians in Korea
Movie Director
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1951
The Oyster-Man
Movie Director
