Albert Kish

Albert Kish (14 May 1937 – 23 October 2015) was a Hungarian-Canadian film-director and editor. (He anglicized his name from Kiss to Kish when he settled in Canada.)

Albert Kish, 2007

Life and career

Albert was born in Eger, Hungary in 1937, the son of Olga Weisz, a clothing store manager and Albert Kiss a customs officer. His studies in Hungary were interrupted by the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, after which he went to Austria. While in Vienna, he saw for the first time, films from the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) which greatly impressed him. He arrived in Montreal, Quebec, Canada in March 1957 with Bela Balazs's book, "Film Kultura" under his arm.

For several years he worked in the private film and advertising industries in Montreal and Toronto as a still photographer, cameraman, editor and later, as an independent filmmaker.

In 1964 he joined the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in Toronto as a film editor, and within a period of three years, was promoted to senior film editor.[1]

He joined the National Film Board of Canada in Montreal, in 1967 for a long and distinguished career during which time he has directed and edited over 30 films.,[2][3]

In 1973, he received a senior arts grant from the Canada Council for the Arts, and spent 4 months at the Academy of Drama and Film in Budapest Hungary, and another 4 months in Hollywood, California.

Albert Kish, 2013

He has maintained a lifelong interest in photography. His photographs have appeared in several publications and exhibitions. Some of his photographs can be viewed at the Stephen Bulger Gallery[4]

Albert Kish at the Stephen Bulger Gallery, 2013

After his retirement from the NFB in 1997, he traveled extensively in China, Korea and Europe.

In October 2015, he died of cancer at the Toronto General Hospital. He was with his wife of 21 years, Katalin Futo. He had two sons, Bert and Colin from a previous marriage, and two grandsons, Aris and Ryan.

Synopses of Award Winning Films

This is a Photograph, 1971[5]

"This short experimental film is composed of snapshot impressions of a European immigrant's first five years in Canada. With humour and discernment, they reveal his reactions to his adopted country, to the environment, and the Canadian manners and customs to which he attempts to adjust. At first everything seems strange—the red brick houses, the glass skyscrapers, cars everywhere, stores stuffed with consumer goods—but gradually our protagonist becomes accustomed to calling the place home. "

Los Canadienses, 1975[6]

"This feature documentary profiles the brave Canadians who fought in the Spanish Civil War between 1936 and 1939. To save Spain's constitutionally elected government from the threat of a fascist dictatorship (which eventually prevailed), over 40,000 volunteers from around the world fought in Spain, and 1200 of those were the Canadians of the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion. More than half of them never returned. This respectful, emotional and historically rich film is committed to the memory of those who truly believed in the cause of the Spanish Republic."

Paper Wheat, 1979[7]

"This film, based on the play of the same name, portrays the harsh lives of early Saskatchewan settlers and the foundation of the co-op movement on the Prairies."

Bread, 1984[8]

Albert Kish, 1978

"Both a visual feast and a didactic tool; from the wheat fields to the mill, from the bakery to the kitchen table, Bread is a dynamic and mouth-watering documentary."

The Age of Invention, 1984

"A montage of archival film, photographs and sound which shows some of the technological advances made from the late nineteenth century until World War One."

Notman's World, 1989,[9][10]

"This documentary short is a portrait of Canadian photographer William Notman. Photography was still in its infancy when he opened his first studio in Montreal in the late 1850s. He rapidly turned his art, and a budding technology, into a highly successful business. Within 5 years he was appointed Photographer to the Queen. Not content with doing mere portraiture, he saw photography as a means of documenting history. With the use of props in his studio, composite photographs, and calling on his background as a trained artist, Notman immortalized the people and places of Canada."

Nominations and awards

Ports Canada

  • Gold Camera Award, U.S. Industrial Film Festival, Chicago, Illinois, 1970

This is a Photograph

Los Canadienses 1975

Paper Wheat

Bread

The Age of Invention

Notman's World

Filmography
  • National Harbours Board, 1967,editor
  • Best Damn Fiddler from Calabogie to Kaladar,1968, editor
  • Christopher's Movie Matinee, 1968, editor
  • Flight in White (Entre ciel et neige),1968, editor
  • Juggernaut (Le Char de djaggernaut),1968, editor
  • Historic Sites, 1969, director/editor
  • Ports Canada, 1969, director/editor
  • Bighorn, 1970, editor
  • Doodle Film, 1970, editor
  • Family House (La Maison familiale), 1970, photographer
  • Freeze-in (Glaces), 1970, producer/editor
  • Occupation. 1970, editor
  • Search into White Space (Sous les blancs espaces), 1970, editor
  • Atomic Juggernaut, 1971, editor
  • City Limits, 1971, photographer
  • This is a Photograph, 1971, writer/director/editor/photographer
  • Time Piece (Fragments du passe), 1971, writer/director/editor/photographer
  • Bannerfilm, 1972, editor
  • Louisbourg, 1972, director/editor
  • Our Street was Paved with Gold (Une rue de lait et de miel), 1973, director/editor
  • In Praise of Hands (Hommage aux mains), 1974, editor
  • Los Canadienses (Les Canadienses), 1975, writer/director/editor/commentary
  • Bekevar Jubilee, 1977, writer/director/editor
  • Flora: Scenes from a Leadership Convention, 1977, associate director
  • Hold the Ketchup, 1977, director/editor
  • Paper Wheat, 1979, director/editor
  • The Image Makers, 1980, writer/director/editor/commentary
  • Conspiracy of Silence, 1981, editor
  • F.R. Scott: Rhyme and Reason, 1982, editor
  • Age of Invention, 1984, director/producer/editor
  • Bread,1984, director/editor
  • The Scholar in Society: Northrop Frye in Conversation, 1984, editor
  • Age of the Rivers (Des Rivieres et des hommes), 1986, director/editor
  • Al Purdy:"A Sensitive Man", 1988, editor
  • Notman's World, 1989, director/editor
  • To the Queen Mother from Canada with Love, 1990, director/editor
  • Omnicity (Omnicite), 1991, director
  • Summer of '67, 1994, director/producer/editor
  • Louisbourg Under Siege,1997, director/editor

References
  1. Lois Siegel: "Albert Kish the son of Mrs. Kish",Cinema Canada
  2. Albert Ohayon; "Albert Kish: Tribute to a virtuoso filmmaker" NFB.ca
  3. "Albert Kish Biography", The photographic Historical Society Of Canada
  4. "Stephen Bulger Gallery"
  5. This is a Photograph
  6. Los Canadienses
  7. Paper Wheat
  8. Bread
  9. Notman's World
  10. The photographic Historical Society Of Canada, Notman's World (1989)
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