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Toronto filmmaker Ron Mann is one of Canada’s foremost documentary filmmakers. Mann established his international reputation while in his 20s with a series of award-winning theatrical documentaries.
His first feature, IMAGINE THE SOUND (1981), brings together, in interviews and performance, the prime innovators of the once-controversial free jazz movement of the ‘60s. POETRY IN MOTION (1982) continues the tradition with a frenetically paced performance marathon of 24 talents of the contemporary poetry scene, including such alternative cultural luminaries as Charles Bukowski, William S. Burroughs, and John Cage. Third in the series, COMIC BOOK CONFIDENTIAL (1988), combines a history of the comic book with a look at the work of 23 of the art form’s most respected practitioners, including Will Eisner, Bill Gaines, Lynda Barry, and Robert Crumb.
TWIST (1992) mixes interviews with rare and often hilarious archival footage to chronicle the evolution of rock and roll dance. More than just a “rockumentary,” Twist is ultimately a movie about the changes experienced by the baby-boom generation. DREAM TOWER (1994) is a portrait of Toronto’s infamous Rochdale College: an experimental living environment that came to symbolize the best and the worst of what the ‘60s had to offer. GRASS (1999) presents a humorous and surprisingly balanced history of recreational marijuana use in the late 20th century.
In addition to his films, Ron Mann has produced the ground-breaking CD-ROMs Poetry in Motion I, Comic Book Confidential, Poetry in Motion II, and Painters Painting. Ron Mann’s feature-length documentary, GO FURTHER, follows actor and activist Woody Harrelson as he takes to the open road on his Simple Organic Living Tour. Mann also pioneered the development of movies on CD-ROM for the Voyager Company.
Mann’s other feature-length documentaries include Ed “Big Daddy” Roth, cartoonist and Hot Rod designer, as the subject of CONFESSIONS OF A HOT RODDIN’, PINSTRIPIN’, KUSTOMIZIN’ TEENAGE ICON, WIGGING OUT IN WAWA which recalls the lost glory of hitchhiking, and Mann is the Executive Producer of FOR THE LOVE OF MOVIES which tells the richly anecdotal, barely known history of American film criticism. |
