My life in art | Paul Saltzman | TEDxWaterloo

Paul Saltzman is a two-time Emmy Award winning Toronto-based film and television producer-director known for over 300 productions.

After briefly studying Engineering Science, he did congressional civil rights lobbying in Washington, D.C., and voter registration work in Mississippi. He began his film and television career in 1965 at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation as a researcher, interviewer and on-air host, and then moved to the National Film Board of Canada. In 1967 he interviewed American inventor and visionary Buckminster Fuller, who would later say that Saltzman changed his assessment of the 60s generation.

Early in 1968 he learned meditation at the Maharishi Mahesh Yogis ashram in India, an experience that changed his life. While there, he photographed the Beatles, Mia Farrow, Donovan and Mike Love.

In 1968-69 he assisted in the birth of a new film format as second-unit director and production manager of the first IMAX film, produced for the Osaka 1970 Worlds Fair.

In the summer of 1969, he attended the original Woodstock Music Festival; and in the early 70s he produced a Leonard Cohen live concert tour. In 1972 he produced and directed his first film, a half-hour documentary on Bo Diddley.

In 1973, Paul founded Sunrise Films Limited. He produced and directed documentaries for the next decade, including the acclaimed series Spread Your Wings. His work included producing, directing, writing, editing, cinematography and sound recording. In 1983, he turned to drama, producing and directing the premiere of HBOs Family Playhouse and a special for American Playhouse. In the same year, he co-created and produced the family action-adventure television series Danger Bay. The hit CBC-Disney Channel series ran for 6 years and 123 episodes.

Since then he has produced television series like My Secret Identity, Matrix and Max Glick, as well as miniseries and movies of the week. He co-produced the feature film Map of the Human Heart, an international epic directed by Vincent Ward, starring Jason Scott Lee, Anne Parillaud, Patrick Bergin, John Cusack and Jean Moreau. He also executive produced Martha, Ruth & Edie as well as Sam & Me, which received an Honorable Mention in competition for the Camera dOr at the Cannes Film Festival.

In 2000, Paul released his first book, The Beatles in Rishikesh, through the Viking Studio, Penguin Putnam. In early 2006 he self-published his second book, a deluxe Limited Edition Box-Set, The Beatles in India, complete with a Limited Edition archival chromogenic print, an original CD and an original DVD.

In 2008, he made his feature-film directorial debut with the documentary, Prom Night in Mississippi, with Morgan Freeman, which premiered in competition at the Sundance Film Festival, 2009. He is currently editing his 2nd feature, the documentary Return to Mississippi, with Harry Belafonte, the KKK and Morgan Freeman. Paul is a member of the Directors Guild of Canada and the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television. He loves travelling, skydiving, scuba diving, and plays ice hockey, often. He has one daughter.

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