Julian Biggs

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.In his Film Companion, Canadian film historian Peter Morris noted that the series contained elements which later become common in direct cinema. "Perhaps the most original aspect of the films was their method of production: a light, quiet-running Auricon camera mounted on a chest harness, used on location and combined with double-system sound recording using the Sprocketape recorder. This technology sharply reduced production costs and shooting time. The style that resulted is apparent in most of the films, mostly clearly in Joe and Roxy (1957) and Night Children (1956), and clearly anticipates the later application of direct cinema to fiction. The series initially attracted a large audience, but the didactic tone of many of the film and the problems inherent in condensing high-intensity dramas into 30 minutes drove viewers away. The series was cancelled in the spring of 1958. The Candid Eye series was developed at least partially in reaction to the dramatic format of Perspective, an approach the NFB believed had lost touch with the real world."Between 1959 and 1964, with discussion of Quebec separatism increasing and his own concerns about the future of Canadian Confederation, Biggs produced The History Makers. This was 17 short films about the political figures, Anglophone and Francophone, who founded and organized the country.

In 1966, the filmmakers' union, Syndicat général du cinéma et de la télévision (SGCT), requested greater representation and freedom from bureaucratic interference. NFB Commissioner Guy Roberge responded by creating the positions of Director of English Production, and Director of French Production, appointing Biggs and Marcel Martin, respectively, to the posts.In 1968, Robin Spry directed Flowers on a One-Way Street, a film about the hippie revolution, 'people vs power', and a youth movement to close Toronto's Yorkville Avenue to traffic. It included a sit-in on the steps of Toronto City Hall and a tumultuous city council meeting, and was followed by an outcry against the NFB, in which police and the media accused filmmakers of organizing the protest and deliberately stoking anti-authority sentiment. Biggs pulled the film. Spry, producer Joe Koenig and the SGCT appealed to NFB Commissioner Hugo McPherson, who over-ruled Biggs. Biggs resigned as Director of English Production.Biggs returned to directing, making the 1970 documentary A Little Fellow from Gambo: The Joey Smallwood Story, which won three 22nd Canadian Film Awards, including Best Director.

The latter would be his last film; he began to experience health issues and, in 1972, died at his home in Montreal, at age 52. He was survived by his wife Muriel and their four children.