Martin Duckworth

The following was edited from an excerpt of an article that first appeared in the June 1987 edition of Cinema Canada and is used with permission of the coauthor Northernstars Qubec Correspondent Maurie AlioffThe course of Martin Duckworths life and work kept him in constant motion When he was in his teens he moved with his family from Montreal to Halifax which he eventually left for Yale University After finishing Yale he took an MA in history at the University of Toronto travelled around Europe taught in London and then got a job at Mount Allison University in New Brunswick His interest in still photography Franois Truffault and in the film society he formed at Mount Allison led to meetings with a hrefhttpswwwnorthernstarscadansereaufernandFernand Dansereaua who came to the university to screen National Film Board productions Several years later Duckworth had a job at the Film Board as a cameraman As a cinematographer his ideal was as he put it being able to move with the life in front of the camera He moved with his camera through prisons paper mills union halls farming cooperatives tin mines Buddhist temples opera houses and the apartments of Russian poets A cinematographer on more than 80 productions we list his credits as a documentary Directorbrbrema hrefhttpswwwnorthernstarscadearaudreyDear Audreyaem a documentary by Jeremiah Hayes focused on filmmaker Martin Duckworth as he accompanies his wife photographer and activist Audrey Schirmer through the last phase of Alzheimers disease It was given the Peoples Choice Award at the Montreal International Documentary Festival RIDM in November 2021brbr