 | This article has multiple issues. Please helpimprove it or discuss these issues on thetalk page.(Learn how and when to remove these messages) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
|
Barry Avrich | |
|---|---|
| Born | Barry Michael Avrich (1963-05-09)May 9, 1963 (age 62) |
| Occupations | Filmmaker, author, marketing executive |
Barry Michael Avrich (/ˈeɪvrɪtʃ/AYV-ritch;[1] born May 9, 1963) is a Canadianfilm director,film producer, author, marketing executive, and artsphilanthropist. Avrich's film career has included critically acclaimed films about the entertainment business includingThe Last Mogul about film producerLew Wasserman (2005),Glitter Palace about theMotion Picture Country Home (2005), andGuilty Pleasure about theVanity Fair columnist and authorDominick Dunne (2004). In addition, Avrich produced theGemini-nominated television specialCaesar and Cleopatra (2009) withChristopher Plummer. Avrich also produced Canada's Sports Hall of Fame Awards (2015), as well as theCanadian Screen Awards (2015-2017) and theScotiabank Giller Prize (2015-current).
Besides films, Avrich has authored three books and one play as well as supporting many leading cultural institutions including theToronto International Film Festival and theStratford Festival of Canada. Avrich was responsible for creating amovie theatre at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Ontario. Avrich won theErnst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2008.[citation needed] In 2016, Avrich published his memoir,Moguls, Monsters and Madmen.
Avrich was born into aJewish family inMontreal,Quebec, the son of Irving Avrich, a garment industry executive, and Faye Avrich, a housewife.[2] His parents immersed him in the arts as a child. In school, Avrich producedtalent shows and started experimenting with films. While attendingVanier College, he gravitated to the film program and while there, he produced many films. In 1980, he moved toToronto where he continued to study film, art and theatre at bothRyerson Polytechnical Institute and theUniversity of Toronto. While in school, Avrich started Rent-A-Fan Club, a company that offered "celebrity status" to people as a novelty by using his fellow acting students to createfan clubs. Soon after graduating, Avrich made two short films that would get him noticed:The King of Yorkville (1985) was a satirical parody of the 1980s dating scene that was picked up by local television stations in Canada, andThe Madness of Method (1995), featuringM. Emmet Walsh, won a Gold Medal at the Bilbao International Festival of Documentary and Short Films.[citation needed]
Avrich created Melbar Entertainment Group in 1998 to producedocumentary films. Avrich has directed and produced many acclaimed documentaries andtelevision specials. His focus is generally on the entertainment industry and television specials, including the music special,Bowfire forPBS (2008),One x One Gala (2007) forCTV andCaesar and Cleopatra (2009) forBravo and CTV. Other films have chronicled defense attorneyEdward Greenspan and theRolling Stones promoterMichael Cohl,Winston Churchill, andDavid Steinberg. His 2010 filmUnauthorized: The Harvey Weinstein Project was sold to IFC's Sundance Now channel in February 2011.
In 2017, Avrich announced plans for a docuseries on American financier and convicted sex offenderJeffrey Epstein; however, he decided to scrap the project after Epstein's suicide in August, 2019, claiming the topic to be "too distasteful".[3] In 2018, Avrich directed and producedThe Reckoning, the first "#metoo documentary on Harvey Weinstein, which premiered at Hot Docs Film Festival and was sold to CBC and Hulu. In 2018, Avrich produced and directed an acclaimed and award-winning documentary,Prosecuting Evil, on Nuremberg prosecutorBen Ferencz, which was sold to Netflix. In 2019, Avrich directed and producedOff The Record, a biography of Grammy award-winning producer and composerDavid Foster, for Crave and Netflix, which premiered atTIFF. In 2020, Avrich producedMade You Look, a documentary about the infamousKnoedler Gallery art fraud scandal which was sold to Netflix.[4]
In 2021, Avrich directed and producedOscar Peterson: Black + White, a docu-concert on jazz icon Oscar Peterson that had its world premiere at TIFF on September 12, 2021. In 2022, Avrich began production on three new documentaries:Without Precedent (on Supreme Court JusticeRosalie Abella),Sacrilege (narrated by Brian Cox), andThe Palm Beach Diaries.
The Last Mogul (2005) is probably Avrich's best known film to date. TheVariety criticRobert Koehler said of the documentary about Lew Wasserman that it "draws a full and balanced measure of the man, from his stratospheric rise to a remarkably humbling fall, and includes as thorough a study of the super-agent-turned-mogul's shady ties with organized crime as any feature docu could hope to muster."[5]
In April 2022, Avrich received aCanadian Screen Award for Best Documentary Program forOscar Peterson: Black + White. When called up to the mic to make an acceptance speech, his remarks ended with the following statement: "There are so many Black stories in Canada that need to be told. It doesn't matter who tells them, we just need to tell 'em." At least 11 Canadian film-sector organizations issued prompt statements condemning these remarks,[6] including theBlack Screen Office, whose statement called out Avrich's "supreme disrespect of our history" that "cleverly weaponizes the non-Black community";[7]Reelworld Film Festival, whose statement called out Avrich's words as "reflective of a past system that we are working to change"; and, without naming Avrich, theAcademy of Canadian Cinema & Television that is responsible for theCanadian Screen Awards.[8] Avrich's statement the next day said that he had "misspoke" and that "[o]f course, it matters who tells stories."[9]
In 2025, his documentary filmThe Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue, about the efforts of a retiredIsraeli Defense Forces general to rescue hostages from theOctober 7 attacks, was disinvited from the2025 Toronto International Film Festival after the producers failed to comply with the festival's rules aroundcopyright, which require either proof that all footage in the film has been cleared for use by its copyright holders, or a legal statement indemnifying the festival against liability in the event of a copyright lawsuit.[10] However, the festival later reinvited the film to be shown as an official selection.Cameron Bailey, the festival's CEO, said that it's "unequivocally false" the film was being censored.[11]
Avrich began a marketing career in 1985 at Borden Advertising where he worked on national campaigns for the Canadian original production ofLes Misérables andMiss Saigon. In 1989, Avrich joined Echo Advertising where he became partner and eventually CEO. While at Echo, Avrich and his staff developed award-winning international campaigns for such clients such as theToronto International Film Festival, theRolling Stones,American Express,Sprint and for Broadway productions such asRagtime,Show Boat,Fosse,Kiss of the Spider Woman and Canadian productions ofThe Phantom of the Opera,Cats andLes Misérables. Avrich left Echo in 2005 after it was sold to a UK-based marketing firm and he started a boutique advertising agency.
