Anita Doron facts for kids

Anita Doron, born on June 3, 1974, is a talented filmmaker from Hungary and Canada. She writes, directs, and produces movies. In 2010, she became a TED Fellow, which is a special program for bright thinkers. Anita is famous for turning the book The Lesser Blessed into a movie in 2012. This book was written by Canadian author Richard Van Camp.

Early Life and Creativity

Anita Doron grew up in a region called Transcarpathia, which was part of the former USSR. Her family loved climbing mountains. They often spent their summers exploring the mountains in Georgia and Armenia. Anita shares that her parents' ideas shaped her own life from a young age. She learned to look for different truths and not just accept what everyone else believed.

Before she started making films, Anita loved writing poetry. She wrote her first poem when she was just five years old, after a trip to the Black Sea. Her mother was very impressed, which encouraged Anita to keep writing. She joined a group for young poets. Her poems were even published in local and regional newspapers. Anita became one of the youngest published poets in the former USSR. She later stopped writing poetry to focus on filmmaking. She once said that for her, filmmaking is poetry.

Anita sees her move from writing poems to making films as a natural step. Her poems were always very visual. Plus, her father was a hobby photographer, so she grew up experimenting with images. Anita made her first film when she was 12. She used a friend's father's Super 8 camera. Her film was about the "Verke" river in her hometown. This river was very polluted. Anita wanted to show how it was being polluted and what people thought about it.

This early filmmaking experience taught Anita how powerful movies can be. She realized her project made some powerful people nervous. This made her even more determined to continue filmmaking. Later, Anita moved to the Middle East for a short time. Then, she came to Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She studied film at Ryerson University from 1998 to 2001.

Education and Family

At Ryerson University, Anita studied many parts of filmmaking. She learned about film theory, how to shoot films, scriptwriting, producing, and directing. In her final year, she got an internship at Serendipity Point Films. She helped with research for the 2002 film Ararat, directed by Atom Egoyan.

During university, Anita won two Norman Jewison Filmmaker Awards for her school projects. One of these was her final film, Simulacrum. She wrote and directed this short film. Simulacrum also won "Best Student Film" at a festival in 2002. It was shown at several other film festivals too.

Anita Doron has one son, who was born in 2011.

Filmmaking Career

After finishing university in 2001, Anita made her first short film, Not a Fish Story (2002). She wrote and directed it. She also raised money from the Ontario Arts Council to make it. This short film was shown at many film festivals, including the Toronto International Film Festival. It was also nominated for an award and won third place in a comedy category.

In 2004, Anita directed another short film called Elliot Smelliot (2003). This film was also shown at major festivals like the Toronto International Film Festival.

Between 2005 and 2009, Anita directed many music videos. She worked with a film company called TWOTHREEFIVEFILMS. She directed videos for Canadian singers like Sarah Harmer and Theresa Sokyrka. She also directed a video for Octoberman in 2009. For this video, she created illustrations based on a fairy tale she wrote as a child.

In 2006, Anita released her first full-length movie, The End of Silence. She wrote, directed, and filmed it herself. She shot the movie quickly and with a small team and budget. Anita based the story on a friend's life. She enjoyed working with non-professional actors for this film. The End of Silence was shown at many festivals and won several awards in 2006. These included "Best Feature" at the Canadian Filmmakers Festival.

In 2007, Anita worked on a special project called Late Fragment. This was North America's first interactive feature film. This means viewers could choose how the story unfolded. Anita worked with two other filmmakers. They got ideas for the story by attending a special meeting in Montreal. Late Fragment was shown at the Toronto International Film Festival and the Cannes Film Festival.

In 2010, Anita released her second full-length movie, Europa, East. She was the producer, writer, director, and cinematographer for this film. Like her first feature, it was made with a small budget. The film premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam in 2010.

In 2012, Anita finished The Lesser Blessed. She decided to make this film after reading the novel by Richard Van Camp. She was interested in the story of someone who felt like an outsider. Anita started writing the screenplay in 2008. To prepare, she traveled to the Northwest Territories in Canada. She wanted to learn about the lives of the First Nations people there. She stayed in Richard Van Camp's hometown, Fort Smith, for a month to write the script.

It was hard to find money for the film at first. But in 2012, Telefilm Canada provided funding. After getting the money, Anita went back to Fort Smith to find actors. She finally cast Joel Evans in the main role. The film premiered at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival. In 2015, it was announced that Anita would write the screenplay for the animated movie The Breadwinner, which came out in 2017.

TED Fellowship

Anita Doron was chosen as a TED Fellow in 2010. This program helps bright people share their ideas. During her fellowship, she worked on a film called Talk Derby to Me. She also took part in a TED conference in Berlin in 2014. There, she created an art display about memory and feeling out of place. She also helped organize independent TEDx events in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.

Literary Works

In 2012, Anita Doron released a graphic novella called Lola Grimm and the Humanity Machine. Since 2014, she has been working on a science fiction graphic novel called Noli Timere. She is writing this with Jessica Green, another former TED Fellow.

Filmography

Film

Short films

Music videography

Awards and Recognition

In 2003, Anita Doron was named one of the "Top 10 Canadians to Look Out For" by Now Magazine. In 2005, she won the Kodak New Vision Fellowship. This program allowed her to be mentored by famous Canadian filmmaker Deepa Mehta. The fellowship helped Anita prepare for the Toronto International Film Festival.

In 2012, Anita and six other female Canadian filmmakers were honored. They were recognized for their important contributions to Canada's film history. The next year, she was nominated for a Canadian Screen Award for "Best Adapted Screenplay" for The Lesser Blessed.