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Remembering Allan King
Allan King was one of Canada's most renowned filmmakers. A pioneer of the cinéma vérité technique, his documentaries and dramatic works include Warrendale (1967), Who Has Seen the Wind (1976) and Dying at Grace (2003). Allan King died on June 15, 2009, at age 79. The CBC Digital Archives looks back at the man and his movies.
Allan King's Skid Row
Broadcast Date: Jan. 22, 1957
This documentary, produced by Allan King, examines the life of the alcoholic derelict on Vancouver's "skid row". In this segment, Jimmy, who lives by the harbour, talks about his life over the years and how he has survived living on the streets. His answers reflect the hopelessness he feels about his day-to-day existence, often panhandling and spending the money on alcohol.Allan King's Skid Row
• Skid Row, which was Allan King's first documentary, featured a script by Ben Maartman and narration by Art Hives. John Avison composed the original music. It tells the story of three homeless men who are poor, unemployed and addicted to alcohol.• King continued to produce and later direct documentaries for the CBC before going independent. His most famous documentaries were carefully prepared and researched in advance, yet were known for their controversy. Two films, A Married Couple (1969) and Warrendale (1967), broke boundaries for their unfiltered realism and established King as one of the world's best documentary filmmakers.
• Allan King was born in Vancouver in 1930. He went into filmmaking because he "had a fantasy (that) everyone would see my films and be changed for the better. That's why you want to make films."
Allan King's Skid Row
Medium: Television
Program: Explorations
Broadcast Date: Jan. 22, 1957
Producer: Allan King
Duration: 4:34
Last updated:
March 16, 2011
Allan King's Skid Row.
The CBC Digital Archives Website.
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
Last updated: March 16, 2011.
[Page consulted on Feb. 15, 2012.]