Filmmaker: Oscar C. Burritt

Oscar C. Burritt on the CBC television program Cinema Six, Toronto, 1969. (Digital frame grab from BC Archives V1990:06/001.02 item #2)

Oscar C. Burritt

Dates active:

1937-1955

Club Affiliation

Coast Films

National Film Society of Canada (Vancouver Branch)

Toronto Film Society

Gender:

Male

Awards/Recognition:

BC Archives list of titled amateur films

Films:

Three There: Galiano Island, 1940 (1940)

• Video: Complete video copy of THREE THERE, with added soundtrack of music by Maarten Schellekens.

National Film Society of Canada (Vancouver Branch), Fourth Season 1940, Ninth Performance… (1940)

• Video: National Film Society of Canada (Vancouver Branch), Fourth Season 1940, Ninth Performance...

Cinemaorgy (1955)

Stanley Park (1939)

• Video: An excerpt from STANLEY PARK (the middle third of the film), with added music. See details under "Description," above.

---

Profession:

Superviisor of film acquistion and film editing, CBC Television Toronto (CBLT); televison film consultant

Related Professional Works:

• Banshees Over Canada. (Canada Carries On series, National Film Board, 1943). Burritt was cinematographer for the film's BC scenes.
• Tomorrow's Timber. (National Film Board, 1944 ). Burritt directed the film for Vancouver Motion Pictures.
• Of Japanese Descent: An Interim Report: (National Film Board, 1945 ). Burritt directed the film for Vancouver Motion Pictures.

Biographical Notes:

"Oscar C. Burritt and Dorothy Burritt (nee Fowler) were film enthusiasts and amateur filmmakers who lived in Vancouver until 1947. Oscar C. Burritt also worked as a professional cinematographer and film director. In later years, he worked for CBC television (CBLT) in Toronto. Both the Burritts were active in the film society movement, including the Vancouver Branch of the National Film Society (later the Vancouver Film Society) and the Toronto Film Society, which they co-founded. Dorothy Burritt was also founder of the Canadian Federation of Film Societies." (British Columbia Archives.)

Starting in 1943, Oscar Burritt shot and directed industrial films for Leon Shelly at Vancouver Motion Pictures, including a handful of NFB shorts. In 1947, when Shelly moved his operation to Toronto (as Shelly Films), Oscar moved east and continued working for him. One of the films Oscar directed for Shelley Films was Beans of Bounty (1948, for Victory Mills); it was co-winner in the Non-Theatrical category at the first Canadian Film Awards in 1949. In 1950, Burritt joined the CBC to supervise the development of film services for television production at CBLT. In the 1960s, he also introduced classic film screenings on CBLT prgrams such as Cinema Six. (D.J. Duffy)

Bibliographic Resources:

"Burritt, Oscar C., 1908-1974." Oscar and Dorothy Burritt fonds, British Columbia Archives.

Duffy, Dennis J. “A Fan of the Chinese Opera.” Seriously Moving Images (2019)

Duffy, Dennis J. "'Evangelists': The Other Cinema of Dorothy and Oscar Burritt." Amateur Cinema (2019).