David Kaufman was born in Montreal, Quebec in 1948. He is a graduate of McGill University (B.A., 1969, Honours in English) and studied film directing at Columbia University in New York. He has had a two-track career, as a television documentary producer/director/writer and as a photographer. Beginning as a news writer in 1974-75 for CTV’s Canada AM, David went on to work in the documentary unit of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s flagship current affairs program, The Journal, from 1981 to 1989, followed by a long stint at the CBC’s investigative program, the fifth estate, until the end of 1998. Following his employment at the CBC, he became an independent producer/director.

David has been involved deeply in the world of photography since his student days at Columbia. He began to photograph architecture-based images in 1984 which became his major interest. Much of the work is documentation of the industrial and commercial built environment in Quebec and Ontario. Special interests include photography of brick buildings of the late 19th and early 20th century, small business and commercial store fronts, institutional and vernacular architecture, and churches and synagogues. Two-thirds of the work is in colour. He has also photographed architecture in Northern Italy, Scotland, and Berlin. Besides his architectural and urban landscape work which is ongoing, he has been working on an extended essay on Toronto’s Mount Pleasant Cemetery which is near completion, and since 1998 he has photographed Klezmer (Yiddish music) musicians and their students at an annnual workshop that takes place for a week every summer at a camp in the Laurentians north of Montreal.



PHOTOGRAPHIC EXHIBITIONS:

Solo exhibitions:


The Disappearing City
May 2006, Bliss Gallery, Toronto

Synagogues of the Plateau Mont-Royal
Toronto Jewish Film Festival, Bloor Cinema, Toronto, May, 2005.
Mile End Library, Montreal, February, 2001
Jewish Public Library, Montreal, October 2000

Commission:

Yonge and Lawrence:
Royal Bank of Canada – Yonge/Lawrence branch, Toronto (on permanent display).



PHOTOGRAPHIC PUBLICATION AND WRITING:

Like One That Dreamed: A Portrait of A. M. Klein by Usher Caplan, McGraw-Hill Ryerson, Toronto, 1982. Published photos of A. M. Klein’s Montreal milieu. Also was book’s designer and photographic editor.

A Liberation Album: Canadians in the Netherlands, 1944-45 by David Kaufman and Michiel Horn, McGraw-Hill Ryerson, Toronto, 1980. Published photos of Canadian veterans, historians and war brides. Co-author of the text. Photographic researcher and editor.

Canada-Israel Friendship, the Canada-Israel Committee, Ottawa, 1979. Published photos of Israel. Editor and co-author of the text and book designer.



INDEPENDENT DOCUMENTARY FILM AND TELEVISION

Brave Old World: Live in Concert (2006, forthcoming)
Producer/director/editor for Sun-Street Productions (own production)
A two-hour-long DVD of a concert by the world’s premier performing group of new Jewish music

From Despair To Defiance: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (72 minutes, 2003)
Director/writer for Barna Alper Productions
A historical documentary about the most important act of Jewish resistance during the Holocaust, which took place in April and May of 1943. Part of the “Turning Points of History” series on Canada’s History channel. (Chris Award winner)

Night of the Reich’s Pogrom (47 minutes, 2001)
Director/writer for Barna Alper Productions
A historical documentary about Kristallnacht, the Nazi pogrom in Germany on Nov 9-10, 1938. Broadcast on “Turning Points of History” on Canada’s History channel.

Man Alive: Rodger Kamenetz (24 minutes, 2000)
Director/writer for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
A profile of the American Jewish writer, Rodger Kamenetz, who chronicled the encounter between Jews and the Dalai Lama. Broadcast by CBC and Vision TV, fall 2000.

The New Klezmorim: Voices Inside the Revival of Yiddish Music (69 minutes, 58 minutes, 2000)
Producer/director/editor for Sun-Street Productions (own production)
A celebration of klezmer music featuring some of the genre’s brightest stars. Premiered at Toronto’s Jewish Film Festival, May, 2000, and broadcast on thirteen PBS stations in 2001 and Bravo! Canada in 2002.

Terror From the Skies (47 minutes, 1999)
Director/writer for Barna Alper Productions
A historical documentary on the bombing of Guernica by the Luftwaffe during the Spanish Civil War. Broadcast on “Turning Points of History” on Canada’s History channel.

A. M. Klein: The Poet As Landscape (56 minutes, 1980)
Producer/director, own production.
A biography of one of Canada’s most remarkable poets, Abraham Moses Klein. Broadcast on the CBC and distributed by the NFB.



WORK FOR THE CANADIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION:

the fifth estate:
Produced and directed more than fifty documentary and investigative reports on a variety of issues. Some notable programs:
Ratline to Canada (38 minutes, 1996) – Canada’s last war crimes trial and the haven Canada provided for Nazi collaborators
Sealed in Silence (25 minutes, 1995) – The original story on the Airbus affair
Sheep for the Shearing (28 minutes, 1994) – Victims of the Lloyd’s insurance scandal
Violation of Trust (48 minutes, 1993) – Canada’s Indian residential schools
The People’s Builder (23 minutes, 1993) – A portrait of architect Moshe Safdie
Company Town (29 minutes, 1990) – The lives and deaths of Sydney coke oven workers
Donzel Young (25 minutes, 1992) – A drug dealer is wrongfully convicted of murder
Hidden Jews (21 minutes, 1991) – Polish Jews who survived the Holocaust as children
Hurricane (21 minutes, 1991) – The story of Rubin “Hurricane” Carter

The Journal:
Produced and directed more than sixty program segments ranging in length from fifteen to thirty-five minutes on a variety of political, cultural and social issues. Some notable segments:
Native Teen Suicide (15 minutes, Feb. 1988) – Canada’s national epidemic and shame
AIDS and Society (30 minutes, Sept. 1987) – The impact of an epidemic
The Reagan Doctrine (30 minutes, Mar. 1987) – US foreign policy in Latin America
Fifty Years of Public Broadcasting (30 minutes, Nov. 1986) – CBC at the crossroads
The Freedom Ride (30 minutes, Oct. 1986) – A look back at the US civil rights movement
Earthquake! (30 minutes, Jan. 1986) – Vancouver and the one in five hundred years’ danger
The Lubicons' Last Stand (20 minutes, May 1984) – A small Alberta Indian band tries to obtain reserve status



Selected Awards (Documentary Television):

Columbus International Film Festival, Chris Award, for From Despair to Defiance: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (2003)
Gemini Nomination, Best Writing in a Documentary Program, for Night of the Reich’s Pogrom (2001)
Gold Award (Historical Documentary), Houston International Film & Television Festival, Terror from the Skies (2001)
Gemini Nomination, Donald Britain Award for Best Documentary, Sealed in Silence (1995)
Anik Wilderness Award, Best CBC Documentary, Sealed in Silence (1995)
Canadian Assoc. of Journalists, Best Investigative Report, Network TV, Sealed in Silence (1995)
Columbus International Film Festival, Bronze Plaque, Hidden Jews (1991)
Golden Gate Award, San Francisco Film Festival, Best Social/Political Documentary, The Freedom Ride (1986)