film

27May

By Web TeamNo Comments

Noteworthy, Profiles, Russia

Samvel Gasparov, film director

Samvel Vladimirovich Gasparov ‑ a Russian film director and short story writer who worked for some time at the Odessa Film Studio ‑ died on 26 May 2020, at the age of 81, after contracting COVID-19 in Russia. Gasporov was one of the Russian filmmakers most interested in the Red Western form, having directed both Hatred and The Sixth One as well as the lesser known Bread, Gold and Pistol and Forget the Word "Death" in this genre. At the time of his death, Gasparov was married to actress Natalya Vavilova and had a daughter from a previous marriage.

Ratnakar Ramkrushna Matkari, writer and film producer

18May

By Web TeamNo Comments

India, Noteworthy, Profiles

Ratnakar Ramkrushna Matkari, writer and film producer

Ratnakar Ramkrushna Matkari ‑ a Marathi writer, a movie and play producer/director, and a self-taught artist from Maharashtra, India – died on 17 May 2020 in Mumbai, having tested positive for COVID-19 the week before. Matkari was born on 17 November 1938 in Mumbai. After earning a degree in economics from Mumbai University in 1958, he worked at the Bank of India for the next twenty years. Since 1978, he devoted his time exclusively to writing & production/direction of movies and plays. He was married to artist Pratibha Matkari. Matkari's first work, the one-act play Wedi Manase, was presented in 1955 on All India Radio in Mumbai. His play Pahuni was presented the next year at another venue. Matkari worked as a columnist for newspapers and magazines in the 1970s. He wrote ...

10May

By Web TeamNo Comments

Belgium, Noteworthy, Profiles

Marc Engels, film sound engineer

Marc Engels –a Belgian film sound engineer who won the César Award for Best Sound in 2017 for his work on The Odyssey ‑ died of COVID-19 on 9 April 2020. His filmography includes Calvaire (2004), Komma (2006), Ex Drummer (2007) Outside the Law (2010), The Pack (2010), Largo Winch II (2011), A Happy Event (2011), Möbius (2013) À toute épreuve (2014), Prêt à tout (2014) Waste Land (2014), I'm Dead but I Have Friends (2015), Our Futures (2015), After Love (2016), Louis-Ferdinand Céline (2016) and The Odyssey (2016). He won César Award for Best Sound for The Odyssey (2017) and was nominated for Magritte Award for Best Sound for I'm Dead but I Have Friends (2016).

8May

By Web TeamNo Comments

France, Noteworthy

Daniel Cauchy, actor & film producer

Daniel Cauchy –a French film actor and producer known for his role in Jean-Pierre Melville's 1956 crime film Bob le flambeur ‑ died from COVID-19 on 7 May 2020. "Yes, it is the COVID-19 has won," asserted Jean-Marie Périer to France Info in referring to the death of one who was a well-known face of French cinema. Father of comedian Didier Cauchy (The Crim’, Research Section), Daniel Cauchy was a regular supporting roles on the big screen in the 1950s to the 1970s. Born in 1930 in Boulogne-Billancourt, it is known in particular by turning in When you will read this letter Jean-Pierre Melville, The Portrait of his father André Berthomieu, Not touch the grisbi Jacques Becker, or Bob the big-time gambler Jean-Pierre Melville. To its cr...

Joel M. Reed, film director, producer and screenwriter

13Apr

By Web TeamNo Comments

Noteworthy, Profiles, United States

Joel M. Reed, film director, producer and screenwriter

Joel M. Reed ‑ an American film director, producer and screenwriter ‑ died on April 12, 2020, aged 86, in a care facility in New York City after contracting COVID-19. Reed is best known for directing the controversial Blood Sucking Freaks (1976), a notorious horror comedy that was the subject of protests upon its initial release and has since achieved cult status. Reed also directed the films Career Bed (1968), Sex by Advertisement (1969), The G.I. Executioner (Wit's End / Dragon Lady / Wild Dragon Lady; 1971), Blood Bath (Terror / Night and the City; 1976) and Night of the Zombies (Gamma 693 / Sister of Death / Battalion of the Living Dead; 1981). Reed wrote and directed Blood Bath, which was produced by the Trans-Orient Entertainment...

2Apr

By Web TeamNo Comments

India, Noteworthy, United Kingdom

Gita Ramjee, virologist

Gita Ramjee ‑ a Ugandan-South African scientist and researcher in HIV prevention – died of Covid-19 on 31 March 2020. In 2018, she was awarded the ‘Outstanding Female Scientist’ award from the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership. She died in Umhlanga, Durban, South Africa, from COVID-19 related complications. Gita Parekh was born on 8 April 1956 and grew up in Colonial Uganda before her family were driven into exile under Idi Amin in the 1970s. She attended high school in India before attending the University of Sunderland in England. She graduated in 1980 with a BSc (Hons) in Chemistry and Physiology. She married a South African-Indian fellow student, Praveen Ramjee, and moved to Durban where she bega...

Hilary Dwyer, actress, businessperson & film producer

31Mar

By Web TeamNo Comments

Noteworthy, Profiles, United Kingdom

Hilary Dwyer, actress, businessperson & film producer

Hilary Dwyer aka Hilary Heath ‑ an English actress, businessperson, and film producer – passed away after contracting Covid-19 on 30 March 2020. She was best known for her acting roles in films such as Witchfinder General (1968) and Wuthering Heights (1970). She also performed on the London stage. In 1974, she married the talent agent Duncan Heath, with whom she had two children, and helped to found Duncan Heath Associates, which was later bought by ICM Partners. They divorced in 1989. Later in her career, under her married name, "Hilary Heath", she produced the feature film An Awfully Big Adventure (1995), as well as TV remakes of Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca (1997) and Tennessee Williams's The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (2003)....

29Mar

By Web Team1 Comment

Noteworthy, Profiles, United States

William Wolf, film critic

William Wolf ‑ an American film and theater critic, and the author of several books – died of Covid-19 on March 28, 2020. He was a film critic for Cue and New York magazines in the 1960s-1980s. Later, he was the president of the Drama Desk and the chairman of the New York Film Critics Circle. Wolf served two years as Chairman of the New York Film Critics Circle and was a member of the National Society of Film Critics, the New York Film Critics Online, the Online Film Critics Society, PEN, the American Theatre Critics Association, the International Association of Theatre Critics, and the American Association of University Professors. He served for four years as President of the Drama Desk, an organization of critics and writers on the theater, and previously served ...