John Zaritsky (13 July 1943 – 30 March 2022) was a Canadian documentarian/filmmaker. His work has been broadcast in 35 countries and screened at more than 40 film festivals around the world; in 1983, his film Just Another Missing Kid won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
Early life and education
Zaritsky was born in St. Catharines, Ontario, the eldest of four children of Yvonne Joan (née White), a nurse, and Dr. Michael Zaritsky, a physician of Ukrainian heritage. He graduated from Denis Morris Catholic High School in 1961, then studied English and History at the University of Toronto's Trinity College, graduating in 1965.
Journalism
His first job was as a current affairs story editor at the CBC, but he left to take the job of police reporter at The Hamilton Spectator. He then moved to the Kitchener-Waterloo Record, where he was an education reporter, art critic and book reviewer. In 1968, he became a political reporter at the Toronto Star. In 1970, he received a Ford Foundation Fellowship to study at the Washington Journalism Center. In 1971, he went to work as a reporter at The Globe and Mail; in 1972, he won a National Newspaper Award for his investigative reporting, and a photography award from The Canadian Press. In 1973, he returned to the CBC as an investigative reporter; in 1975, the CBC created the documentary program the fifth estate and Zaritsky was one of five people tapped to create the show's films.
Film career
CBC - the fifth estate
Zaritsky worked at the fifth estate until 1985, producing and directing the documentaries The Loser's Game, Charity Begins at Home, Caring for Crisler, Just Another Missing Kid, Bjorn Borg, and I'll Get There Somehow. Also for the CBC, he created a documentary about the creation of the fundraising song Tears Are Not Enough. Just Another Missing Kid was screened internationally, was nominated for numerous awards, and won a 1982 ACTRA Award and the 1983 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
By 1982, Zaritsky had married producer Virginia Storring and the two formed their own production company, KA Productions. In 1985, Zaritsky left the CBC as an employee and, as contractors, he and Storring produced two films for the CBC--Tears Are Not Enough and The Real Stuff, a documentary about the Snowbirds which would later air on Frontline. Their third documentary, produced with Robert M. Cooper, was 1986's Rapists: Can They Be Stopped?, a film about possible treatments for sex offenders which won the 1987 CableACE Award for Best Informational Special.
Also in 1987, for the CBC, Zaritsky began work on his trilogy about birth defects caused by the anti-morning sickness drug Thalidomide. The first, Broken Promises was released in 1989. The second, Extraordinary People, was released in 1999; No Limits: The Thalidomide Saga, a damning indictment of the German pharmaceutical company Grünenthal, was released at Vancouver's DOXA Documentary Film Festival in 2016.
Zaritsky produced one other documentary for the CBC's Documentary Channel—2014's, A Different Drummer: Celebrating Eccentrics.
PBS - Frontline
In 1986, Zaritsky and Storring were contracted by PBS to produce documentaries for Frontline. They would stay with Frontline for ten years, producing My Husband is Going to Kill Me, AIDS Quarterly: Born in Africa, My Doctor, My Lover, Choosing Death (aka An Appointment With Death), Romeo and Juliet in Sarajevo, Murder on Abortion Row, and Little Criminals. In 2006, Zaritsky produced and directed Right to Die?; it premiered in 2007 and Frontline released it as The Suicide Tourist in 2010.