Martin Duckworth


Martin Duckworth is a Canadian documentary director and cinematographer who was on staff at the National Film Board from 1963 to 1970 and has continued to work with them as a freelance filmmaker. He was cinematographer on more than 100 films, and directed or co-directed 30, most of them with the NFB.
His credits as director include 12,000 Men and Return to Dresden, A Wives' Tale, No More Hiroshima, Our Last Days in Moscow, Oliver Jones in Africa, and Brush with Life.
His cinematography work has included Christopher's Movie Matinée, directed by Mort Ransen, Sad Song of Yellow Skin, by Michael Rubbo, Le bonhomme, by Pierre Maheu , La richesse des autres, by Maurice Bulbulian, Falasha by Peter Raymont, La bombe en bonus, by Audrey Schirmer, Between Two Worlds by Barry Greenwald, Seeing Red by Julia Reichert, Maureen Forrester, the Diva in Winter, by Donald Winkler, Return to Kandahar by Paul Jay, Professor Norman Cornett, by Alanis Obomsawin, Ma vie réelle, by Magnus Isacsson, Granny Power, by Jocelyn Clarke. He has also worked as a cinematographer with such filmmakers as Gilles Groulx, Don Shebib and Peter Watkins
From 1990 to 2012, he taught film at Concordia University's Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema.
In 2015, he was awarded the Government of Quebec's Prix Albert-Tessier, given to individuals for an outstanding career in Quebec cinema.

Personal life

He is a descendant of Nicholas Austin, one of the first Quakers in the province of Quebec and the founder of Austin, Quebec. Duckworth was raised in Montreal's Notre-Dame-de-Grâce neighbourhood. He went to high school in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and attended Yale University and the University of Toronto for BA and MA degrees in history.
His father, Jack Duckworth, was secretary-general of the YMCAs in NDG and Halifax. His mother, Muriel Duckworth was a distinguished Canadian pacifist and activist. Martin is married to Audrey Schirmer, a photographer and filmmaker, with whom he has collaborated on a range of projects. They have three children together, Nicholas, Jacqueline and Danielle. Duckworth is also the father of twins from his first marriage, Marya and Sylvia, as well as daughters Natascha and Anana from his second marriage.