Laurence Kardish
Via Zoom – Please contact Gail Larose at glarose0@gmail.com for Zoom link details.

Wednesday, November 19, 2025

7pm ET

Ottawood – A Capital Contribution to the Movies

Not only has the city of Ottawa’s played an outsized role in the development of cinema as both an industry and art but so have its citizens. To celebrate his native city’s contribution to the movies, Larry Kardish proposes an illustrated talk about Ottawa’s special place in the history of motion pictures from the world’s first Kinetoscope parlor in 1894 through the establishment of the National Film Board of Canada and its concentration of talent in mid-twentieth century to the building of one of the earliest multiplexes on Elgin Street. Ottawa’s current position as a favored location for Hallmark Christmas movies will also be acknowledged, Mention will be made of, among others, Dan Aykroyd, Donald Brittain, “Budge” and Judy Crawley, Philippe Falardeau, William Greaves, Lorne Green, John Grierson, Andrew and George Holland, John Kobal, Evelyn Lambert, Norman McLaren, Nat Taylor, and even Igor Gouzenko.  

After graduating from Carleton and Columbia universities in the 1960s, Larry Kardish spent the next 44 years at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, retiring in late 2012 as Senior Curator of Film.  A native of Ottawa, during his career Mr. Kardish became a fixture at film events and festivals in New York, Canada and worldwide, serving on film festival juries, launching many new programs and curating some 60 showings and exhibitions annually at MoMA. He has received numerous awards, including the Order of Merit (Bundesverdienstkreuz) of the Federal Republic of Germany and the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres as well as an honorary doctorate from Carleton University in 2011. He is currently the artistic director of FilmColumbia, a regional international festival in Chatham, Columbia County, New York, and the author of the forthcoming University Press of Kentucky biography, “Up on the Roof: Shirley Clarke, Her Times, Works and Words”.