If you have been reading our site for the last two weeks, you may have noticed that I’m not the only one writing for our little movie blog that could. As your humble editor, please join me in welcoming Paul Gratton to our site. Paul is a Toronto-based writer who has had decades of work in and around Canada at film festivals, TV networks, film societies and just about any film event in this country that you can think of. He’s also one of the biggest film buffs and supporters that you will ever meet.
From his TV and film work years, here’s a little more of an official biography:
Vice-President, Bravo! NewStyleArtsChannel
SPACE: The Imagination Station & Drive-In Classics
Vice-President , Entertainment Specialty Channels for CHUM Television
Paul Gratton held the position of station manager, Bravo! NewStyleArtsChannel since its launch in January 1995 until October 2007. In August 1999, Mr. Gratton was also appointed vice-president and general manager of SPACE: The Imagination Station. In September 2001, Mr. Gratton launched the digital channel Drive-In Classics. In 2005 he acquired the role of vice president, Entertainment Specialty Channels, CHUM Television.
Paul Gratton held the position of station manager, Bravo! NewStyleArtsChannel from its launch in January 1995 until October 2007. In August 1999, Mr. Gratton was also appointed vice-president and general manager of SPACE: The Imagination Station. In September 2001, Mr. Gratton launched the digital channel Drive-In Classics. In 2005 he acquired the role of vice president, Entertainment Specialty Channels, CHUM Television.
Mr. Gratton’s experience with and expertise in programming developed when he worked at various art house and repertory cinemas in the Ottawa area as general manager and programmer. In the early ’80s, At the launch of Pay TV in Canada,
Gratton served as the program manager at Superchannel, before moving on to First Choice, where his role was that of vice-president of programming. In 1991, he became chief executive officer of the Ontario Film Development Corporation, a
position he held until early 1994, when he joined Citytv as senior program executive. Mr. Gratton served as Chair of the Canadian Television Fund. He has also served on the board of the National Screen Institute, the Independent Production Fund and is past Chair of the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television and First Weekend Club.
Here is a great example of Paul’s work at the Whistler Film Festival from 2020, when the festival went online for the pandemic. This year I was also involved in selecting films to screen in the festival.
Paul & I met all the way back in 2013 when I was covering the Whistler Film Festival and in that year, he was named the new Director of Programming. It didn’t take very long for us to meet at a screening and start talking about the movies he had seen throughout the year. He mentioned distributors of particular titles, even smaller Canadian ones, and I was taken aback that someone else out there talks just like me. He joked that he saw 50 movies at the Toronto International Film Festival that year. I responded, not in a way to compete, that I had seen 59. His response I will forever remember….“You f**ker!” Since then, we hit it off and eventually I worked directly with him serving on Whistler’s screening committee, a position that I still work with to this very day. I was even able to help him get to attend South By Southwest in Austin in 2017.
Boasting that he has notes on over 25,000 movies since he first started covering film in 1962, Paul brings the exact attention to cinematic detail that I do and also has a deep knowledge of the film business and exhibition, but at his heart he’s also in complete support of filmmakers and helping get the word out about great films from all over the world.
Since his retirement from Whistler Film Festival a few years ago, Paul & I still kept in touch frequently and even became movie buddies at the Toronto International Film Festival. Over the last few years we’d hold seats for each other, do coffee runs and constantly compare notes on what we are seeing. It was only a matter of time that he would start reviewing movies once again and I am overjoyed to have a new home for him for his reviews.
Our thanks already goes out to Paul for his immediate contributions of his reactions, many of which are to come along with future working with us at film festivals.
And if you’re in Toronto, you may just see him at a theatre near you!
