Harold Lee Tichenor

Biography

From an early age, Harold Tichenor along with his brother Jim, developed an avid interest in filmmaking. Their grandfather Archie Tichenor had made films and audio visual programs for the US Baha'i community and their uncle Allen Tichenor worked as a camera technician in NYC.

Raised in Philadelphia, Harold was fourteen years old in 1960 when he and his older brother started making films. In 1962 he joined The Film-Makers' Cooperative as its youngest member. Never expecting that a career in film was a realistic possibility, in the early 1960s, Tichenor held a number of jobs working as a land surveyor, piano technician, dairy herdsman, fish hatcheryman, draftsman and punch press operator. He attended the Walter Biddle Saul High School for Agricultural Sciences intending to pursue studies in the biological sciences in college. But in 1963 while enrolled in the ecology program at the University of Alaska, he found his first paying job in film working as the State of Alaska film librarian and as a cameraman for the University and its Geophysical Institute making documentary and educational films. At the same time he worked as the director of the University of Alaska Film Group programming a series of classic and foreign films.

In those years Canada was the foremost documentary film producing country in the world and in 1966 Tichenor decided to immigrate in order to further his career in non-fiction production. Initially, he worked as a freelance cameraman for CBUT Vancouver and in 1967 he moved to Alberta to help establish the media division of the newly formed University of Lethbridge. Over the next five years he produced a variety of science and educational documentaries for the University. In 1970-1, he served as research assistant to John Grierson when the noted social documentarian was guest professor at the University. In 1972, Tichenor completed his bachelor's degree in Drama and Art specializing in Film History and in 1974, after a year working as a writer/producer in Ottawa for the Public Service Commission’s Bureau of Staff Development and Training, he moved back to Alberta to continue his film career in the private sector.

In 1969, Tichenor had established his own film production company and until 1982 he worked on over 100 documentaries and educational films as a cameraman, editor, writer, producer and director. His one-hour documentary, Inupiatun, won numerous awards, including a prestigious Rockie Award at the first Banff Television Festival and remains one of the definitive social studies of Inuit life and culture.

In 1980 Tichenor shifted his emphasis from documentary to dramatic production, initially working as a production manager on half a dozen television movies, series and several feature films. In the mid 1980s, he began working as a producer running the last two seasons of Danger Bay for CBC Television and the Disney Channel. In 1990 he and his partners formed Vancouver-based Crescent Entertainment and through that company produced programs and features for Viacom, ABC Television, Lifetime, CBC, CBS Television, Republic Pictures, and Warner Bros.. In order to focus on his work as a writer, in 2003 Tichenor retired from active production and the management of Crescent Entertainment Ltd.

Tichenor has written for film and television and has published two non-fiction books on the Point blanket in the Fur Trade history, as well as numerous articles on film history and the business of film. He has taught film production at the University of Lethbridge and the Vancouver Film School and has guest lectured at the University of British Columbia, the University of Victoria, and Capilano College. In 1974 he was one of the founding members of the Alberta Motion Picture Industry Association serving on its board of directors until 1979. In addition, from 1976-9 he served on the board of the Lethbridge Public Library and in 1978-9 he was Vice President of the Alberta Library Trustees Association. During the 1980s, he served on several Canada Council juries, was chair of the BC District Council of the Directors Guild of Canada, served for two years on the national board of the DGC, several terms on the board of the British Columbia Motion Picture Association, and in the 1990s he served on the national board of the Canadian Film and Television Producers’ Association. During the late 1990s he was lead Canadian negotiator representing the CFTPA in British Columbia’s industry-wide labour negotiations. From 2000-2004 Tichenor served on the Board of Directors of the Banff Television Festival and in 2008 completed the final year of his second term as a member of the Board of Governors of that Festival.

Although several early films made by Tichenor are available through The Film-Makers' Cooperative in New York City, the majority of his films were made during the past forty years in Canada. The masters of these films are archived at the Archives of the Province of Alberta, the Gatineau Preservation Centre of Archives Canada and the National Film Board of Canada.

Filmography