Roman Kroitor

Roman Kroitor (1926 to 2012) was a Canadian filmmaker known as a pioneer of Cinéma vérité, a co-founder of IMAX and the creator of the Sandde hand-drawn stereoscopic 3D animation system. Born in Yorkton, Saskatchewan, to Ukrainian immigrant parents, he took a master's degree in philosophy at the University of Manitoba in 1951 and joined the National Film Board of Canada, where his first film, Rescue Party (1953), laid the foundation for his Cinéma vérité style and where he went on to produce films such as Lonely Boy. In 1967 he and Graeme Ferguson left the board as employees and founded the Multi-Screen Corporation, later IMAX Corp., after the board film In the Labyrinth caused a sensation at Expo 67. He produced the first IMAX film, Tiger Child, in 1970 and co-directed the first IMAX feature film, Stones at the Max, in 1990. George Lucas credited him as the origin of the concept of The Force in the Star Wars films.