Wyndham Wise
Wyndham Paul Wise is a Canadian film historian, critic, editor and publisher. Born in London, England, he was raised in Don Mills, a suburb of Toronto. He has a M.A. from the Graduate School of Drama, University of Toronto, and a Master of Fine Arts from the Graduate Programme in Film and Video from York University. He was the first film contributor to the listings in Toronto Life magazine (1972–74). During the mid-1970s, Wise was part of the nascent Toronto underground theatre scene, producing Shop-Talk (Toronto Free Theatre, 1976), Spinning (CEAC and P.S. 1. NYC, 1977) and Con/Notes (produced by Theatre Passe Muraille at CEAC, 1977) with Richard Shoichet.[1] He was cameraman and editor on several installations by the noted Canadian artist Noel Harding, and he also produced and directed three 16-mm shorts: Garbage (1974), A Sound Film (1975) and Spinning (1976). In 1982 he co-produced Liona Boyd First Lady of the Guitar for C Channel and Liona Boyd in Concert, which was broadcast on Global TV in 1983.
Wise founded and was the editor-in-chief of Take One: Film & Television in Canada (ISSN 1192-5507, OCLC 60624126), a Canadian film magazine, which was published from 1992 to 2006.[2] During its 14 year publishing history, it grew in stature to become 'Canada's finest film magazine.' He has taught film studies at Algoma University (1985 & 1988) and York University (1987–88), and media writing and film studies at Sheridan College (1989–93). He served as the last Toronto reporter for Cinema Canada magazine[3] (1988–89), launched POV magazine in 1990 for the Canadian Independent Film Caucus (now the Documentary Organization of Canada) and edited the final issue of Independent Eye (1991) for the Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre. In 1997, he was instrumental in founding the Toronto Film Critics Association and launched Canadian Screenwriter for the Writers Guild of Canada in 1998. In 2001,Wise edited Take One's Essential Guide to Canadian Film, published by the University of Toronto Press, a history of Canadian film. [4]
In 2008, Wise was hired by the Canadian Society of Cinematographers to edit CSC News, which he transformed into Canadian Cinematographer in 2009. He is a contributor and consultant to The Canadian Encyclopedia and is the author of over 500 articles, interviews and reviews.[5] On occasion, he writes under the pseudonym Paul Townend.