religion birth_place awards birth_date article_title name occupation alma_mater
jewish montreal , quebec order of canada 19 february 1926 william weintraub
 william weintraub film producer , script writer , novelist mcgill university
william weintraub

william weintraub , -lrb- born february 19 , 1926 -rrb- is a canadian journalist , author , filmmaker and lecturer , known for his long association with canada 's national film board -lrb- nfb -rrb- .
born and educated in montreal , weintraub graduated from mcgill university where he had worked on the `` mcgill daily '' .
he began his career as a reporter at `` the montreal gazette '' in the 1950s , later moving to `` weekend '' magazine .
his experience in journalism provided the basis for weintraub 's 1961 novel `` why rock the boat ? ''
and his 2001 memoir `` getting started '' .
among weintraub 's contemporaries and friends were authors mordecai richler , mavis gallant , norman levine and brian moore .
weintraub 's satirical 1979 novel `` the underdogs '' provoked controversy by imagining a future socialist republic of quebec , in which english-speakers were an oppressed minority , complete with a violent resistance movement .
one planned stage version was canceled before its premiere .
in a film career spanning decades , weintraub was involved with more than 150 nfb productions , serving variously as writer , producer and director .
productions ranged from `` canada : beef cattle '' to historical documentaries to a portrait of canadian writer margaret laurence .
his 1993 documentary `` the rise and fall of english montreal '' dealt with the second large quebec diaspora that began in the 1960s and accelerated rapidly after the 1976 quebec election .
the `` national post '' wrote that he said that torontonians should express their gratitude to a major benefactor of the city and erect a very large heroic statue at the head of bay street of former premier of quebec rené lévesque .
weintraub published four books after his seventieth birthday including `` city unique '' -lrb- 1996 -rrb- , an exploration of english montreal in the 1940s and 50s .
in 2003 , he was made an officer of the order of canada .
the citation reads : `` as a journalist , author , filmmaker and lecturer , william weintraub has played a major role in our country 's artistic and intellectual life '' .
