One of the central figures in the development of English-Canadian cinema, Don Owen is responsible for the seminal 1964 feature, NOBODY WAVED GOODBYE. The film follows the travails of Peter, the only son of a middle class Toronto family. Headstrong and impudent, Peter runs afoul of the law when he takes off on a joy ride in his father's new company car. Tossed out of the house because of his refusal to attend college, Peter ekes out a living doing odd jobs while trying to decide what he wants to do. He abhors his family's middle class values but can find no alternative to them.

The film was originally intended to be a half hour documentary on middle class juvenile delinquency for the National Film Board of Canada, but Owen simply kept ordering film until he finished - with the tacit approval of several of his superiors. The film went on to become a huge international success, garnering raves after its appearance at the New York Film Festival as well as comparisons to J.D. Salinger for its study of middle class rebellion. (Prior to NOBODY WAVED GOODBYE, there had been only one fictional feature made at the NFB and very few films made privately.) NOBODY WAVED GOODBYE was also one of the first fictional films to employ the techniques of the documentary film movement known as cinema-verite or direct cinema.

Owen spent much of his career at the NFB, oscillating between short documentary films (including RUNNER; COWBOY AND INDIAN and YOU DON'T BACK DOWN) and feature length works, including THE ERNIE GAME, which sparked a scandal in Parliament; the groundbreaking, Godard-influenced featurette NOTES FOR A FILM ABOUT DONNA AND GAIL; and LADIES AND GENTLEMEN ... MR. LEONARD COHEN, a portrait of the poet co-directed with Donald Brittain.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Owen produced such key features as PARTNERS (one of the few Canadian features to openly address the shifting relationship between Canada and the United States) and UNFINISHED BUSINESS, a sequel to NOBODY WAVED GOODBYE.

This publication represents the first book-length treatment of themes and motifs in Owen's work, situating him within a cultural context while focusing on the development of the English-Canadian film industry in the 1960s and beyond. It will feature interviews with Owen and many of his principal collaborators.

The author, Steve Gravestock, has been a programmer at the Toronto International Film Festival Group since 1997, and has written extensively about Canadian and international cinema for such publications as Take One, CinemaScope and the Toronto Star. His essay on Toronto filmmaker Bruce McDonald is included in North of Everything, edited by Jerry White and William Beard.