CAROL MOORE-EDE
Moore-Ede published her first book as an author and photographer when she was twenty-five, CANADIAN ARCHITECTURE 1960/70, funded by the Canada Council and won a Canada Book of the Year Award. It was considered by Luc D'Iberville Mereau to be "the first important book on contemporary Canadian architecture." Other reviews, (... a stunning book... a thorough review of the Canadian architectural scene... Toronto Daily), (... it is something for future studies to measure up to... David Silcox, Globe Magazine). It became an integral part of every young Canadian architect's kit, although it is currently out of print.
This was followed by THE LIVES AND WORKS OF CANADIAN ARTISTS: Vol. 11 Peter Rindisbacher and Vol. 14 Homer Watson, Dundurn Press. More recent publications include several short stories in TREASURED ISLANDS: With Generations of Muskoka Memories and TREASURED ISLANDS 2. These tell her family's history on their island in Lake Muskoka, which has seen some seven generations within its shores since the late 1870s. In addition, her writing includes dozens of television scripts. She is currently under a contract with Fitzhenry and Whiteside to write and do the photography for a 345-page book with the working title Thinking Outside the Box: The Men Behind Architectural Modernism in Canada.
Carol Moore-Ede was born in Tunbridge, Wells, England, shortly before the end of the Second World War. She immigrated to Canada with her family in 1951 and attended Bishop Strachan School in Toronto. Upon matriculation, she entered the University of Toronto, graduating with Honours in Art and Architecture. She then moved to France and enrolled in graduate studies in Child Psychology and Le Cours de Civilisation at the Sorbonne, Paris. Following her stay in France, she returned to London and worked at Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital. She spent her early post-graduation years travelling widely, visiting Russia, Morocco, England, and Europe, and eventually, she returned to Canada. Taking a position in television with the CBC in 1967 with TAKE THIRTY, she started as a researcher but moved into producing and directing within six months. The first series she created was on Canadian modern architecture. Two years later, she left Current Affairs and became a producer/director of network specials for TV arts, music, and science, and then she became the executive producer of TV arts and music. In addition, she was frequently borrowed by TV Drama to direct both in film and videotape.
During her rapid rise in the CBC, Moore-Ede was seen as quietly intrepid, talented and determined. Her polymath attributes enabled her to forge a career, thriving in all aspects of film and TV, including concept, writing, production, direction and most importantly, budgeting ("From the start... working with budgets so low they begger disclosure - Moore-Ede consistently has brought to TV cutting-edge arts, from performance to interviews, that are outstanding", Sid Adilman, Toronto Star).
Her work in medical science documentaries for the CBC TV Series The Nature of Things with David Suzuki as writer, producer, and director has been wide-ranging and received great praise. Her episodes have won several Best in Category awards at international Film and Video Festivals. Among many other awards, she also won Best in Category statues for Drama and Arts programming.
As a person always interested in history, Moore-Ede produced and directed IMAGES OF CANADA, a 5-episode documentary on Canada's social and cultural history. The early days of Canada's Confederation were recreated in three 90 min. film dramas, SOME HONOURABLE GENTLEMEN: King's Gambit, Thy Servant Arthur and A Flush of Tories, which she directed. Her film on CYRUS EATON: The Prophet from Pugwash, which she produced and directed, was greeted with acclaim, (... we thought it was a marvelous program and that you had done a magnificent job in compressing a long, varied career into an enlightening and entertaining hour. Cyrus Eaton Jr.) (... it's a fascinating study of a fascinating man... Hants Journal).
Moore-Ede was responsible for SUNDAY ARTS ENTERTAINMENT, a three-hour weekly network magazine with diverse arts programming across Canada and worldwide. The series focused on variety and multiculturism in music, dance, theatre, film, visual art, literature, photography, folk arts, and crafts. An all-star cast of hosts presented lively documentaries that were entertaining and informative. John Haslett Cuff, Television Critic for the Globe and Mail, wrote, “Best Light Entertainment Series: Sunday Arts Entertainment (CBC), Carol Moore-Ede’s astonishing weekly three-house omnibus which does more with less than any of the competitors.”
Additional examples of Moore-Ede's eclectic talent are shown through her documentaries, JOURNEYS THROUGH ILLUSION on the writings of Iris Murdoch and Robertson Davies, and THE GARDEN AND THE CAGE about the writings of Claire Blais and Gabrielle Roy. Further award winners give testimony to the variety of her work: SUN AND MOON The Making of Miss Saigon and the Princess of Wales Theatre, IN REHEARSAL: Mozart’s Don Giovanni, VERONICA TENNANT: A Dancer of Distinction (... a dance portrait ought to move and this one does..." W. Littler, Toronto Star) and IMAGES OF CANADA: Spirit in a Landscape ("The Inuit program is outstanding on every level..." Joan Irwin, The Gazette, Montreal), (“... it has to be one of the most beautiful documentaries of Inuit art ever made... photographically smashing..." Montreal Sunday Express), (... I am actively involved in the Arctic... I have never seen anything so moving..." Julien Beliveau, President. Canadian Arctic Producers Ltd.). It was the first CBC-TV triple simulcast - English, French and Inuktitut).
Beyond her work for the CBC, Moore-Ede's career has included directing for the NFB, Atlantis Films, BBC, PBS (Live from Kennedy Center), Discovery-Health, NHK Japan, and other North American and International broadcasters. Her work has included Drama, Arts Documentaries, Performances, Opera and Current Affairs.
Moore-Ede has always had an instinctive need to travel, and this has taken her to many places, always with one or more of her trusty cameras by her side: China, Hong Kong, South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia, Chile, Ecuador, Bolivia, Paraguay), Europe, North Africa, USSR, and Southeast Asia (Cambodia and Thailand). These adventures have been the basis for several travel magazine articles in journals such as JourneyWoman. Moore-Ede's photographic work has also been published in numerous books and magazines worldwide, including Canada d’Aujourd’hui, Time Magazine, Reader's Digest, National Geographic, Abitare Design, Canadian Interiors, Architectural Record, ArtsCanada, Baumeister, Moebel Interior Design, Architecture Canada, Canadian Forum and Cottage Life as well as various international books and Federal and Provincial Government publications. In addition, she has worked as a photographer with architects such as Arthur Erickson, R.J. Thom, Fred Lebensold, Victor Prus, and Ernest Annau, among many others.
If asked which aspects of her career have been most rewarding, she would identify those experiences which fulfilled her sense of wanderlust and excitement, such as sleeping on the beaches in Morocco in her early 20s, travelling alone cross-country researching her book on Canadian architecture, filming in the jungles of Ecuador, camping through Russia just after the 6-Day War, and in particular her delight to be the first to create virtual sets for TV in partnership with the Computer Science Department of the University of Toronto. Her adventures with the Inuit in Canada's far north were distinctive and character-shaping. She won't forget when thick fog enveloped Hudson's Bay so suddenly that she and her travel companions were stranded on an island for about five days, rationing their food. Nor the time she slept on sea ice in the High Arctic at minus 40 degrees in a summer tent with a hole in the top and no stove to keep warm.
In 2008, Moore-Ede founded the Cabbagetown Regent Park Museum, which she still chairs. It has won two Toronto Heritage Awards. She has two children, Amelia Myers and Michael Clark, who have always had a special place in her life. Consistent with her local historical interests, Moore-Ede purchased her heritage home in 1973, which has since won a restoration award. Her passion for travel, photography, and writing remains unabated.