Jewison retrospectives in NY, Toronto

Canadian filmmaker Norman Jewison is seeing a retrospective of his work at the Lincoln Center in New York this week.

It is the first major New York retrospective for the 84-year-old director who helmed films such as In the Heat of the Night, Moonstruck and Agnes of God.

The Toronto International Film Festival Group will also host a similar celebration of Jewison, a founder of the Canadian Film Centre in Toronto, in August.

For the New York event, Jewison is to appear alongside stars of his movies, including Olympia Dukakis of Moonstruck, Andr Previn of Rollerball, Meg Tilly of Agnes of Godand Sheldon Harnick, the lyricist for Fiddler on the Roof, which Jewison adapted for the screen.

Interest in social justice

The retrospective by the Film Society of Lincoln Center is titled Relentless Renegade, in tribute to Jewison's reputation as agroundbreaking filmmaker concerned with social justice.

Toronto-born Jewison got his start as a BBC children's show screenwriter before joining CBC Television as an assistant director for musicals, comedy-variety shows, dramas and specials in the early 1950s.

CBS in New York City recruited him in 1958 and he directed variety shows such as Your Hit Parade before moving into movies in 1962 with40 Pounds of Trouble, a comedy starring Tony Curtis.

Jewison hit the big time in 1966 with the Cold War comedy The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!, whichreceived four Academy Award nominations, including for best picture.

But he is most acclaimed for films such as In the Heat of the Night, considered a racial touchstone. In the 1967 drama, which earned five Academy Awards, Sidney Poitier plays a black police detective struggling to clear his name and solve a murder in a racist southern town. It wasthe first film in American historyto show a black man slapping a white man back, according to Jewison.

Actor Lee Grant will participate in a question and answer session about In the Heat of the Night on Friday. Jewison is also expected to attend the New York screenings of The Hurricane, Jesus Christ Superstar and The Russians are Coming! The Russians are Coming!

Toronto tribute

For the Toronto retrospective, set for Aug. 11 to 27, Canadian directors Bruce McDonald and Clment Virgo will pay tribute to Jewison, a man whom they consider an inspiration.

Jewison and Dukakis will be joined by screenwriterJohn Patrick Shanley to discuss Moonstruck during the TIFF series, titled And Justice for All.

Rubin (Hurricane) Carter is also lined up tointroduce Jewison's feature film based on his life: The Hurricane, the story of a boxer wrongfully imprisoned for murder.

Jewison's films have received 12Oscars and he won alifetime achievement award from the Directors Guild of Americain 2010.