A Quinte West councillor is reflecting on his time working with a film trailblazer who was one of the founders of the Toronto International Film Festival.
At the age of 77, William (Bill) Marshall died from cardiac arrest on New Year’s day.
Marshall immigrated to Canada from Scotland in 1955 and founded TIFF in 1976 along with co-founders Henk Van der Kolk and Dusty Cohl. Marshall has 13 feature film credits to his name and is well-known for producing hundreds of documentaries.
Councillor Duncan Armstrong beamed it was a privilege and honour to work with Marshall on their proposal for a local film festival the Cinema on the Trent.
Armstrong said Marshall was a great story teller who instantly knew there was one to be told in Trenton.
With the news of Marshall’s death tributes immediately began pouring in on social media for him from dignitaries and across the Canadian and American film industries.
Bill Marshall, co-founder of TIFF and gentleman badass. Thank you for everything. Rest in Peace. pic.twitter.com/2t5nmaeMHy
— Cameron Bailey (@cameron_tiff) January 1, 2017
Toronto has lost a great citizen and arts advocate. Here is my statement on the death of @TIFF_NET founder, Bill Marshall. pic.twitter.com/IMopiTcfSp
— John Tory (@JohnTory) January 2, 2017
Bill Marshall's vision helped bring #TIFF to Toronto, and showed off Canada to the world. He’ll be deeply missed.
— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) January 2, 2017