TIFF spotlight: Barry Avrich and ‘The Man Who Shot Hollywood’

TORONTO – The Toronto International Film Festival is in full swing with hundreds of movies set to unspool through Sept. 20. Here’s a look at a Canadian project trying to break through at the 11-day movie marathon:

Director: Barry Avrich

Hometown: Toronto

Film: “The Man Who Shot Hollywood”

Synopsis: The short film profiles the late photographer Yasha (Jack) Pashkovsky, a Jewish-Russian immigrant who captured celebrities on studio lots during Hollywood’s golden era. Avrich says Pashkovsky took “gorgeous, unpretentious photographs” that are “in the same art of (George) Hurrell and (Francesco) Scavullo, Herb Ritts, but are even better because they’re unposed.”

Genesis of film: Avrich says he was at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital one day when he walked by Pashkovsky’s room and saw his photograph of Gloria Swanson on his wall. Avrich went into the room and asked if he had any more photographs.

Pashkovsky told him: “Under the bed, have a look.” There, Avrich found 400 negatives, collecting dust.

“Four-hundred of the most iconic portraitures of Hollywood stars never seen before and it’s a lost treasure,” said Avrich.