Roman Bittman

Roman Norbert Bittman (June 5, 1941 - November 7, 2017)[1] was a Canadian film and television producer, most noted as a longtime producer of news and current affairs for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Born in Fort Vermilion, Alberta to a German Canadian father and a Métis mother, Bittman grew up in Hay River, Northwest Territories.[2] As a high school student, he volunteered for a new local community radio station in the community,[3] and was one of just two students from the Northwest Territories selected to participate in a national student event at the Stratford Festival in 1960.[2] He pursued postsecondary studies in the film and television program at Ryerson University, and worked for CBC News before becoming producer of the documentary series The Nature of Things.[3] He also produced a number of short documentary films for the National Film Board,[3] and was a partner in his wife Marilyn Belec's independent production firm Mobius Productions.[4]

In 1993, Bittman was named as head of the Nova Scotia Film Development Corporation.[5] In this role he helped to pass legislation creating a provincial tax credit for film and television production,[6] and introduced an ambitious plan to build and operate the province's first full sound stage,[7] but was dismissed from the role in 1996 after the NSFDC board rejected his financing plan.[8]

Thereafter Bittman worked primarily in efforts to improve indigenous representation in media, including serving on the inaugural board of the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network,[9] and serving as a mentor in a special program for indigenous screenwriters at the Banff Centre.[10] He was awarded a National Aboriginal Achievement Award in the Arts & Media category in 2001,[11] and subsequently served as interim CEO of the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation in 2004-05[12] and as executive producer of the awards gala in 2005 and 2006.[13]

Bittman died in Toronto, Ontario in 2017. At the 7th Canadian Screen Awards in 2019, he received a posthumous Board of Directors Tribute Award from the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television.[14]