posted 12-31-2003 08:59 AM                       

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Francis Thompson, 95, Whose Films Inspired Imax, Is Dead

By PATRICK HEALY

Published: December 29, 2003

Francis Thompson, a filmmaker whose multiscreen documentaries paved the way for larger-than-life Imax movies, died on Friday at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. He was 95.

The cause was pneumonia, said Bayley Silleck, his friend and colleague.

During his 50-year filmmaking career, Mr. Thompson won an Academy Award in 1965 for best short documentary, and he produced and directed films ranging from abstract experimental pieces to swooping big-screen epics about flying.

He won his Academy Award for "To Be Alive!," a three-screen documentary that gave a glimpse into the lives of children in Africa, Italy and America. Mr. Thompson produced the film with his longtime partner, Alexander Hammid, and showed it at the 1964-65 New York World's Fair.

Mr. Silleck described "To Be Alive!" as a simple film that sought to convey the joy of life, and he said the multiscreen projection, while not a new technique, inspired the Canadian filmmakers who went on to create Imax films, the big-screen shows that seem to bring the audience into the film. Mr. Thompson later directed and produced several Imax films.

Mr. Thompson also directed the 1957 movie "N.Y., N.Y.," an abstracted look at a day in the life of New York City. He shot it through special lenses, prisms and mirrors, giving it a look that was a touch Cubist and a touch Dadaist, Mr. Silleck said.

Born in Titusville, Pa., in 1908, Mr. Thompson was a member of the Directors Guild of America. He retired from filmmaking in 1987 and spent his last years painting at his apartment on East 51st Street, creating collages and exploring the artistic potential of photocopy machines.

Mr. Thompson is survived by a second cousin, Dr. Arthur Thompson of Seattle.

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