The Brian McKenna fonds provides an insight in Brian McKennas career and accomplishments as journalist, author, filmmaker, and producer, from McKenna’s time as a reporter for the Loyola News in the 1960s to his latest works of independent filmmaking. Further, the fond is a valuable source for detailed background information on many events and personages of the twentieth century.
The fonds documents Brian McKenna’s work on various films, covering documentaries that he produced for the CBC, and especially for The Fifth Estate, as well as independent productions, and even film proposals that finally never had been produced.
As such, the fonds’ content spans from the 13-minute documentary Thomas D’Arcy McGee, McKenna’s first film that he wrote and directed for the CBC in 1973, to his later works as an independent filmmaker, as Newfoundland at Armageddon, produced in 2016.
The fonds also gives an overview of McKenna’s writings. It covers his articles related to Expo ‘67 in Montreal, his time as parliamentary correspondent in Ottawa, as well as his book on Montreal mayor Jean Drapeau, published in 1981.
The fonds is organized into the following series:
• P112/A. Personal records and student activities
• P112/B. Journalist
• P112/C. Involvement in the journalistic community
• P112/D. Speeches
• P112/E. Awards
• P112/F. Administration and personnel
• P112/G. Documentaries
The fonds contains, but is not limited to, film scripts, photographs, newsletters, reports, meeting minutes, newspaper articles, speeches, publications, correspondence, statues, plaques, a pewter, a medal, awards programs, certificates, CVs, pamphlets, project proposals, sound recordings, a webpage template, videos, interviews, research material, drafts, notes, court records, financial records, posters, newspapers (among others several issues of Loyola News), drawings, proof prints, and a replica of the satellite Sputnik from the United States Pavilion at Expo 67.
McKenna, Brian