Peter Wronski
Encyclopedia
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
filmmaker, writer, new media artist and historian. He earned a Ph.D. in espionage in international relations and criminal justice history from the University of Toronto in 2010. Vronsky is the director of several feature films including Bad Company (Fast Company) and Mondo Moscow and the author of two recently published books on the history and psychopathology of serial homicide and the creator of a substantial body of formal video and electronic art works. He has also worked professionally in the motion picture and television industry as a producer and cinematographer in the field of documentary production and news broadcasting with CNN, CTV, CBC, RAI and other global television networks in North America and overseas. His next book scheduled to be published in November 2011 by Penguin - Allen Lane Books, The American Fenian Invasion and the 1866 Battle That Made Canada. is based on his recent doctoral dissertation on the origins of the Canadian army and secret services during the Fenian raid in Upper Canada in 1866: Combat, Memory and Remembrance in Confederation Era Canada: The Hidden History of the Battle of Ridgeway, June 2, 1866.
1970s
Film writer for magazine Cinema Canada and University of Toronto's Varsity; Member of Toronto Filmmakers Coop; University of Toronto Film Board (Hart House); studied with Canadian film directors Don Shebib, Clarke Mackey, and Peter Pearson; dropped out of U of T at the end of his second year to pursue filmmaking full time; wrote and directed two thirty-minute short drama films starring Paul Young from the Cardboard Brains: American Nights (1976) and The Sheep-Eaters (1977); Canada Council and Ontario Arts Council Grants; directed and produced thirty-minute music documentary special on punk rock for CBC television Crash’n’Burn (Dada’s Boys)(1977) with the Viletones, Teenage Head, Dishes, The Ramones and The Deadboys, filmed at CBGB in New York and the New Yorker Theater and Crash’n’Burn in Toronto. Produced and directed feature film, Bad Company (Fast Company)(1978). Assistant-Director on Canadian feature films: Nothing Personal (1979), The Last Chase (1979) and Screwballs (1981).1980s
Created numerous videoart tapes and formal video installations exhibited in Canada and internationally in Tokyo, Paris, Rome, Amsterdam, New York and London. Artist-in-residence with Sony Corporation at Video/Culture International, 1983. Undercover video specialist – field producer with CBC’s The Fifth Estate and CTV’s W-5. Head of Interactive Laser Optical Software Development, Sony Corporation-Video/Culture, 1984-1985. Project Director, Berlin Wall Videodisc, Sony Canada-Image Over Time, 1985.Field Producer/Cameraman, CNN International, Rome Bureau, 1986-1990. Producer-director, Russian Rock Underground, a thirty-minute special on rock music in the Soviet Union, 1988.
1990s
Writer-producer-director, Mondo Moscow, feature length documentary on Stalinism and underground culture in the USSR, 1991. In 1991 investigates Lee Harvey Oswald's activities in the USSR in 1959-1962—first Westerner ever to interview Oswald's friends, lovers and acquaintances in Russia. Cameraman-line producer, The Hunt for Red Mercury, investigative one-hour documentary (Discovery Channel - CTV) on nuclear weapons material smuggling in Chechnya, 1992. Writer-director, The Uncanadians, NFB feature documentary 1994-1995. (Withdraws own name from director’s credit when censored by National Film Board.) Head of English Language Production, Panavideo, Venice Italy – service producer for Italy’s national television network, RAI, 1997-1999.2000s
Queens Park/Toronto Bureau Chief, E-Press, Canada's first online news streaming service, 2000. Broadband Content Specialist, Canada-Invest.com, financial news streaming service, 2000-2001. Director of Photography, feature length music documentaries, Life Could Be A Dream (Bravo Television 2002) and I'll Fly Away Home (Bravo Television 2004). Author of Serial Killers: The Method and Madness of Monsters, Berkley-Penguin Books (2004) and Female Serial Killers: How and Why Women Become Monsters, Berkley-Penguin Books (2007).University of Toronto, Trinity College, Honours BA, 2003.
University of Toronto, Graduate School, M.A. (History) 2004.
University of Toronto, Munk School of Global Affairs, Centre for International Studies, Ph.d. (History), 2010.
Currently
Dr. Peter Vronsky currently lectures at Ryerson University History Department in international relations, American Civil War, Third Reich, and the history of espionage and is completing his new book scheduled to be published in 2011: The American-Fenian Invasion and the 1866 Battle that made Canada.He resides in Toronto and Venice, Italy.