In this thesis, it is argued that Canadian film documentarian and inventor Roman Kroitor’s lifework is structured by simultaneous appeals to the realist and reflexive capacities of film and animation. It is shown that the diverse periods in Kroitor’s lifework (including documentary film production at the National Film Board of Canada; co-invention and development of the large-format film apparatus, IMAX; and software design for computer animation in stereoscopic 3D) are united by a general interest in facilitating immersive audience experiences with documentary information and evidentiary entertainment. Against those who have conceptualized cinema as functioning like a frame or a window, this thesis analyzes Kroitor’s diverse work in relation to Gene Youngblood’s conception of “expanded cinema” (1970). It is argued that Kroitor’s efforts in film and invention constitute modalities that actively eschew the architectonic limits that typically characterize the cinematic experience.

In this thesis, it is argued that Canadian film documentarian and inventor Roman Kroitor’s lifework is structured by simultaneous appeals to the realist and reflexive capacities of film and animation. It is shown that the diverse periods in Kroitor’s lifework (including documentary film production at the National Film Board of Canada; co-invention and development of the large-format film apparatus, IMAX; and software design for computer animation in stereoscopic 3D) are united by a general interest in facilitating immersive audience experiences with documentary information and evidentiary entertainment. Against those who have conceptualized cinema as functioning like a frame or a window, this thesis analyzes Kroitor’s diverse work in relation to Gene Youngblood’s conception of “expanded cinema” (1970). It is argued that Kroitor’s efforts in film and invention constitute modalities that actively eschew the architectonic limits that typically characterize the cinematic experience.