Born in the small town of
South Porcupine in northern
Ontario in 1935, the brother of film producer
Douglas Leiterman. He grew up in
Vancouver, where he spent his young years working as a
waste collector,
beachcomber and
truck driver. During his mid-20s, he was encouraged by his brother-in-law,
Allan King, to take a camera technician course at the
University of British Columbia. Leiterman took to the
film camera like a natural. He sold his car to buy a 16mm camera, and proceeded to shoot
stock footage, which he then sold to Canadian broadcasters like the
CBC. Hired by Allan King as a second
camera operator on a documentary, Leiterman went to
London and, in 1962, co-founded Allan King Associates with him. The company focused on news-related filmmaking. In 1963, Leiterman went to the Southern U.S. to shoot
One More River, a look at
racism in America. Over the next few years, his documentary work took him around the world. In 1969, Leiterman shot the Allan King-produced
A Married Couple, which was featured at the
Director's Fortnight at the
1970 Cannes Film Festival. Leiterman next began a series of collaborations with famed Canadian director
Donald Shebib, starting with the Canadian classic ''
Goin' Down the Road (1970), and followed by Between Friends (1973) and Wedding in White'' (1972). Leiterman used his documentary experience to provide a cinéma vérité look to his work. Leiterman continued to shoot a variety of material over the following three decades, from Canadian features such as
My American Cousin (1985) to American
made-for-TV movies such as
Stephen King's
It (1990). His
cinematography work earned him a
Canadian Film Award (1975) a
Genie Award, (1981), and the Kodak New Century Award (2000). During the late 1990s, Leiterman shot the Canadian TV series
Cold Squad. He taught cinematography for a brief time in the
Advanced TV & Film program and Media Arts program at
Sheridan College in
Oakville, Ontario, then finally retired. Leiterman died in Vancouver on July 14, 2005, at age 70 due to complications from a rare disease called
amyloidosis. ==References==