Bruce A. Goronsky–a noted agency producer and entrepreneur who founded editorial house Fleet Street Pictures, which enjoyed a seven-year run in the Bay Area–died on Monday, March 29, in San Francisco of cancer. He was 61.
Goronsky served as a producer at such ad shops as Foote, Cone & Belding, San Francisco, and Ogilvy & Mather, Los Angeles. At FCB his work on Levi’s and Clorox earned a pair of Clio Awards and a regional Emmy. A native of Seattle, he moved to San Francisco after college to pursue his career in advertising and broadcast production.
Goronsky’s personal interests included a love of senior Golden Retrievers and a particular joy in vintage car racing with his Shelby Mustangs. He is lovingly remembered by his many friends and colleagues, by his father and brother, Ade and Paul Goronsky of Seattle, by his wife of 25 years, Louise Ure, and by the children of his heart, Brian and Maya Washington of San Francisco. All who knew Bruce Goronsky will remember his laugh that entered the room before he did.
A memorial celebration in Goronsky’s honor will be held at the Firehouse at Fort Mason in San Francisco, from 3 to 7 p.m. on Thursday, April 8. RSVP and inquiries can be made to Anna Frost, an agency colleague of Goronsky over the years, at (415) 459-5901. Memorial contributions in Goronsky’s name may be sent to the San Francisco chapter of the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA at http://sfspca.org/) or San Francisco-based residential shelter and family services program charity Raphael House (http://www.raphaelhouse.org/).
Review: Rachel Morrison Makes Feature Directorial Debut With “The Fire Inside”
"The Fire Inside," about boxer Claressa "T-Rex" Shields, is not your standard inspirational sports drama, even if it feels like it for the first half of the movie.
There's the hopeless dream, the difficult home life, the blighted community, the devoted coach, the training montages, the setbacks and, against all odds, the win. We've seen this kind of story before, you might think, and you'd be right. But then the movie pulls the rug out from under you: The victory is not the end. "The Fire Inside," directed by Rachel Morrison and written by Barry Jenkins, is as much about what happens after the win. It's not always pretty or inspirational, but it is truthful, and important.
Sports dramas can be just as cliche as fairy tales, with the gold medal and beautiful wedding presented as a happy ending. We buy into it time and time again for obvious reasons, but the idea of a happy ending at all, or even an ending, is almost exclusively for the audience. We walk away content that someone has found true love or achieved that impossible goal after all that work. For the subject, however, it's a different proposition; Life, and all its mundanities, disappointments and hardships, continues after all. And in the world of sports, that high moment often comes so young that it might be easy to look at the rest of the journey as a disappointing comedown.
Claressa Shields, played by Ryan Destiny in the film, was only 17 when she went to the 2012 London Olympics. Everything was stacked against her, including the statistics: No American woman had ever won an Olympic gold medal in the sport before. Her opponents had years on her. She was still navigating high school in Flint, Michigan, and things on the home front were volatile and lacking. Food was sometimes scarce... Read More