Screening of animation shorts to mark the centenary year of the well-known Canadian animator, pioneer in a number of areas of animation and filmmaking, including drawn – on- film animation, visual music, abstract film, pixilation and graphical sound
Introduction: Ms Jessie Curell, National Film Board of Canada
Opening Speech: McLaren (6 min; 1961)
Norman McLaren tries to welcome the audience to a film festival but is hampered by a microphone that has a will of its own
Boogie-Doodle (3 min; 1941)
Experimental animated film with pianist, Albert Ammons’ “boogie” and McLaren’s “doodle”
A Chairy Tale (9 min; 1957)
A man’s relationship with a chair
Begone Dull Care (7 min; 1949)
A visual composition by painting and engraving directly on film
C’estl’aviron(3 min; 1944)
Norman McLaren creates the illusion of movement to illustrate a folk song
Neighbours(8 min; 1952)
Recipient of the Oscar Award 1952 for Best Documentary; and Silver Bear for Best Short Documentary, Berlin International Film Festival 1956
Two neighbours live side by side in harmony until a flower grows on the dividing line between their properties
Blinkity Blank (5 min; 1955)
Well-known Norman McLaren film shows bird-like creatures engaged in a strange dance of seduction
Le Merle (4 min; 1958)
Using simple cardboard cut-outs to tell the story of a bird that loses its neck, then its eye, back, wings and feet
Spheres (7 min; 1969)
Three-part experiment in geometric abstraction
Synchromy(7 min; 1971)
An experiment in the exact synchronization of sound and image
Pas de deux(13 min; 1968)
Recipient of the Bafta Award 1969 for Best Animated Film
The film acts as a sort of magic mirror to the dance, as McLaren captures and multiplies the grace in the movements of two dancers from the Grands Ballets Canadiens
