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