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Animation and Experimental Films (26)
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BydloPatrick Bouchard 2012 8 minAn allegory of mankind heading for disaster, this animated short is a tragic vision inspired by the 4th movement of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. Drawing on the composer’s brilliant ability to evoke work and labour in his music, animator Patrick Bouchard brings earth to life through animated clay sculptures, creating a tactile nightmare in which man is his own slave driver. -
Boogie-DoodleNorman McLaren 1941 3 minIn this short animation film, the "boogie" is played by Albert Ammons and the "doodle" is drawn by Norman McLaren. Made without the use of a camera, Boogie-Doodle is a rhythmic, brightly coloured film experiment.
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Begone Dull CareNorman McLaren & Evelyn Lambart 1949 7 minIn this extraordinary short animation, Evelyn Lambart and Norman McLaren painted colours, shapes, and transformations directly on to their filmstrip. The result is a vivid interpretation, in fluid lines and colour, of jazz music played by the Oscar Peterson Trio.
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Concerto Grosso ModoFrançois Aubry 1985 6 minThis short animation is a playful introduction to musical notation. Music notes, suddenly infused with life, begin building a score. Working like ants, they assemble one by one the many elements of musical notation. Once the score is completed, the concert can go on, and each note shines as bright as a star.
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cNoteChristopher Hinton 2004 6 minIn this animated short, filmmaker Chris Hinton and composer Michael Oesterle leap back and forth between picture and sound. The dynamic movement of Hinton's visual art dances in syncopation with the bold musical strokes of an original modern classical composition. Without words.
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CatuorJudith Klein 1970 3 minThis film is about cats--actually, one very clever cat. The title is a play on the French quatuor, meaning quartet, but the chorus is not the usual alley-cat variety. The cat in this film is talented indeed. He is both pianist and piano, trumpet and trumpeter and, if need be, even becomes the music--a pulsing rock and roll--or a whole swarm of alley cats.
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CanonNorman McLaren & Grant Munro 1964 9 minNorman McLaren and Grant Munro use three different animation techniques to provide visual representations of canons in a film designed to teach viewers about this ancient musical form. The soundtrack combines both recorded classical music and sounds produced by a synthesizer.
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Duel-DuoJean-Michel Labrosse 1975 2 minAn animation film about a clarinet and a trumpet that meet, clash, compete, compromise and harmonize.
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Dehors novembrePatrick Bouchard 2005 6 minThis animated short evokes the tragic death of Dédé Fortin, frontman, and vocalist of the Québécois band Les Colocs. To the soundtrack of “Dehors novembre,” one of the band’s songs, animator Patrick Bouchard weaves of dark tale of death and ruin, as they unfold in the dark of night, in November, the Month of the Dead. Not for children.
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Forming GameMalcolm Sutherland 2008 5 minThis animated short from Malcolm Sutherland is an engaging dance of shapes and sounds. The "game" is played by opening the box, unfolding the board and placing shapes on it that you manipulate with your hands. There are no winners or losers in this game; the fun is in the creative way the forms unfold. Features a score by Luigi Alleman and music by Ravi Shankar.
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Fiddle-de-deeNorman McLaren 1947 3 minA film fantasy of dancing music and dancing colour. To "Listen to the Mocking Bird" played by an oldtime fiddler, brilliant patterns ripple, flow, flicker and blend. Norman McLaren, painting on film, translates sound into sight.
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Getting StartedRichard Condie 1979 12 minThis hilarious short animated film stars a man who procrastinates. Our hero attempts to practice a piece of music on the piano, but distractions get in the way. When he finally sits down to play, pandemonium breaks loose.
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LiaisonsJean Detheux 2005 9 minThis abstract film, full of rich colours and textures, was created thanks to an inventive use of digital technology. It grew out of an unusual process of interchange between the painter Jean Detheux and the composer Jean Derome. The result is a rare meeting of images and music. What we get is an intense meditation on a world in constant renewal, where every form that emerges is immediately engulfed by the next one. It constitutes a sort of diptych with the film Rupture, which follows. A film without words.
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Making Music for Animation2011 15 minLuigi Allemano is an animator, musician, composer, teacher and sound designer. In this workshop, he presents several short animation films in various stages of music production, demonstrating the process of creating music for animated film. Using interactive exercises and discussion, Luigi offers musicians some tricks of the trade for composing music for animation. This master class is also aimed at animators, covering effective ways to communicate, collaborate and create with music composers
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A Matter of FormRené Jodoin 1984 3 minSet to the rousing notes of Schubert's Military March, this animation film is an ingenious example of how a single point can be the building-block for a multiplicity of shapes and configurations. Lines and forms grow out of the point, eventually covering the entire screen in splashes of colour. This is geometric wizardry at its colourful best. A film without words.
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Monsieur PointuBernard Longpré & André Leduc 1975 12 minThis animated short about virtuoso stage entertainer Monsieur Pointu (Paul Cormier) is screen magic at its best. Here, the man and his violin are literally taken apart - head, feet, limbs, various items of stage attire, bow, strings, and box all go into their own separate acts, with strange and amusing results.
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Norman McLaren: Animated MusicianDonald McWilliams 2014 26 minNot only did Norman McLaren create his own film imagery, he also made his own music by drawing, etching and photographing patterns directly onto the sound track area of the film, becoming a pioneer of electronic music long before the invention of the synthesizer. Norman McLaren: Animated Musician celebrates this exploration and presents much never-before-seen work by this master of cinema.
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RomanceGeorges Schwizgebel 2011 7 minWhile on an airplane, a traveller's spirit plunges into a dream world. Here, under the influence of the unknown, the logic of his desires prevails, and a romantic saga takes shape. This animated film by Georges Schwizgebel masterfully transports us into a swirling world. Set to the twists and turns of a Rachmaninoff scherzo, Romance exuberantly marries music and movement, erasing the boundary between dreams and reality.
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SyrinxRyan Larkin 1965 2 minBorrowing from classical mythology, this very short film illustrates the story of Syrinx, the nymph who attempts to escape the goat-god Pan’s amorous advances by fleeing to a nearby river for help, only to be transformed into hollow reeds. Syrinx is the first film by Ryan Larkin, an Oscar®-nominated director who began his animation career in Norman McLaren’s student group. The technique employed is charcoal sketches on paper; the accompanying music is Claude Debussy’s “Syrinx” for solo flute.
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SynchromyNorman McLaren 1971 7 minThis animated short by Norman McLaren features synchronization of image and sound in the truest sense of the word. To make this film, McLaren employed novel optical techniques to compose the piano rhythms of the sound track, which he then moved, in multicolor, onto the picture area of the screen so that, in effect, you see what you hear.
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Street MusiqueRyan Larkin 1972 8 minAnimator Ryan Larkin does a visual improvisation to music performed by a popular group presented as sidewalk entertainers. His take-off point is the music, but his own beat is more boisterous than that of the musicians. The illustrations range from convoluted abstractions to caricatures of familiar rituals. Without words.
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Short and SuiteNorman McLaren 1959 4 minThis short animation is a delightful colour cocktail by Norman McLaren and Evelyn Lambart. The various moods in music written for a jazz ensemble by Eldon Rathburn are translated into moving patterns of colour and light. This lively short is composed of images hand-scratched and hand-painted directly onto the film strip.
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Spook SportNorman McLaren 1940 7 minAn expressionistic interpretation of 'Danse macabre' by Camille Saint-Saëns. Conventional cel animation and pen drawings were done by Norman McLaren directly on 35 mm film stock.
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SerenalNorman McLaren 1959 3 minA gay fantasia of patterned sound in which Norman McLaren salutes the West Indies, painting the spirit of fiesta on film to the lively beat of an island tune by Trinidad's Grand Curacaya Orchestra.
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Two BagatellesGrant Munro & Norman McLaren 1952 2 minTwo short Norman McLaren films in which animation technique is employed with live actors. In the first, entitled On the Lawn, a male dancer waltzes to synthetic music. The second is a fast march, In the Backyard, accompanied by an old-fashioned calliope.
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Variations on Ah! vous dirai-je, mamanFrancine Desbiens 1985 13 minIn this short animation a single room is the setting for a lyrical dance through time about family roots. The objects in the room swirl, rearrange and change themselves to reflect the passing seasons, years and generations. As Victorian Christmas fantasies give way to computer-age realities, the procession of objects reaffirms the values that endure the vagaries of fashion and the ravages of time.
