Directors: Norman McLaren; Steve Woloshen | Canada/Québec
Film source for McLaren: National Film Board; Film Source for Woloshen: Filmmaker
Sponsor: Québec Government Office in Boston
Special anniversary screening: to honor world-renowned Academy Award winning (Neighbors) filmmaker/animator Norman McLaren on the 100th anniversary of his birth, we’re delighted to welcome Steve Woloshen, considered a McLaren disciple and respected and admired for his scratch animation films in his own right. McLaren came to Canada from Scotland in 1941 to work at the National Film Board where he was asked to form its animation department and where he developed his technique of drawing directly on film. Woloshen will present a selection of his favorite McLaren shorts and some of his own.
Following the screening there will be a reception sponsored by the Québec Government in Boston.
MCLAREN:
Spook Sport | 8 mins | 1939/1940 | It’s midnight in a graveyard. The principal characters are spooks, ghosts, bats, bells, and, at the end, the sun. As midnight strikes, 12 spooks appear, then two ghosts…
Hen Hop | 3’40” | 1942 | a hen gradually breaks apart into an abstract movement of lines as it dances to a barn dance
Begone Dull Care | 7’52” | 1949 | Abstract images drawn directly onto the film are accompanied by three pieces of jazz performed by the Oscar Peterson trio
Neighbors | 8’07” mins | 1952 | Oscar-winning anti-war pixilation film
Blinkity Blank | 5’17” 1955 | Experimental film playing with persistence of vision
Le Merle | 4’39” | 1958 | Simple white cutouts on pastel backgrounds impart unusual activity to an old French-Canadian nonsense song.
WOLOSHEN:
Ditty Dot Comma | 3 min | 35mm | 2001| Ditty Dot Comma is a hand panted, wide screen 35 mm film that honors the relationship between the eye and the ear. The dot and the comma, literary punctuation marks, are also used as symbols and designs
Bru Ha Ha! | 2 min | 35mm | 2002 | Bru Ha Ha! is a short hand made35 mm film that uses paint, emulsion scratches, and dry transfer lettering to represent voices and instrumentation. “Unplanned” as a spontaneous study of inhuman relationships of abstract characters.
Cameras Take Five | 3 min | 35mm | The enduring romance of the lines. A visual exploration of Dave Brubeck’s Jazz Classic, “Take Five.”
Snip | 1 min | 35mm | Shards of film fly from the screen with the frenetic sounds of Fats Waller on the piano. In Cinemascope!
Changing Evan | 1’15” min | 35mm | I think my daughter is a puzzle. Just when I thought everything was o.k the chicken pox struck…
Shimmer Box Drive | 3 min | 35mm | Thoughts, visions and reflections from the driver’s seat.
Playtime | 2 min | 35mm | Jock MacDonald painted in both worlds: figurative and the abstract. Playtime pays homage to his dedication, spirit and wonderful subject matter – both real and imaginary.
Fiesta Brava | 3’30” min | 35mm | The bull fights are over. Now, the bulls invite you to the world’s biggest party.
When the Sun Turns into Juice | 2 min | 35mm |
1000 Plateaus (2004-2014) | 3 min | 35mm |
Read more about McLaren
Read an interview with Woloshen