Marie-Josée Saint-Pierre – Quebec Animation Cinema and Women’s Agentivity: an exploration of sexuality and desire through the works of three animators produced at the National Film Board of Canada

Moreover, because of the nature of the animated film, because it is a unique combination of printed popular culture (as in drawings done for newspapers, books, and magazines) and the twentieth century’s later emphasis on more life-like visual media (such as film, television, and various form of photography) it is argued here that it is […]

Rachel Walls – Abstract Inclusion

Abstraction, as an art movement, represents the largest modernisation of visual arts since the Renaissance, reconfiguring how we perceive information on a global scale (Frankel 2012). In shedding representational form and meaning, abstraction presents an evocative sensuality that transcends language and culture. This sensuality provides a strong foothold in commercial visual communications, which has persisted […]

Terence Dobson – Norman McLaren Beyond 100

Norman McLaren was somewhat prescient when, as a young man, he said, “That’s it, that’s what I want to do, make movies […] That’s the art of the future” (McWilliams 1990). The question now is, how prescient can we be about the future of McLaren’s own films? A Guide to the Future A guide to […]

Nichola Dobson – Dancing to rhythm of the music: Norman McLaren, the body and performance

On Begone Dull Care: “Thus, the knife-point was made to slide and move on the surface of the film; my hand pressed, guided, and, as it were, made to ‘dance’ to the rhythm of the music.” (McLaren 1949, p.6) Scottish-Canadian filmmaker Norman McLaren’s work is bound by the notion of performance; he described his own […]

Aimee Mollaghan – “An Experiment in Pure Design:” The Minimalist Aesthetic in the Line Films of Norman McLaren

During the 1960s Scottish animator Norman McLaren undertook a series of inquiries into the nature of the line that culminated in three films, Lines Vertical (1960), Lines Horizontal (1962) and Mosaic (1965). Although McLaren has always been associated with innovation in animation technique and aesthetics, often times his more formal concerns have remained overlooked, underexplored, […]

Lynne Perras – “Steadier, happier, and quicker at the work”? Women in Canadian Animation

In the film industry, historically it seems to be a truism that women have not occupied major positions. Although they have participated in the profession, there has been a relatively small number of female producers, directors, and head writers for many years. A similarly small number of women have held positions of influence in the […]