Auteurism is alive and well

International Animation Day from a Canadian perspective

A scene from the animated film Big Drive. Supplied

Undoubtedly, animated filmmaking plays a profound role in defining the cultural institutions of Canada, while continuing to assert itself in the 21st century as a bastion for artists and their invaluable creative talents.

“There is certainly an auteur aspect to Canadian animation,” confirms Roddy McManus, the recently named executive producer of the National Film Board of Canada’s English-language animation studio. “Animation and the NFB are important aspects of the mosaic of Canada’s cultural landscape ... and they always bring people together.”

Given Canada’s rich and illustrious history of animated filmmaking - one that has been punctuated by critical acclaim, Academy Awards and the like - it comes as no surprise to witness an increasing buzz surrounding International Animation Day (Oct. 28) across the country.

In honour of the event, the NFB is hosting Get Animated!, an animation celebration that features some of the nation’s finest animated films, as well as workshops and meet-the-director sessions.

These facets combine to encapsulate a broader initiative, one that McManus calls a veneration of “our shared cultures and touchstones.”

Part of the excitement around Get Animated! stems from its eclecticism, or in other words, its bringing together of many disparate artistic elements to form a panoramic view of animation on an international scale.

To McManus, the survival of auteur animation, especially in Canada, can be credited to the “dissemination and democratization” of artistic tools in the past few decades. While this growth can be understood as an aspect of globalization, McManus rejects the notion that its spread creates more barriers and homogenization for the medium.

The Film Board is still a place where traditional techniques have a place. There is something still charming and important in maintaining them.

Roddy McManus, executive producer, National Film Board of Canada

“It does not dilute the experiences of animation, nor the ideas that drive it ... there are just more opportunities to get your work out there.”

Get Animated! will be hosted in over a dozen Canadian cities, and will showcase the use of these aforementioned “tools” through new releases from the NFB’s award-winning studios, as well as family programs for all ages.

Acclaimed local animator Anita Lebeau will be headlining Winnipeg’s event.

Her new film entitled Big Drive, was recently awarded the Youth Jury Award for Best Animated Short from Freeze Frame. It is a family affair, set in 1970s rural Manitoba, that explores the exuberance and imagination of youth from the backseat of a sweltering car.

Lebeau’s film is at once a celebration of tradition, and again a signature blend of stylings that reflects the importance of tradition in Canadian animated filmmaking.

Her combination of hand-drawn animation with photo-realistic images transcends the work of the past, yet still situates itself within a long national tradition.

“The Film Board is still a place where traditional techniques have a place,” McManus says. “There is something still charming and important in maintaining them.”

Winnipeg’s Get Animated! will be hosted in English by the Winnipeg Film Group’s Cinematheque (100 Arthur St.), and in French at the Centre culturel franco-manitobain (340 Provencher Blvd.). Free animation screenings and activities will take place until Sunday, Nov. 6, and all are welcome to attend.

Published in Volume 66, Number 9 of The Uniter (October 26, 2011)

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