The NFB at Sommets du Cinéma D’animation 2024

The NFB has an enormous presence at Montreal’s Sommets du Cinéma D’animation (May 6–11) with eleven productions and co-productions. With almost half being world premieres, it’s a good time to celebrate why filmmakers like animating their projects than go live-action. Sometimes, its due to what the visual arts can offer through direct symbolism.

And what I present are my takes on those works which impacted me the most. It was tough to nail a top five, so to break from the norm, I present my favourite three.

As this festival is all about celebrating why animation is wonderful. Sometimes what’s presented is heavy, and other times it’s light-hearted. There’s a bit of everything to enjoy, and for up-and-coming talents, who knows, they might find a job with a studio in town or somewhere in Europe next. Not everyone wants to work for specific studios, and to have a place to present their innovative works is important.

To note, TheNFB;s own Hothouse program, now in its 14th year, will have their latest works screened in the next two days. Afterwards, they will be made available to view online. A separate review will be posted following that release. Also worth noting are the following closing weekend screenings:

Scratches of Life:
The Art of Pierre Hébert.

by Loïc Darses (75 min)

At the behest of the NFB’s French Animation Unit, Loïc Darses (Where the Land Ends) examines the career of outstanding animation filmmaker Pierre Hébert. Employing a delicate black-and-white approach, punctuated with flashes of animation, the film follows Ariadne’s thread of scratch-on-film animation, taking us into the inspiring labyrinth of Hébert’s life and work. The documentary opens on May 12 at the Cinémathèque québécoise

René Jodoin Award

This year, the award goes to Pierre Hébert, honouring the exemplary career of this important figure in Canadian animation. Hébert worked at the NFB from 1965 to 2000. He will soon be marking 60 years as a filmmaker, performer and visual artist.

REVIEWS

LE TABLEAU (THE PAINTING)

Not everyone knows the life of Queen Mariana of Austria had a rather bleak life, and to see it unfold in animated form by Michèle Lemieux is rather disturbing. Part of the reason is that this animator knows how to use Alexeïeff-Parker‘s pinscreen technique to impressive effect. What’s done is a juxtaposition of light and shadow. And when this filmmaker provides some extra illustrations to further enhance that story, there’s a sense of dread.

What’s presented is a colourful journey that represents all her emotions as she came into royal life, got married far too young (to her uncle Philip IV of Spain, 30 her senior), and wither. Although this visual work does an excellent job at conveying the grief, sometimes viewers want a narration too.

Usually, unspoken word narratives can be hard to follow, and I feel I understood enough where I would have to compliment what’s visually unfolding by looking up her biography afterwards.

LOCA

I might have to ask Véronique Paquette if she knows about how the technology behind the Xbox Kinect works. What she’s created is fascinating as it’s not purely about animation. What’s presented isn’t simply about stick figures dancing on the screen. Instead, it’s about the other energies that fly away as two dancers hit the floor.

Those motions need translation. As an artist, I appreciate how ink drawings show how fluid every step made must be. Anyone who has never studied dance can understand what’s going on.

In her words, “Argentine tango came into my life 20 years ago, at the same time as animation. Very quickly, I clued in to the multisensory and multidimensional aspects of this dance. Tango is a special world, an intersection of bodily interaction and identity-shaping imagination.”

CORPUS AND THE WANDERING

With a mix of creative video camera tricks and the use of various Adobe After Effects plugins, this short is more wildly surreal than experimental. While this work by Jo Roy is very reflective about how humanity is enamoured with technology, to break away from it is tough. Some people are okay with being part of a collective, and others not, if there’s even more to this work than meets the eye, I’ve yet to scratch the surface.

Ultimately, it’s up to the viewer to decide on the next step. If anyone needs a guide, hopefully this statement from this filmmaker can explain what’s going on, “Corpus and the Wandering dares to ask how we can remove the walls of a fragmented society and repurpose technology to align with an interconnected future.”