Programme 2007

Most of the films speak on multiculturalism, diversity and question of nationality. It was this real world context that also prompted us to include the legendary Oscar-winning first episode of the British series Creature Comforts into the programme. Animals are the most common characters of children's animated films, yet in this series they tell the true stories of their life in the ZOO. And it is migrants who give them their voices.

Norman McLaren (NFB)
Canada, 1949, BetaSP (35mm), 7'48''

A lively interpretation, in fluid lines and colour, of jazz music played by the Oscar Peterson Trio. Painting directly on film, two National Film Board artists, Evelyn Lambart and Norman McLaren, have created a whimsical visual expression of the music. Film without words.

Eugene Fedorenko (NFB)
Canada, 1979, BetaSP (35mm), 6'13''

Produced at the invitation of the United Nations to celebrate UNICEF's Declaration of Children's Rights, this film is the Canadian contribution to the hour-long feature film consisting of ten six-minute segments in celebration of the International Year of the Child. This six-minute segment illustrates one of the ten principles of the Declaration, namely that every child is entitled to a name and a nationality.Y CHILD

ÂME NOIRE
Martine Chartrand (NFB)
Canada, 2000, BetaSP (35mm), 9'47''

Black Soul is an exhilarating immersion into the heart of Black culture via a whirlwind voyage through the defining moments of Black History. As an old lady initiates her grandson into his past, a series of perpetually transforming images painted directly under the animation camera unfolds before our eyes. In a mesmerizing swirl of light and colour, the boy traces his ancestry to the mighty Pharaohs, and to valiant kings whose praises are sung by a griot beneath the baobab tree. Suddenly, the beating of drums conjures forth the slave market and far-flung exile. At long last, rocked by the rhythms of gospel and jazz, the boy makes his way from the lush Caribbean to the snows of the Americas. A film without words.

Lillian Chan (NFB)
Canada, 2006, BetaSP, 8'

Jaime Lo, a shy Chinese-Canadian girl, observes the world around her through her drawings. When Jaime's father is sent to Hong Kong for a year-long work assignment, Jaime must use her creativity to cope with his absence. This story offers us a lighthearted glimpse into a common dilemma that many immigrant families face, where one parent must work overseas in order to provide for the rest of the family back home.

Théodore Ushev (NFB)
Canada, 2006, BetaSP, 7'

Lili misses her grandma, her Baba, who lives near the Black Sea. Thanks to tzaritza, a magic shell, Lili brings her grandma to the heart of Montreal to make her father happy. Théodore Ushev combines warmth, humour, magic and reality as he explores Bulgaria through the eyes of a 6-year-old girl. The lively, luminous images are complemented by the music of Normand Roger.

ICI PAR ICI
Obom (NFB)
Canada, 2007, BetaSP (35mm), 9'

Childhood can be a chaotic time, especially if you're bouncing back and forth between two continents. With engaging candour and gentle humour, the director offers us images from her family album. Drawing on the bewildering events of her rootless early years, she redraws her uncertain identity and takes control of her life.

Nick Park (Aardman Animations)
UK, 1989, BetaSP, 5'

Creature Comforts is an Oscar-winning animated short from Aardman Animations and director Nick Park, the creator of the Wallace & Gromit series. As in his other works, Park mingles claymation and multidimensional characterizations with a dry, distinctly British sense of humor; this time around, his subject is the lives of animals in an English zoo. The film employs a documentary-like structure, presenting a series of interviews with zoo animals about their lives and homes.