Norman McLaren Movies

A portrait of John Grierson, the first Canadian Government Film Commissioner and founder of the National Film Board in 1939. Interweaving archival...

Norman McLaren attempts to give the opening speech for the first Montreal International Film Festival, but his microphone won't cooperate.

In this early film Norman McLaren shot crystal formations through a low-power microscope, using polarized light with the lower part of the picture...

The fifth thematic mini documentary about revolutionary filmmaker Norman McLaren; this time with a focus on his collaborator Evelyn Lambart.

This uncompleted film uses a technique invented by McLaren in the 1930s; the travelling zoom. McLaren's intention was to make the corridor gradually...

The film's soundtrack is an original musical composition produced with synthetic sound - through photographing unusual geometric shapes and running...

Pinscreen animation makes use of a screen filled with movable pins, which can be moved in or out by pressing an object onto the screen. The screen is...

This publicity clip for Canada Post is Norman McLaren's first film for the NFB. For this animated short, McLaren drew symbols by pen onto clear 35 mm...

An attempt to animate an abstract Charlie Chaplin-esque figure.

Norman McLaren instructs Grant Munro on the movements he is to make. The film technique for Two Bagatelles is pixillation, where the actor is...

A man sets a ping-pong ball into motion and it becomes fruitful and multiplies.

To the tune of a classic French-Canadian nonsense song, surreal blackbird made of lines loses body parts and gets them back threefold.

An animated film in which colored shapes dance to calliope music. The visuals were drawn by Norman McLaren directly upon the film with pen and ink....

This wartime publicity trailer by Norman McLaren focuses on wartime inflation and the role of price control. Single-frame animation is used with pen...

Compilation of McLaren's Blurr technique.

A playful exercise in intermittent animation and spasmodic imagery. Playing with the laws relating to persistence of vision and after-image on the...

Mixes with still images, 1940s. A large collection of McLaren's surrealist illustrations. Silent film.

The Korean alphabet, illustrated with animation, spoken, and accompanied by music.

An animated short film about The Four Seasons by Norman McLaren.