Begone Dull Care: The Films of Norman McLaren and Evelyn Lambart

Canadian animation pioneers Norman McLaren and Evelyn Lambart transformed the landscape of Canadian filmmaking by treating animation as an art of movement, sound and experimentation. Born in Scotland and based in Canada from the 1940s, McLaren became one of the National Film Board of Canada’s most influential artists, developing innovative techniques that included drawing and painting directly onto film, creating animation without a camera, and synchronizing hand-drawn images to the music of celebrated musicians like Glenn Gould, Ravi Shankar, and Oscar Peterson. His playful, abstract films have won more than 200 awards including several Oscar® nominations and a win, a Palme d’Or, and inclusion in the UNESCO Memory of the World Register, which lists the most significant documentary heritage collections. Lambart, who worked closely with McLaren at the NFB, was a trailblazing animator in her own right, having been crowned the ‘First Lady of Canadian Animation’. Her delicate cut-out animations took inspiration from landscapes and folklore combining meticulous craftsmanship with a distinctive poetic sensibility. Together, McLaren and Lambart helped establish Canada as a major centre for experimental animation, leaving a lasting influence on generations of filmmakers and animators.

• A Chairy Tale (Norman McLaren; Claude Jutra, 1957, 9 mins)

• Spheres (Norman McLaren; Rene Jodoin, 1969, 7 mins)

• O Canada (Evelyn Lambart, 1952, 2 mins)

• Begone Dull Care (Norman McLaren; Evelyn Lambart, 1949, 8 mins)

• Mosaic (Norman McLaren; Evelyn Lambart, 1965, 5 mins)

• Neighbours (Norman McLaren, 1952, 8 mins)

• Dots (Norman McLaren, 1940, 2 mins)

• Blinkity Blank (Norman McLaren, 1955, 5 mins)

• Le merle (Norman McLaren, 1958, 5 mins)

• Mr. Frog Went A-Courting (Evelyn Lambart, 1974, 4 mins)

• Pas de deux (Norman McLaren, 1968, 14 mins)

Featuring a recorded introduction by filmmaker and animator Matthew Rankin.

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