Blowhard (film)

Last updated
Blowhard
Directed byBrad Caslor
Christopher Hinton
Produced byJerry Krepakevich
Derek Mazur
Narrated byMaara Haas
Edited byJerry Krepakevich
Production
company
Release date
  • 1978 (1978)
Running time
10 minutes
CountryCanada
LanguageEnglish

Blowhard is a Canadian animated short film, directed by Brad Caslor and Christopher Hinton for the National Film Board of Canada in 1978. [1] A satire of capitalism, the film centres on a businessman who moves to Blowhard, a town populated by dragons but without electrical power, and formulates a plan to profit and become rich by exploiting the dragons as a power source. [2]

The film was made for the NFB's Renewable Society series. [2] It also served as a subtle comment on Western Canadian alienation, as businessman J. B. Edwards was "from the East" and the town of Blowhard was "in the West". [2] It was narrated by Maara Haas, and also featured Wayne Finucan as the voice of J. B. Edwards.

The film received a Canadian Film Award nomination for Best Animated Short Film at the 29th Canadian Film Awards in 1978 [3] and it won a Golden Sheaf Award for Best Animation at the Yorkton Film Festival. [4]

It was later broadcast in the United States on Cartoon Network's O Canada anthology series of NFB animated shorts.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Film Board of Canada</span> Public film and digital media producer and distributor

The National Film Board of Canada is Canada's public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary films, animation, web documentaries, and alternative dramas. In total, the NFB has produced over 13,000 productions since its inception, which have won over 5,000 awards. The NFB reports to the Parliament of Canada through the Minister of Canadian Heritage. It has bilingual production programs and branches in English and French, including multicultural-related documentaries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Norman McLaren</span> Scottish Canadian animator (1914–1987)

William Norman McLaren, LL. D. was a Scottish Canadian animator, director and producer known for his work for the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). He was a pioneer in a number of areas of animation and filmmaking, including hand-drawn animation, drawn-on-film animation, visual music, abstract film, pixilation and graphical sound. McLaren was also an artist and printmaker, and explored his interest in dance in his films.

The history of Canadian animation involves a considerable element of the realities of a country neighbouring the United States and both competitiveness and co-operation across the border.

Caroline Leaf is a Canadian-American filmmaker, animator, director, tutor and artist. She has produced numerous short animated films and her work has been recognized worldwide. She is best known as one of the pioneering filmmakers at the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). She worked at the NFB from 1972 to 1991. During that time, she created the sand animation and paint-on-glass animation techniques. She also tried new hands-on techniques with 70mm IMAX film. Her work is often representational of Canadian culture and is narrative-based. Leaf now lives in London, England, and is a tutor at The National Film and Television School. She maintains a studio in London working in oils and on paper and does landscape drawing with an iPad.

George Garnett Dunning was a Canadian filmmaker and animator. He is best known for producing and directing the 1968 film Yellow Submarine.

"The Blackfly Song" is a song by Wade Hemsworth, written in 1949, about being tormented by black flies while working in the wilds of Northern Ontario. It is an enduring classic of Canadian folk music, covered by a variety of other artists. A new version of the song which had a completely different tempo than the original, was made into an animated short film entitled Blackfly by Christopher Hinton and the National Film Board in 1991, and was nominated for Best Animated Short Film at the 64th Academy Awards, and for Best Animated Short at the 13th Genie Awards, in 1992.

Colin Archibald Low was a Canadian animation and documentary filmmaker with the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). He was known as a pioneer, one of Canada's most important filmmakers, and was regularly referred to as "the gentleman genius". His numerous honors include five BAFTA awards, eight Cannes Film Festival awards, and six Academy Award nominations.

<i>The Romance of Transportation in Canada</i> 1952 Canadian film

The Romance of Transportation in Canada is a 1952 animated short film made by the National Film Board of Canada. Part of the postwar Canada Carries On series, it offers a humorous account of the history of transportation in Canada. The film was directed by Colin Low and produced by Tom Daly.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gerald Potterton</span> British-Canadian animator and director (1931–2022)

Gerald Potterton was a Canadian director, animator, producer and writer. He is best known for directing the cult classic Heavy Metal and for his animation work on Yellow Submarine.

The Sand Castle is a 1977 stop motion animated short created by Co Hoedeman for the National Film Board of Canada. It won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film at the 50th Academy Awards.

Evelyn Lambart was a Canadian animator and film director with the National Film Board of Canada, known for her independent work, and for her collaborations with Norman McLaren.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Daly (filmmaker)</span> Canadian film producer, film editor and film director

Thomas Cullen Daly was a Canadian film producer, film editor and film director, who was the head of Studio B at the National Film Board of Canada (NFB).

Christopher Hinton is a Canadian film animator, film director and professor, living in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Hinton's films have won international awards and been twice nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film: in 1991 for the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) animated short film Blackfly and in 2003 for his independently made short Nibbles. Hinton won a Genie Award for his 2004 short film cNote. He began freelancing for the NFB in Winnipeg in the 1970s. He has written and directed over a dozen films for The National Film Board of Canada, CBC, & Sesame Street. Recent films, Flux (NFB,2003), cNote, Chroma Concerto (2007), and Compression (2008), explore the boundaries of narrative and abstraction and the integration of contemporary media into the moving image. He was a full-time professor in the Animation Program at Concordia University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Janet Perlman</span> Canadian animator, animation teacher, and author

Janet Laurie Perlman is a Canadian animator and children's book author and illustrator whose work includes the short film The Tender Tale of Cinderella Penguin, which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film at the 54th Academy Awards and received a Parents' Choice Award. Her 13 short films have received 60 awards to date. She was married to the late animation producer Derek Lamb. After working with Lamb at the National Film Board of Canada in the 1980s, they formed their own production company, Lamb-Perlman Productions. She is currently a partner in Hulascope Studio, based in Montreal. Perlman has produced animation segments for Sesame Street and NOVA. Working with Lamb, she produced title sequences for the PBS series Mystery!, based on the artwork of Edward Gorey, and was one of the animators for R. O. Blechman's adaptation of The Soldier's Tale for PBS's Great Performances. She has also taught animation at Harvard University, the Rhode Island School of Design and Concordia University. She and Lamb were divorced but remained creative and business partners until his death in 2005.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joe Koenig</span> Canadian entrepreneur (born 1930)

Joseph (Joe) Koenig is a Canadian filmmaker and entrepreneur who was the founder and president of Electronics Workbench.

cNote is a 2005 National Film Board of Canada animated short by Christopher Hinton, which received the Genie Award for Best Animated Short at the 26th Genie Awards. In this visual music short, Hinton animates to an original modern classical composition by Montreal-based composer Michael Oesterle.

Robert Verrall is a Canadian animator, director and film producer who worked for the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) from 1945 to 1987. Over the course of his career, his films garnered a BAFTA Award, prizes at the Cannes Film Festival and Venice Film Festival, and six Academy Award nominations.

Stanley Jackson (1914-1981) was a Canadian film director, producer, writer and narrator with the National Film Board of Canada (NFB).

The 29th Canadian Film Awards were held on September 21, 1978 to honour achievements in Canadian film. They were the last Canadian Film Awards ceremony to be held before the program was taken over by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television, and restructured into the new Genie Awards.

Blackfly is a 1991 Canadian animated short from Christopher Hinton, produced by the National Film Board of Canada and based on "The Black Fly Song" by Wade Hemsworth. It was nominated for an Academy Award and Genie Award for Best Animated Short. The version of the song used in the film features back-up vocals from Kate & Anna McGarrigle.

References

  1. Wyndham Wise, "Christopher Hinton". The Canadian Encyclopedia , December 15, 2011.
  2. 1 2 3 William Beard and Jerry White, North of Everything: English-Canadian Cinema Since 1980. University of Alberta Press, 2002. ISBN   9780888643902. p. 76.
  3. Jay Scott, "Four films nominated for Etrogs". The Globe and Mail , August 24, 1978.
  4. "Blowhard". National Film Board of Canada. 1978. Archived from the original on 2010-10-22. Retrieved 12 December 2020.