Boogie-Doodle

Last updated
Boogie-Doodle
Directed by Norman McLaren
Produced byNorman McLaren
Music by Albert Ammons
Distributed by National Film Board of Canada (NFB)
Release date
  • 1940 (1940)
Running time
4 minutes
CountryCanada
Languagenone

Boogie-Doodle is a 1940 drawn-on-film visual music short by Norman McLaren, set to the boogie-woogie music of African-American jazz pianist Albert Ammons. [1] [2]

Though released by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) in 1941, Boogie-Doodle was actually made by McLaren in New York City in 1940, a year before he was invited by John Grierson to Canada to found the NFB's animation unit. [3] McLaren, who had been influenced by the hand-painted films of Len Lye, was in New York exploring the technique on a grant from the Solomon Guggenheim Foundation, creating Boogie-Doodle along with three other cameraless films: Dots, Loops and Stars and Stripes. [4]

The animation in Boogie-Doodle coincides exactly with Ammon's musical piece, with McLaren's animation beginning at the very first bar and concluding at the final note. [5]

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References

  1. Bill Kirchner, ed. (May 2005). The Oxford Companion to Jazz. Oxford University Press. p. 771. ISBN   978-0-19-518359-7.
  2. Ian Conrich; Estella Ticknell (July 1, 2007). Film's Musical Moments. Edinburgh University Press. p. 22. ISBN   978-0-7486-2345-7.
  3. Ortega, Marcos (July 16, 2006). "Norman McLaren: The Master's Edition". Experimental Cinema. Retrieved April 1, 2011.
  4. Beckerman, Howard (February 2004). Animation: The Whole Story. Allworth Press. pp. 51–52. ISBN   978-1-58115-301-9.
  5. The Undercut Reader: Critical Writing on Artists' Film and Video. Wallflower Press. 2003. ISBN   978-1-903364-47-5.