Co Hoedeman | |
|---|---|
 Co Hoedeman at the Cinémathèque québécoise (2018) | |
| Born | Jacobus Willem Hoedeman 1 August 1940 |
| Occupation(s) | Film director, writer and animator |
Jacobus Willem (Co) Hoedeman (born August 1, 1940 in Amsterdam) is a Dutch-Canadian filmmaker known for his mastery of stop motion animation and technical innovation in films that reveal his close observation of human and social interaction. [1]
Hoedeman was born during the German occupation of the Netherlands and survived the Hunger Winter of 1944-45, when many of Amsterdam's residents died of starvation brought on by a German blockade and other factors.
At the age of 15, Hoedeman left school to work as a photograph retoucher in the printing industry in his native the Netherlands, but soon decided to try film. He first worked at Multifilm, a small production company in Haarlem, and then at Cinecentrum in Hilversum, where he worked in the optical and special effects department and helped out with camera, laboratory and sound work when he could. Hoedeman spent his evenings taking courses at the School of Fine Arts in Amsterdam and the School of Photography in The Hague. As his skills improved, he took on more complex work, including transitions and models, and eventually began designing, editing, and directing commercials.
Hoedeman immigrated to Canada in 1965 with his then-wife, on the chance that the National Film Board of Canada might hire him. He showed up at the NFB with a reel of his previous work under his arm, and within days landed a job as a production assistant. His first major project there was an educational film called Continental Drift. [2] He then moved to the recently created French Animation Studio and made what he called his first "real" film, Oddball, in 1969. [3] Wanting to learn more about stop-motion animation techniques, he went to Czechoslovakia in 1970 to study puppet animation.
On his return, he produced the innovative and charming children's film Tchou-Tchou (1972), [4] made entirely by using wooden blocks. Then, he made a series of animated films based on Inuit legends: The Man and the Giant, The Owl and the Lemming, The Owl and the Raven and Lumaaq . He collaborated closely with artists in the Arctic communities of Frobisher Bay (now called Iqaluit) and Povungnituk to illustrate the legends, using sealskin figures, soapstone carvings, and drawings.
His next project was the very ambitious The Sand Castle / Le Château de sable, a touching fable that earned him the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film at the 50th Academy Awards. [5] [6] This work, which featured an array of odd creatures created from foam rubber, wire, and sand, won numerous international awards and has proven to be an enduring favourite.
With every film, Hoedeman experimented with new techniques and materials, including papier-mâché, paper cutouts, and computer animation.
In 1992, Hoedeman collaborated with a group of Native and Inuit inmates at La Macaza Penitentiary in northern Quebec to make The Sniffing Bear / L'Ours renifleur, a cautionary tale about substance abuse. [7] He followed that with another serious film, The Garden of Écos / Le Jardin d'Écos, an ecological fable that shows just how easy it is to upset the balance of nature. [8]
In 1998, Hoedeman returned to his passion – making whimsical children's films – by crafting a series of four puppet films featuring Ludovic, a sweet young teddy bear, and his family. The Snow Gift (1998), A Crocodile in My Garden (2000), Visiting Grandpa (2001), and Magic in the Air (2002) were eventually released together on DVD under the title Four Seasons in the Life of Ludovic.
His last film as an employee of the National Film Board was Marianne's Theatre (2004), which he completed after learning that he and fellow animation pioneer Jacques Drouin would both be laid off just short of retirement, victims of budget cuts and the NFB's move toward hiring filmmakers on contract, rather than supporting full-time, permanent staff.
Hoedeman now acts as an independent filmmaker and consultant working on several projects, including the production of an animated TV series based on his Ludovic films.
Hoedeman is the subject of two documentary films: Nico Crama's Co Hoedeman, Animator (1980) [9] and In the Animator's Eye: A Conjurer's Tales - Co Hoedeman (1996). [10]
The National Film Board of Canada is a Canadian 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.
Lorenzo is an American animated short film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation about a cat, Lorenzo, who is "dismayed to discover that his tail has developed a personality of its own". The short was directed by Mike Gabriel and produced by Baker Bloodworth. It premiered at the Florida Film Festival on March 6, 2004, and later appeared as a feature before the film Raising Helen, but it did not appear on the DVD release of the film. It is based on an original idea by Joe Grant, who started working on the film in 1949, but it was eventually shelved. It was later found along with Destino. The short was intended to be one of the segments for the proposed but ultimately abandoned Fantasia 2006. It was included on the Walt Disney Animation Studios Short Films Collection Blu-ray/DVD set released on August 18, 2015.
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.
Sand animation is the manipulation of sand in real time to create animation. In the performance art, an artist creates a series of images using sand, a process which is achieved by applying sand to a surface and then rendering images by drawing lines and figures in the sand with one's hands. A sand animation performer will often use the aid of an overhead projector or lightbox. To make an animated film, sand is moved on a backlit or frontlit piece of glass to create each frame.
Pannonia Film Studio was the largest animation studio in Hungary, based in the capital of Budapest. It was formed in 1951, becoming independent in 1957. The studio is said to have closed sometime around 2015.
Marie-Josée Saint-Pierre, born in Murdochville in 1978, is a Quebec director and producer of animated films. She is an associate professor at Université Laval, a theorist, and an author on women's animation cinema.
Jean-François Laguionie is a French animator, film director and producer.
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.
The Big Cartoon DataBase was an online database of information about animated cartoons, animated feature films, animated television shows, and cartoon shorts.
Events in 1940 in animation.
Events in 1979 in animation.
The Owl Who Married a Goose: An Eskimo Legend is a 1974 Canadian animated short from Caroline Leaf, produced by the National Film Board of Canada and the Canadian Department of Indian and Northern Affairs.
Events in 1947 in animation.
Events in 1946 in animation.
Events in 1945 in animation.
Events in 1944 in animation.
Events in 1942 in animation.
Ludovic: The Snow Gift is a Canadian animated short film, directed by Co Hoedeman and released in 1998. The film centres on Ludovic, a baby teddy bear who finds solace in a dancing and singing doll, after his father forbids him from going tobogganing because he's too little. Inspired by Hoedeman's own childhood teddy bear, the film was animated primarily through stop motion animation of puppets.
Events in 1938 in animation.
Events in 1936 in animation.
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