Martine Chartrand

Last updated

Martine Chartrand (born 1962) is a Haitian Canadian filmmaker, visual artist and teacher. She practices a paint-on-glass animation technique to create her films. [1] Throughout Chartrand's career, she has been involved with numerous films and has made three animated shorts which have been exhibited across Canada and internationally. [2] Her films often deal with social and cultural issues relating to Black culture and Black history.

Contents

Biography

Early years

Born in 1962, Chartrand was adopted and raised in Montreal, Quebec. She graduated from Concordia University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1986 and earned a certificate in Arts Education at UQAM in 1988. After graduating she began making a living by creating poster graphics and giving workshops in exhibitions across Canada and Europe. Before becoming involved in animation, Chartrand worked as a painter and illustrator. [3] In 1986, Chartrand became working as a layout and colour artist. She joined the National Film Board officially as a colour artist, assisting Pierre M. Trudeau during the shooting of Enfantillages (1990). She then collaborated on Jours de plaine (1990), co-directed by Réal Bérard and André Leduc.

Professional career

Additionally, Chartrand is in high demand as a lecturer for conferences, master classes, and art workshops worldwide. She guides artists and shares the techniques and craft involved in creating paint-on-glass animation. [3]

Film career

In 1992, Chartrand directed her first animated film for the NFB T.V. Tango. A short designed to encourage children to be critical of televised advertising messages and help them understand what they're seeing. [4]

In 1994, Chartrand was given advanced courses in paint-on-glass animation by Alexander Petrov. A painstaking process which involves years of painting thousands of paintings and filming them frame by frame to create a fluid motion. [2]

Produced by the National Film Board of Canada, Black Soul (French: Âme noire) is an animated short directed and written by Martine Chartrand. It is the story of a young boy who explores his cultural heritage through the stories of his grandmother. An emotionally rich and vibrant piece which employs painted glass frames shot with a 35mm camera. Its soundtrack features traditional African rhythms, gospel music by Ranee Lee and a composition by jazz pianist Oliver Jones. Among its achievements, Black Soul won the Golden Bear for Best Short Film at the 51st Berlin International Film Festival. [3]

For 8 years, Chartrand worked steadily on her next film MacPherson. Inspired by a song by famed French-Canadian singer-songwriter Félix Leclerc, MacPherson is a poetic film which combines Quebec folk music with vivid painted imagery. [5]

Chartrand is the subject of the documentary Finding Macpherson (2014), directed by Serge Giguère, which follows the artistic processes she undertook in order to create her short film MacPherson (2012). It also draws parallels between Chartrand and Frank Randolph Macpherson, as she traces her Haitian heritage through the film. [6]

Artistic style

Paint-on-glass animation style involves the manipulation of wet media to create animated films. The artist's paints are moved around the glass which is placed directly under a camera. When filmed frame-by-frame, the images blend and give the illusion of merging and melting into each successive frame. The end result is a fluid sense of movement which creates a painterly effect. [7]

Filmography

Short films

YearTitleRole
1992T.V. TangoDirector, Writer, Animator
2000 Black Soul Director, Writer, Animator, Cinematographer
2012 Macpherson Director, Writer, Animator, Cinematographer

Awards

Related Research Articles

National Film Board of Canada Canadas 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.

Drawn-on-film animation Animation technique

Drawn-on-film animation, also known as direct animation or animation without camera, is an animation technique where footage is produced by creating the images directly on film stock, as opposed to any other form of animation where the images or objects are photographed frame by frame with an animation camera.

<i>Ryan</i> (film) 2004 Canadian film

Ryan is a 2004 short animated documentary film created and directed by Chris Landreth about Canadian animator Ryan Larkin, who had lived on skid row in Montreal as a result of drug and alcohol abuse. Landreth's chance meeting with Larkin in 2000 inspired him to develop the film, which took 18 months to complete. It was co-produced by Copper Heart Entertainment and the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), and its creation and development is the subject of the NFB documentary Alter Egos. The film incorporated material from archive sources, particularly Larkin's works at the NFB.

Caroline Leaf is a Canadian-American filmmaker, animator, director, producer, and tutor. 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 and is a tutor at The National Film and Television School.

Sand animation Manipulation of sand to create animation

Sand animation is the manipulation of sand to create animation. In 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.

Ryan Larkin

Ryan Larkin was a Canadian animator, artist, and sculptor who rose to fame with the psychedelic Oscar-nominated short Walking (1968) and the acclaimed Street Musique (1972). He was the subject of the Oscar-winning film Ryan.

Michèle Cournoyer is a Canadian animator who on 1 March 2017 received a Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts for her body of work.

<i>The Danish Poet</i> 2006 Norwegian film

The Danish Poet is a 2006 animated short film written, directed, and animated by Torill Kove and narrated by Liv Ullmann. A co-production of the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) and Mikrofilm AS of Norway, it has won both the Academy Award and Genie Award for best animated short film.

<i>Madame Tutli-Putli</i> 2007 Canadian film

Madame Tutli-Putli is a 2007 stop motion-animated short film by Montreal filmmakers Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski, collectively known as Clyde Henry Productions, and produced by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). It is available on the Cinema16: World Short Films DVD and from the NFB.

Black Soul is a 2002 animated short by Haitian Canadian filmmaker Martine Chartrand that uses paint-on-glass animation and music to portray defining moments of Black history.

Theodore Ushev Bulgarian-Canadian animator and artist

Theodore Asenov Ushev is a Bulgarian animator, graphic designer, illustrator and multimedia artist in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He is best known for his work at the National Film Board of Canada, including the 2016 Oscar-nominated Blind Vaysha. Chevalier (knight) of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France.

When the Day Breaks is a Canadian animated short co-directed by Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis and featuring the voice of Canadian singer-songwriter Martha Wainwright singing the titular song.

<i>Hunger</i> (1973 film) 1973 animated short film

Hunger/La Faim is a 1973 animated short film produced by the National Film Board of Canada. It was directed by Peter Foldes and is one of the first computer animation films. The story, told without words, is a morality tale about greed and gluttony in contemporary society.

The Street is a 1976 animated short by Caroline Leaf, based on a short story of the same name by Mordecai Richler, and produced by the National Film Board of Canada.

Janet Perlman 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.

Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis are a Canadian animation duo. On January 24, 2012, they received their second Oscar nomination, for the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) animated short film, Wild Life. In addition to writing and directing the film, Forbis and Tilby drew and painted every animation frame in gouache, and wrote the lyrics for the film's final song. They were only able to work on Wild Life part-time, due to commercial obligations, and the film is reported to have taken them from six to over seven years, from concept to completion.

<i>The Tesla World Light</i> 2017 Canadian film

The Tesla World Light is an 8-minute 2017 black and white avant-garde film by Montreal director Matthew Rankin imagining the latter days of inventor Nikola Tesla in 1905 in New York City. Rankin has stated that he was interested in exploring Tesla's optimistic utopian vision. The film is a fanciful amalgamation of elements from Tesla's life including his 1905 pleadings for J.P. Morgan to continue funding his World Wireless System and his love for a pigeon. Rankin has stated that "everything in the film is drawn from something [Tesla] wrote or said." The film uses excerpts of Tesla's actual letters to Morgan, which the filmmaker found in the Library of Congress; even a reference to Tesla falling in love with an "electric pigeon" was based on an interview with Tesla, according to Rankin. The film is produced by Julie Roy for the National Film Board of Canada.

<i>The Metamorphosis of Mr. Samsa</i> 1977 Canadian short animated fantasy film

The Metamorphosis of Mr. Samsa is a 1977 Canadian short animated fantasy film by Caroline Leaf, adapted from Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis, told through the animation of beach sand on a piece of glass. The film features music by Normand Roger and sound by Michel Descombes. The film earned ten awards from the year of its release in 1977 through to 1981 as it was screened at various film festivals around the world.

Interview is a 1979 Canadian short live-action animated documentary film directed by Caroline Leaf and Veronika Soul, produced by David Verrall. The film is a record of a working day in the lives of two women filmmakers, sometimes described as "an autobiographical collaboration", though both filmmakers are discussing the other woman. The film is also seen as a study of female friendship, the women relating their perceptions of each other through their respective animation techniques, "each creating a visual portrait of the other based on characteristic gestures and impressions."

Missed Aches is a 2009 16mm short 2D animated film directed, produced and animated by Joanna Priestley. It was narrated by Taylor Mali and is based on his poem “The Impotence of Proofreading”, with sound design by Normand Roger and Pierre Yves Drapeau, music by Pierre Yves Drapeau with Denis Chartrand and Normand Roger, text animation by Brian Kinkley, character design and animation by Don Flores and storyboards by Dan Schaeffer.

References

  1. ↑ Cassivi, Marc (23 August 2012). "Martine's quest". La Press. Retrieved 5 February 2018.
  2. 1 2 Forte, Sandro (15 April 2016). "The Gentle Leader (The Work of Martine Chartrand)". Cinetalk.net. Retrieved 11 February 2018.
  3. 1 2 3 Parris, Amanda (17 February 2017). "7 African-Canadian female filmmakers you need to know". CBCNews. Retrieved 5 February 2018.
  4. ↑ "MARTINE CHARTRAND". Travelling Caribbean Film Showcase. Muestra Itinerante de Cine del Caribe. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
  5. ↑ Cassivi, Marc (23 August 2012). "Martine's quest". La Press. Retrieved 13 February 2018.
  6. ↑ Mullen, Patrick (23 April 2015). "Hot Docs 2015: Character Studies: Artists and eccentrics populate the 2015 festival". Point Of View Magazine. Retrieved 11 February 2018.
  7. ↑ McSorley, Tom (2001). "Short takes: Black Soul". Take One: Film & Television in Canada. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
  8. ↑ "NFB - Collection - T.V. Tango" . Retrieved 12 February 2018.
  9. ↑ "NFB - Collection - Black Soul" . Retrieved 12 February 2018.
  10. ↑ "NFB - Collection - MacPherson" . Retrieved 12 February 2018.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.