Festival Preview: McLaren 2014

McLaren 2014 celebrates the genius of one of Scotland's most talented but underappreciated filmmakers, Norman McLaren

Feature by News Team | 08 Apr 2014

This year marks the centenary of Scottish animator Norman McLaren. Despite being a pioneer in his field, influencing major artists, musicians and filmmakers, from Picasso and Truffaut to Michel Gondry and Björk, his genius hasn’t received adequate celebration in the country of his birth. “He's one of the most famous Scottish artists who is relatively unknown in his home country!” says fellow animator Iain Gardner, the artistic director of McLaren 2014, a major festival that hopes to right this wrong and put McLaren’s name on the lips of film fans across Scotland.

Over the coming months McLaren 2014, a collaboration between Edinburgh’s Centre for the Moving Image, the National Film Board of Canada and the Glasgow 2014 Cultural Programme, celebrates the Stirling-born filmmaker with a wide-ranging programme of screenings and events. “His centenary in 2014 is the perfect time for Scotland to get to know Norman McLaren, his work and his legacy,” says Ken Hay, the Centre for the Moving Image CEO.

The celebrations begin tonight (8 Apr) on BBC2 with documentary Norman McLaren: Boogie Doodler, which charts McLaren's film-making career from his days at Glasgow School of Art through to the award-winning films he made with the National Film Board of Canada.

On Friday (11 Apr), a special programme of McLaren shorts screens at the Macrobert Arts Centre in Stirling – included in the bill are A Chairy Tale (1957), Blinkity Blank (1955) and the Oscar-winning Neighbours (1952). This programme then goes on tour around the UK, visiting eleven other cities and towns, from Bristol to Stromness.

Before the Stirling screening, a commemorative plaque will be unveiled by Historic Scotland in Stirling’s Albert Square, while across at the CCA in Glasgow, Screen Art unearth Gavin Millar’s classic BBC McLaren doc The Eye Hears, The Ear Sees, Norman McLaren, from 1970.

As well as learning about the man and watching his films, there are opportunities to study his craft. Along with the touring film programmer, there’s also a McLaren Digital Animation Workshop, which gives McLaren fans an opportunity to learn his techniques and the fundamentals of animation. A professional animation teacher will introduce you to McLaren's practice and help you create your own short animation film, using the McLaren's Workshop iPad App, which was developed and created by the National Film Board of Canada. Every film will be uploaded online and accessible on our website and Vimeo channel.

Another highlight of McLaren 2014 is Hand-made Cinema, an exhibition that showcases, according to its website, the filmmaker’s ‘fluid – almost alchemical – creative process’ and focuses in on his ‘abstract films and the physical materials that made them possible, while also referencing his early surrealist influences.’ Hand-made Cinema runs 31 May to 5 July at Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh.

McLaren 2014 is the perfect opportunity to familiarise yourself with the work of this overlooked filmmaker and experience the enduring power of his witty and inventive cinema. For full details of the festivities, go to www.mclaren2014.com.

Website: www.mclaren2014.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/mclaren2014

Twitter: @Mclaren2014