Canadian Animation - Imprints by Jacques Drouin

NFB Screens Short Online Film Featuring Rare Pinscreen Animation

Nov 15, 2009

The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) offers many Canadian streaming movies online such as the works of pinscreen animator Jacques Drouin.

Jacques Drouin's revisits the spiritual landscape of his artistic mind through Imprints, his latest short animated film produced in 2004. This short is reminiscent of his earlier work, Mindscape, which also explored the relationship between the artist and his beloved medium, the pinscreen animation.

In the opening shot, Jacques Drouin enters the scene and carves out a chalk silhouette portrait of the artist's mind onto the back of his pinscreen. He twirls the screen around and, from there, composes a symphony of evolving images that twist and turn among a series of glowing nebulous clouds accompanied by fierce golden flames symbolizing the of the artistic spirit.

The image of spiraling sea shells combined with the golden flames speaks to the roots of the artist's drive and passion for creation; close-up shots reveal pixel-like needle points with screeching metallic sound effects that communicate the hard, unrelenting power this medium has held over its creator over the past thirty years.

After encountering the first pinscreen animation at the National Film Board of Canada almost thirty years ago, Jacques Drouin has once again shown himself to be the master of his craft and the divinity from which his art has sprung forth.

What is Pinscreen Animation?

Pinscreen animation is an extremely time consuming and challenging form of animation involving a white screen consisting of thousands of pins whose length can be altered in order to cast varying degrees of shadows. These shadows render the white screen light or darker, thereby allowing the animator to create still images to be photographed in sequence for animation.

The pinscreen technique was developed by Alexandre Alexeieff and his wife Claire Parker. The couple was a frequent guest of the National Film Board of Canada and demonstrated this technique on August 7th, 1972.

Jacques Drouin - Writer, Director and Animator

Jacques Drouin was born in Mont-Joli, Quebec, Canada. Drouin studied art at the Ecole des beaux-arts in Montreal before leaving for UCLA, California to study filmmaking. During an animation exhibition in the late 60s, Drouin encountered pinscreen animation - an animation technique he has remained faithful to until this day. Drouin has also continued to produce short films for the National Film Board of Canada since he joined as an apprentice in the early 70s.

Films by Jacques Drouin

National Film Board of Canada Online Streams Animation Free

The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) is proudly celebrating its 70th birthday by joining the next frontier in Canadian broadcasting – the Internet. The NFB has opened up its treasure chest of old favourites and forgotten classics for free online viewing. Canadians can also view new releases and subscribe to the NFB newsletter, RSS feed and blog. This site is funded in part by Heritage Canada’s Canadian Culture Online.

The copyright of the article Canadian Animation - Imprints by Jacques Drouin in International Animated Films is owned by Michael Falcone. Permission to republish Canadian Animation - Imprints by Jacques Drouin in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.