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Craig Welch masterclass: his films and influences

Saturday August 25 5pm

Craig Welch came to animation through the world of graphic design. He also ran a bookstore but got fed up. He is the acclaimed award winning Canadian Director of animated shorts “How wings are attached to angels” and “Welcome to Kentucky”, amongst others, in addition to making films in the commercial world. His films are like visual poems, hand rendered in black and white drawings. Slow drifts through surreal landscapes prompt the audience to write their own scenarios. Visuals and soundtrack collude in a disquieting partnership.

Based at the National Film Board of Canada, Craig will present a session of films that have influenced his work and talk about his own films.

Our thanks are due to the generosity of the Quebec Government Office, London for helping to bring Craig to London.

A Little Phantasy on a 19th Century painting
Norman McLaren, Canada, 1946, 3’37
The spectral island wakes to mysterious life, flickers in an ethereal light and fades again into the dark.

The Street
Caroline Leaf, Canada, 1976, 10’00
Academy award nominated film. A stunning paint-on-glass adaptation of a short story by Mordecai Richler about his memories of growing up in Montreal's Jewish community.

Why Me
Janet Perlman, Derek Lamb, Canada, 1978, 9’22
The reactions of one individual whose doctor has just told him that he has only a short time to live.


How Wings are attached to the Backs of Angels
Craig Welch, Canada, 1996, 11’05
A surreal exposition where a man’s intricate gadgets manipulate yet insulate, as his science dissects and reduces. How exactly are wings attached to the back of angels?

No Problem
Craig Welch, Canada, 1992, 12’40
A bachelor is facing yet another lonely, rain-sodden Saturday. His psyche is not in the best of shape and he has reached "Zolga," the last entry in his little black book.

Welcome to Kentucky
Craig Welch, Canada, 2004, 11’53
This visual poem invites viewers to lose themselves in its singular beauty. Interior road map? Voyage into nostalgia? Or tragedy in the making?

Walls
Piotr Dumala, Poland, 1987, 8’00
Steeped in the worlds of Kafka, Dostoevsky and existentialism where we find darkness, emptiness, and lloneliness;

Two Castles
Bruno Bozzetto, Italy, 1963, 4’00
A single background stands as the setting for the activities of the quarrelsome occupants of two neighbouring castles.

Primiti Too Taa
Ed Ackerman, Colin Morton, Canada, 1988, 3’00
Completely animated on a Remington typewriter, following in the poetic footsteps of Kurt Schwitters and the animated trail of Norman McLaren.