Abracadabra, a first film

Since 1965, one of my regular assignments at Radio-Canada had been Quebec School Telecast, a program for teaching French to English-speaking children, produced by Leonard Weinstein. My work on the program was interrupted by the series on D’Iberville and my brief stint at Télé-Québec, but once back at Radio-Canada I returned to the series, which now had an animation camera, camera operator and editor to help with the work. Other programs, such as Médicaments psychotropes and Jazz pour Dieu, led to more team productions. In 1969, Hubert Tison submitted a proposal for an international exchange of animated films for young audiences to the head of Radio-Canada’s youth programming. His idea was accepted. Graeme Ross, Daniel Méry and I dashed off a script for Abracadabra, which we made in a mere 3½ months using a technique Ross knew well. The film was immediately accepted for the international exchange and the 1970 Annecy Festival. Also that year, for Quebec School Telecast, I did L’ours and la loutre, opening sequences and programs including the opening for Bagatelle, and some animated scenic effects. In 1971, Radio-Canada was very late making up its mind to take part in the exchange, which left me only two months to adapt and animate the drawings for an Algonquin legend I had already done for Quebec School Telecast.

Abracadabra (Filmmaker section)
L'ours et la loutre (Illustrator section)
Bagatelle (Illustrator section)
Inon or the Conquest of Fire (Filmmaker section)