Animator

(b. January 1, 1937 Montreal, Quebec - d. June 24, 2002)

Bernard Longpré was an innovative animator who utilized a wide range of techniques, including pixilation in Monsieur Pointu (1975), optical printing in L’Evasion des carrousels (1968), line drawings in Tête en fleurs (1969) and computer animation in Test 0558 (1965). He also directed the direct cinema documentary En février (1966) and contributed to the establishment of the National Film Board’s French animation unit in 1966.

He joined the NFB in 1957 following studies in graphic art, and started out contributing animation to educational films. He won numerous awards at international film festivals, a Canadian Film Award in 1967 for Dimensions (1966), and received an Academy Award® nomination for Best Animated Short Film for Monsieur Pointu.

Film and video work includes

An Introduction to Jet Engines, 1959 (co-animator with Kenneth Horn)
Bandwidth, 1960 (animator)
Four-line Conics, 1961 (animator)
Fundamentals of Fish Spoilage, 1962 (animator)
An Introduction to NUTMEG, 1963 (co-animator with Alice Lemire)
IFF Mark 10: Selective Identification Feature, 1963 (co-animator with Alice Lemire, René Jodoin)
The Ball Resolver in Antac, 1964 (director)
Country Auction, 1964 (cinematographer)
Test 0558, 1965 (director; animator)
Glaciation, 1965 (animator)
Dimensions, 1966 (director; editor)
En février, 1966 (director; producer)
L'Évasion des carrousels, 1968 (director; writer; editor)
Tête en fleurs, 1969 (director; animator)
Dimension soleils, 1970 (co-director with Raymond Brousseau; co-animator with Raymond Brousseau)
Nébule, 1973 (director)
Branch et Branch, 1974 (director; writer)
Contes de la mère loi sur cinéma, 1975 (co-director with Francine Desbiens, André
Leduc, Claude Jobin, et al.)
L'Invasion (1775-1975), 1976 (animator)
Les Naufragés du quartier/One Way Street, 1980 (director)
La Solution, 1985 (co-director with André Leduc)
Itinerary/Itinéraire, 1987 (director)
Felicity/Félicité, 1989 (director)

By: Tom McSorley