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Norman McLaren, of the word’s great artists in any medium, made films for the National Film Board of Canada for over three decades. During that time he created an astounding body of work, equal to that of any modern artist, and his exploration and inventions in animation transformed that art form. Claude Jutra called him "an omniscient, at the cross-roads of art, science, technique and feeling. His work is total creation". Norman McLaren considered Neighbours to be his best work: "If all my films were to be burnt but one, I would want Neighbours to be saved".
This powerful film parable shows the futility of violence for settling quarrels. The story concerns two men who live tolerantly beside each other until one day a flower emerges on the borderline between their properties. At first they share the beauty of the flower, but when each desires the flower for himself a violent struggle begins. The unrestrained savagery gains shattering force through McLaren’s use of the pixilation technique. McLaren on the genesis of the film" I had been animating small objects rather than a series of drawings… And it struck me, why not push around a human being, or direct him to move himself stage by stage, and film it frame by frame. That would treat a human being as animatable material. Subconsciously, the idea linked with my great desire to do an anti-war film, and Neighbours was an elaboration of that."
Credits:
Director: Norman McLaren
Producer: Norman McLaren
Production Company: National Film Board of
Canada
Length: 8 minutes
Year of Production: 1952
Music: Norman McLaren
Photography: Wolf Koening
Sound: Clarke Daprato
Cast: Grant Munro, Jean-Paul Ladouceur
Awards:
Academy Award 1953 for Best Documentary/Short Subjects
Received nine other awards.
Holdings:
The National Film Board of Canada holds the original 16mm colour reversal film and a number of 16mm and 35mm printing elements copied from the original.
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