Taratata + All Nothing + Crac! + The Man Who Planted Trees
This screening pays tribute to one of the greatest artists of animation cinema, the Quebecois painter and filmmaker Frédéric Back, who would have celebrated his 100th birthday on April 8, 2024. Poetic, tender, impressionistic, and an early ambassador for the environmental cause, Frédéric Back's cinema continues to amaze and move audiences. The four films presented, all preserved in our collections, reflect the scope of his talent and inventiveness.
These films are preserved in our collections
For a little boy and his dog, the National Day Parade is reduced to a wall of adults blocking their view. But when it's all over, the little boy sits down in the empty street and his imagination invents and recreates a celebration where love and tenderness are the stars.
An allegory illustrating man's desire to monopolize all the riches and beauty of nature. (Frédéric Back)
The rocking chair sets the pace for the entire life of a Quebec family. When the city invades the countryside, the family becomes smaller and the chair no longer occupies center stage. Unless the janitor of the Museum of Modern Art has retained his taste for rocking...
In a dry valley, a man plants trees one by one to bring nature back to life. Wax crayons animation on frosted acetate.
Frédéric Back
Born in 1924 in the Saarland, a German territory under France administration at the time, Frédéric Back grew up surrounded by a musician father and an artist mother. He studied drawing at a young age and later attended art school. He began his career as a painter before moving to Montreal in 1948, where he taught at l'École du meuble and the School of Fine Arts. In 1968, he joined Radio-Canada's animation studio. There, he created ten short films that would showcase his talent and earn him international acclaim. With Crac and The Man Who Planted Trees, he won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film twice. Throughout his life and in his films, he was always involved in ecological projects and made sure to raise awareness about environmental issues.
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Frédéric Back: The Legacy of a Pioneer at Radio-Canada
Let's pay tribute to the artist Frédéric Back. The work of this exceptional illustrator and filmmaker is intimately linked to the history of Radio-Canada. [Their] archives allow us to trace his career under three main aspects: the television pioneer, the master of animation, and the committed artist.
