When Stirling-born Norman McLaren moved to Glasgow in the 1930s to study set design at the city’s College of Art it marked the start of a highly accomplished career in film making.
His lecturers encouraged him to pursue his interests in the moving image, but a lack of equipment led him to experiment in painting ink onto film. His inventiveness flourished and, after winning a local film competition, documentary pioneer John Grierson offered him a post with the General Post Office (GPO) Film Unit.
Shortly afterwards he worked as a cameraman capturing events in the Spanish Civil War and he finished the decade in New York, working as a film producer and furthering his techniques of scratching and painting directly onto filmstrips.
McLaren was offered a chance to work for the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) in 1941 and he established their animation studio the following year. He worked almost exclusively in Canada for the remainder of his life, collaborating with many renowned musicians on his experimental animation, including jazz great Oscar Peterson and sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankhar.
McLaren received hundreds of prizes during his lifetime, most notably Best Documentary (Short Subject) Oscar for ‘Neighbours’ in 1953 and the Palme d’Or for ‘Blinkity Blank’ at the 1955 Cannes Film Festival. He died in 1987 and the NFB offices were renamed the Norman McLaren Building in his honour.
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National Film Board of Canada
Canadian Film Encyclopedia
Commemorative plaques
Celebrating people from all walks of life who have contributed to Scotland’s history.
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