Caroline Leaf – Handcrafted Animation, Paintings & Drawings

Filmography

title & year	running time	participation & producer

SAND OR PETER AND THE WOLF animation 1969	9:59	director/animator/designer producer: Harvard University
two clips for CHILDREN’S TV animation 1971-72	1:00	designer/animator/designer producer: Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood
ORFEO animation 1970	11:00	director/animator/designer producer: Harvard University
HOW BEAVER STOLE FIRE animation 1971	12:00	designer/animator/designer producer: Communico Inc.
THE OWL WHO MARRIED A GOOSE animation 1974	7:30	director/animator/designer producer: National Film Board of Canada
THE STREET animation 1976	10:04	director/animator/designer producer: National Film Board of Canada
METAMORPHOSIS OF MR SAMSA animation 1977	9:32	director/animator/designer producer: National Film Board of Canada
intro for TV PROGRAM animation 1978	1:00	designer/animator/designer Media Probes, Inc. NYC
INTERVIEW animation 1979	13:21	codirector/animator/designer producer: National Film Board of Canada
KATE AND ANNA MCGARRIGLE documentary 1981	30:00	director/co-editor producer: National Film Board of Canada
THE RIGHT TO REFUSE? drama 1981	13:00	co-writer/co-producer producer: National Film Board of Canada
AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY drama 1982	13:00	director/co-writer producer: National Film Board of Canada
PIES animation1983	12:00	producer producer: National Film Board of Canada
WAR SERIES TITLE animation 1983	1:00	co-director producer: National Film Board of Canada
THE OWL AND THE PUSSYCAT drama and animation 1985	4:00	designer/director/producer Canada Council grant
THE FOX AND THE TIGER drama 1986	4:41	director/designer producer: National Film Board of Canada
A DOG’S TALE drama 1986	3:58	director/designer producer: National Film Board of Canada
PARADISE FOUND animation commercial 1988	0:20	director/animator/designer producer: Noyes & Layboune agency Saatchi&Saatchi DFS Compton Inc.
TWO SISTERS/ ENTRE DEUX SOEURS animation 1990	10:26	director/writer/animator/ designer producer: National Film Board of Canada
I MET A MAN mtv artbreak animation 1991	0:51	director/animator/designer producer: MTV New York
BELL PARTOUT animation commercial 1993	0:27	animator producer: La Fabrique d’Images
FLEAY’S FAUNA CENTRE animation 1994	0:30	director/animator/designer producer: Queensland Dept of Environment & Heritage
BRAIN BATTLE animation commercial 1995	0:30	director/animator producer: Acme Filmworks agency: RM&D Advertising
RADIO ROCK DETENTE animation commercial 1995	0:30	director/animator producer: Les Productions Pascal Blais, agency: Olive Communications
DRAPEAU CANADA animation 1996	0:10	director/animator/designer producer: Les Productions Pascal Blais, client Benson & Hedges
ABSOLUT LEAF animation 1998	0:10	director/animator/designer producer: SwellProductions client: V&S Vin&Sprit Aktiebolag AbsolutVodka on web: absolutvodka.com
ODYSSEUS & OLIVE TREE animation 2001	1:15	animator/designer producer: National Film Board of Canada
SLAVERY animation 2004	4:26	animator/designer/director producer: Acme Filmworks Inc.,client: Nat'l Underground Railroad Freedom Center

Filmography in Detail

Sand or Peter and the Wolf
is a loose interpretation of the fable Peter and the Wolf, in which a boy's fear of the dark, the woods, and the wolf, is contronted and resolved. The film shows the extraordinary graphic possibilities of one of nature's most ordinary substances, sand. In Leaf's hands, sand becomes a subtle medium of expression. The film marks the start of Leaf's technique of under-the-camera animation, which she developes in subsequent films. Michael Riesman wrote the score.

AWARDS:

5th Annual Chicago International Film Festival, 1968
Special Jury Prize for Animation Silver Hugo
1st prize Animation Student Category

Annecy International Animation Festival, Annecy, France, 1969
in competition screening

National Endowment for the Arts Short Film Showcase, Washington D.C.,
1974 nomination for inclusion

US Industrial Film Festival, 1971
Cine Golden Eagle

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The Owl Who Married a Goose
CLICK HERE to watch this film at the NFB website.
is an adaptation of an Inuit legend about an owl who falls in love with a goose, and is overwhelmed by the events that follow. Clearly, to the Inuit, the foolish owl has broken an important rule of the North: don't try to be something other than what you are. Survival depends upon following closely the rules of nature. The story is told with sand animation. Old Inuit women who remember mimicking animal sounds to help with the hunting have made the soundtrack of voices and effects.

AWARDS:

10th Annecy International Animation Festival, Annecy, France, 1975
Prix Special ‘Emile Renaud’

Canadian Film Awards, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, 1975
Etrog for Best Animated Film

British Academy of Film and TV Arts, London, England, 1976
Nomination for outstanding achievement during 1975

25th Melbourne Film Festival, Melbourne, Australia, 1976
Third Prize, Silver Boomerang, Victorian Government Prize

First Philip Morris International Animation Festival, Melbourne, Sydney, Australia, 1976

First Prize Ottawa International Animation Festival, Ottawa, 1976
First Prize in the category ‘Films for Children’

Information Film Producers’ Association Convention (IFPA), Hollywood, Cal. 1976 Silver Award

Cindy Competition, Hollywood, California, 1976
Silver Cindy Award (2nd place), Language Arts Category

19th Annual American Film Festival, New York, N.Y., 1977
Red Ribbon Award, Language Arts Category

2nd International Short Film Festival, Linz, Austria, 1977 First Prize

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The Street
CLICK HERE to watch this film at the NFB website.
is an adaptation of a short story by Mordecai Richler about his memories of growing up in Montreal's Jewish community. A family living in a small apartment deals with caring for their sick and dying grandmother. Her grandson is eager to take over her bedroom after she dies. He is waiting for her room. The story deals with the stress and the love that the situation creates for the family. The animation technique is paint on glass under the camera. The film has won many awards, including an Oscar nomination in 1977.

AWARDS:

Ottawa International Animation Festival, Ottawa, 1976 Grand Prix of the Festival

12th International Film Festival, Chicago, Illinois 1976 Gold Hugo

Norman McLaren Award (given to the best film in the international short subject category which employs unusual animation or innovative film techniques)

Canadian Film Awards, Toronto, Ontario, 1976 Etrog for Best Animated Film

International Film Festival, San Francisco, California, 1976
Certificate for outstanding achievement, Short Film Division

19th Annual American Film Festival, New York, N.Y., 1977
Blue Ribbon Award, Language Arts Category

Cork Film International, Cork, Ireland, 1977
Bronze Statuette of St. Finbarr (1st Prize) Animated Films Category

25th Melbourne Film Festival, Melbourne, Australia, 1977
Special Prize

Film Council of Greater Columbus International Film Festival, Ohio, 1977
Chris Bronze Plaque

49th Annual Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Hollywood, California, 1977
Oscar Nomination in Short Film category

12th Tehran International Festival of Films for Children and Young Adults, Tehran, Iran, 1977
Special Award given by the Ministry of Culture and Arts

First Annual High Plains Film Festival, Texas Tech U., Lubbock, 1977
First Prize

International Animation Film Festival, Espinho, Portugal, 1977
Silver Dolphins for Best Film between 3 -11 minutes

International Festival of Short and Documentary Films, Lille, France, 1977
Special Jury Mention

6th International Short Film Festival, Huesca, Spain, 1978
‘Recreational Club Pena Zoiti’ Award for Best Animation Film

First Annual AMER film Awards, Dubuque, Iowa, 1979
Amer Golden Eye Award, Judaism Category

American Occupational Therapy Assoc. Film Awards, San Antonio, Texas, 1981
Special Recognition

Learning Magazine, Palo Alto, California, 1982
Learning A-V Award

2nd Best Film of All Time in the World, chosen by the Olympiad of Animation, Los Angeles, 1984. Sponsored by International Animated Film Association and the LA Olympic Organizing Committee

North Carolina International Film and Video Festival, Fayetteville, N.C., 1991

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The Metamorphosis of Mr.Samsa
is an adaptation of Franz Kafka's story about a man who metamorphoses into a beetle. Because of his repellant appearance, the man, a dutiful and loving son and brother, is unable to communicate to his family his feelings of shame and guilt and his need for love. The film conveys the atmosphere of anxiety and alienation that Kafka creates in his story. The story is told with sand animation. The film has won the Grand Prix at the XV International Festival of Short Films in Cracow, Poland.

AWARDS:

11th Annecy International Animation Festival, Annecy, France 1977
Critics’ Prize and 1st choice of the public

International Film Festival, Athens, Ohio, 1978
Merit Award

15th International Festival of Short Films, Cracow, Poland, 1978
Grand Prix of the Festival

Cork Film Festival, Cork, Ireland, 1978
Certificate of Merit, Animated Films Category

International Animation Festival Ottawa ‘78, Ottawa, 1978
Special Jury Award

22nd Annual San Francisco International Film Festival, SF, Cal., 1978
Certificate for Outstanding Achievement

4th International Film Festival, Hong Kong, 1980
Certificate for an Outstanding Film

28th Annual International Film Festival, Columbus, Ohio, 1980
Honorable Mention, Art and Culture Category

Hemisfilm ‘81, San Antonio, Texas, 1981
Best animation film

National Endowment for the Arts Short Film Showcase, Washington D.C., 1981

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Interview
is the record of a working day in the lives of two women filmmakers, Caroline Leaf and Veronika Soul. They are seen as friends, as filmmakers, and as individuals whose personalities are contrasted by the things they say of themselves and each other, and by the different animation techniques they use to portray themselves.

AWARDS:

World Film Festival, Montreal, Quebec, 1979
Jury Award for Best Short Film

First World Animated Film Festival, Varna ‘79, Varna, Bulgaria, 1979
First Prize, 5-15 minute category

29the Film Festival, Melbourne, Australia, 1980
Grand Prix/Golden Boomerang/Victorian Government Prize

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The Owl and the Pussycat
is a live action puppet film. The owl and pussycat are actors in costume, and backgrounds are rear screen projection. The sound is the lyrics of Edward Lear'swell known nonsense poem which Stravinsky put to music as a birthday gift to his wife, and here is sung by Joan Sutherland. The film was made with a grant from the Canada Council

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The Fox and the Tiger
is a live action puppet film, based on an ages old literary form, the parable.
The two characters are a boastful tiger, who claims he is king of the jungle, and a fox who outwits him. The lesson of the story is that false pride is a balloon easily pricked.

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A Dogs Tale
is a version of an age old verbal teaching tool, the parable. Traditionally an oral form of storytelling used to transmit moral insights, the parable concisely expresses a human dilemma with a surprise twist at the end.The narrator in this film is a streetwise dog who observes the social life of a Mexican market from its underside. He tells a story about a prosperous merchant in the market who was once also out on the street and who was refused a street sweeper's job because he could not read or write. The dog's point is that ingenuity and motivation can be as important to success as more conventionally measured qualifications.

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Two Sisters
CLICK HERE to watch his film at he NFB website.
is an allegorical story about the dynamics of a relationship between two interdependent sisters, and how it changes with the intrusion of a stranger into their remote and carefully guarded home. One sister, Viola, is a writer, disfigured so that she lives in a dark room hiding from life. The other sister encourages Viola's fear of life, and finds fulfillment taking care of her. The film plays with themes of light and dark, which are the two visual elements of the technique used for making the film, white lines etched into exposed black color 70mm film emulsion. The original version of the film is called Entre Deux Soeurs and is the French language version.

AWARDS:

Annecy International Animation Festival, Annecy, France, 1991
First Prize, 5-15 minute category

4th Los Angeles International Animation Celebration, Los Angeles, Cal.,
1991 Grand Prix

Uppsala 10th International Film Festival, Uppsala, Sweden, 1991
Best Animation

Espinho 15th International Animation Festival, Espinho, Portugal, 1991
Best in category of quaity of production for films 10-40 minutes

Included in the National Film Board of Canada’s Animation Festival in collaboration with Expanded Entertainment of LosAngeles, playing theatrically across North America, 1991/92

22nd International Short Film Festival, Tampere, Finland, 1992
Best Film, Animation Category

22nd National Educational Film and Video Festival, Oakland, California,
1992 Silver Apple Award

34th Annual American Film and Video Festival, Chicago, Illinois, 1992
Honorable Mention, the Family Category

Ottawa International Animation Festival, Ottawa, Ontario, 1992
Grand Prix and Best Story Award

2nd International Animation Festival, Shanghai, China, 1992
Special Jury Award

Alberta-Quebec Prize for Cinema from SOGIC and Alberta Foundation of Arts,1992

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I Met a Man
is a piece of whimsy inspired by the ever present whistling wind on the Irish coast of County Cork where the filmmaker was living when she made the film. The film is scratched in 35mm film stock with color added in video postproduction.

AWARDS:
	American Broadcast Arts Award, Seattle, Washington, 1992, Bronze award

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Slavery
is designed to be part of a trilogy of animated films called Suite For Freedom, which was commissioned to be shown to visitors entering the National Freedom Center in Cinncinnati Ohio. Slavery shows the hardship of the life of a house slave in the American South before the Civil War, telling the events in one day in her life.

AWARDS:
	International Film Seminars Charles Samu Award , New York, NY, 2005

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