Donald McWilliams

Movies

Eleven Moving Moments with Evelyn Lambart
Director
An instructive compilation about pioneer Ottawa animator Evelyn Lambart, playfully contextualized by filmmaker Donald McWilliams.
Norman McLaren: Animated Musician
Writer
Not only did Norman McLaren create his own film imagery, he also made his own music by drawing, etching and photographing patterns directly onto the sound track area of the film, becoming a pioneer of electronic music long before the invention of the synthesizer. Norman McLaren: Animated Musician celebrates this exploration and presents much never-before-seen work by this master of cinema.
Norman McLaren: Animated Musician
Director
Not only did Norman McLaren create his own film imagery, he also made his own music by drawing, etching and photographing patterns directly onto the sound track area of the film, becoming a pioneer of electronic music long before the invention of the synthesizer. Norman McLaren: Animated Musician celebrates this exploration and presents much never-before-seen work by this master of cinema.
A Time There Was: Stories from the Last Days of Kenya Colony
Director
A look at the Mau Mau Rebellion of the 1950s as experienced by filmmaker Donald McWilliams.
Sunrise Over Tiananmen Square
Sound Editor
This film illustrates the life of the film director, Shui-Bo Wang in The People's Republic of China. We learn of the life of the director in his own words and images from a child steeped in the values of Chinese communism exemplified by Chairman Mao, to a young man striving to live up to those ideals both as an artist and a soldier.
How Wings Are Attached to the Backs of Angels: Prologue
Director
A short three minute documentary by Donald McWilliams regarding the film How Wings Are Attached to the Backs of Angels (1996) directed by Craig Welch
The Passerby
Director
In The Passerby, poems, home movies, interviews, photographs, and footage filmed all over the world combine to form a kind of necromancy: impression, imprint, appearance of many lives that were not lived without a trace. What can be read out of pictures and movement, facial expressions and gestures? Donald McWilliams' compelling contrast montage, visual effects, and use of music provide a meditation on the mysteries of existence.
Creative Process: Norman McLaren
Editor
Norman McLaren was a cinematic genius who made films without cameras, and music without instruments. He produced sixty films in a stunning range of styles and techniques, collecting over 200 international awards, and world recognition. In Creative Process, director Donald McWilliams demystifies the process of artistic creation. Drawing on McLaren's private film vaults, a gold mine of experimental footage and uncompleted films, McWilliams explores McLaren's methods, including his celebrated "pixillation" technique, and his daring forays into animated surrealism.
Creative Process: Norman McLaren
Director
Norman McLaren was a cinematic genius who made films without cameras, and music without instruments. He produced sixty films in a stunning range of styles and techniques, collecting over 200 international awards, and world recognition. In Creative Process, director Donald McWilliams demystifies the process of artistic creation. Drawing on McLaren's private film vaults, a gold mine of experimental footage and uncompleted films, McWilliams explores McLaren's methods, including his celebrated "pixillation" technique, and his daring forays into animated surrealism.
Narcissus
Assistant Director
In this short film by Norman McLaren, dancers enact the Greek tragedy of Narcissus, the beautiful youth whose excessive self-love condemned him to a trapped existence. Skilfully merging film, dance and music, the film is a compendium of the techniques McLaren acquired over a lifetime of experimentation.
Aloud
Director
Canadian poet Earle Birney indulges his love of trains in this performance of his sound poem To Swindon from London by Britrail. In fluent "trainish," he interprets the experience of excursions by rail. Imagination sparked by the rhythm of wheels and the clink of couplings, Birney hums, hisses and hoots his way through archival footage of vintage trains and the English countryside. A must for language, animation and train buffs.
Impressions of China
Editor
This short documentary follows a group of students from Hamilton, Ontario, on a rare three-week “tour” of China in 1972. These teenagers were the first North American students to visit China since 1949, when Mao Tse Tung’s Communists overthrew the Nationalist Government of Chiang Kai-shek.
Impressions of China
Director
This short documentary follows a group of students from Hamilton, Ontario, on a rare three-week “tour” of China in 1972. These teenagers were the first North American students to visit China since 1949, when Mao Tse Tung’s Communists overthrew the Nationalist Government of Chiang Kai-shek.