Pierre Hébert

This is a poetic and animated meditation inspired by two trips the director made to Japan. Images and sounds from daily life as well as recordings of his performances, most notably one with the dancer-choreographer Teita Iwabushi. There is no story as such, but a formal construction with sound and images. What can be seen in Japan when Mount Fuji is invisible, lost in the clouds?

This is a poetic and animated meditation inspired by two trips the director made to Japan. Images and sounds from daily life as well as recordings of his performances, most notably one with the dancer-choreographer Teita Iwabushi. There is no story as such, but a formal construction with sound and images. What can be seen in Japan when Mount Fuji is invisible, lost in the clouds?

This is a poetic and animated meditation inspired by two trips the director made to Japan. Images and sounds from daily life as well as recordings of his performances, most notably one with the dancer-choreographer Teita Iwabushi. There is no story as such, but a formal construction with sound and images. What can be seen in Japan when Mount Fuji is invisible, lost in the clouds?

In a world where work rhymes with identity and productivity, we meet a man in his fifties who has not worked for several years. A question is asked: what happened at the time for him to quit his job?

Scratched directly onto 35mm film stock, this abstract film is a visual interpretation of a piece for solo violin based on a Bosnian popular song from Bosnia-Herzegovina. The composer, Malcolm Goldstein, describes it as a gesture of hope for peace in that land ravaged by war during the 1990s.

A meditation on the passing of time, on a film that was never completed, upon Bazin’s death, on restoration and the future of ruins and on modern-day life that continues in resonance with the old stones.

A meditation on the passing of time, on a film that was never completed, upon Bazin’s death, on restoration and the future of ruins and on modern-day life that continues in resonance with the old stones.

Cycling Utrecht is number seven in the «Places and Monuments» series. As with all the other opus of this series, the live action images have been submitted to a process of digital processing in order to give them a greater temporal and spatial density and animation inserts were added to create points of intensity that tell you were to look. In this case, the inseted images of Tour de France are disputing the monumental pole with images of statue that are along the route of the race, and are put in tension with the normal day to day use of the bike that is a very important characteristic of this city.

First, about ten years ago, there was a text by Paule Marier. Then, René Lussier made a song from that text for his 2014 album (Toucher une âme). Jim Corcoran translated the text to English and recorded it for his CBC radio program, but instead he decided to send it to René Lussier suggesting that maybe he could do something new out of it. René created a new music over the recorded text and after listening to the finished sound track, the two decided that it would be good if there were images to it. This is how it finally ended up in my Drop Box and it gave birth to this film. Afterward, a French version of the film was made with the original French text.

Abstract film made from the video capture of a live animation performance presented in Vienna on May 30th 2011 at the Stadtkirche with Andrea Martignoni in the context of the Vienna Independent Shorts Festival. It was a double performance where parts engraved directly on ± 16mm black film are inserted on a background made with the help of a live mixing software. The film is based, on the one hand, on a process of condensation and densification of the original footage of the performance that serves as a departure for interventions that intensify its energetic potentialities.

Abstract film made from the video capture of a live animation performance presented in Vienna on May 30th 2011 at the Stadtkirche with Andrea Martignoni in the context of the Vienna Independent Shorts Festival. It was a double performance where parts engraved directly on ± 16mm black film are inserted on a background made with the help of a live mixing software. The film is based, on the one hand, on a process of condensation and densification of the original footage of the performance that serves as a departure for interventions that intensify its energetic potentialities.

Miya Masaoka uses music to interact with plants and insects; Jon Rose turns fences into musical instruments with a violin bow in conflict zones ranging from the Australian outback to Israel; John Luther Adams translates geophysical phenomena in Alaska into music; and Bob Ostertag explores socio-political issues through processes as diverse as transcribing riots into string quartets, and creating live cinema with garbage. By contrasting the creative paths of these artists, and a connection between them by the world renowned Kronos Quartet, the film explores music not as a form of entertainment, career, or even self-expression, but as a tool to develop more deeply meaningful relationships with people and the complexities of the world they live in.

An intense exercise of looking at a rockface shot near the waterfalls of Rivière au tonnerre, on the North Shore of the St-Lawrence river. A meditation about opacity, about the fissures that can open up anything, any situation on the infinity of meaning. It is the ontological moment, the moment of pure seeing, amongst the episodes of the Places and Monuments series that is a project of exploration of the fissures that crack any banal scene of daily life, any anonymous crowd, any forgotten monument, and that let seek through, until it explodes, the invisible constellations of history.

Trying to describe oneself is a movie about representation. How it is possible, through film, to describe oneself and describe others. With the camera as mirror and third eye. At first, a collage-like combination of letter-writing, investigation and journey, something between documentary and feature film. Finally, a portrait of Boris Lehman from 1989 to 1995, part II of BABEL.

This film was made out of the capture of a live animation performance presented in Rome in January 2005 by Pierre Hébert and the musician Bob Ostertag. It is based on live action shooting done that same afternoon on the Campo dei Fiori where the philosopher Giordano Bruno was burned by the Inquisition in 1600. A commemorative statue was erected in the 19th century, that somberly dominate the market held everyday on the piazza. The film is about the resurgence of the past in this place where normal daily activities go on imperturbably. The capture of the performance was reworked, shortened and complemented with more studio performances.

This film was made out of the capture of a live animation performance presented in Rome in January 2005 by Pierre Hébert and the musician Bob Ostertag. It is based on live action shooting done that same afternoon on the Campo dei Fiori where the philosopher Giordano Bruno was burned by the Inquisition in 1600. A commemorative statue was erected in the 19th century, that somberly dominate the market held everyday on the piazza. The film is about the resurgence of the past in this place where normal daily activities go on imperturbably. The capture of the performance was reworked, shortened and complemented with more studio performances.

A spectacular collaboration between prize winning Canadian animator Pierre Hébert and cutting edge electronics wizard Bob Ostertag. Outrageous noise sampling interacts with spontaneously created live animation in this groundbreaking improvisational work, refined and perfected for an exclusive DVD release.

A spectacular collaboration between prize winning Canadian animator Pierre Hébert and cutting edge electronics wizard Bob Ostertag. Outrageous noise sampling interacts with spontaneously created live animation in this groundbreaking improvisational work, refined and perfected for an exclusive DVD release.

Short animation from Tali

Canadian animated short

Such diverse modes of expression as dance, music, poetic narration and images drawn directly on film combine to tell the story of a letter and the joy it carries to its destination. In French, with English sub-titles.

In Adieu bipède (1987), Hébert turned to performance, using the scratching technique for the scenes with dancing and music. He used the same technique in La Lettre d'amour (1988).

Under the watchful eye of a father, a child is born (first steps, named things) to a brand new awareness of the world.

In this animation film without words, filmmaker Pierre Hébert and musicians Robert Lepage and René Lussier worked together, and separately, in their respective media. This cinema/music performance recreates, impressionistically, the dehumanizing environment of the urban subway. Drawings etch the outlines of people hurtling through space in underground tunnels. The sound track, elemental and atonal, gives compelling expression to their alienation.

This haunting animation film, rich with symbolism, is the filmmaker's plea for a peaceful world in which to raise his newborn son. Using the menacing imagery of the howling wind, the artist provokes viewers to reflect on the insanity of war. While the film is symbolic, its message is unmistakably clear: unless there is an end to conflict, we will continue to see our children swept away like leaves in the wind.

Gives us a glimpse of a life which remains very monotonous despite the social upheavals that mark the country.

Festive experimental animation

A satirical, updated take on the classic Jean de La Fontaine fable.

An early experiment in employing computers to animate film. The result is a dazzling vibration of geometric forms in vivid color, an effect achieved by varying the speed at which alternate colors change, so producing optical illusions. In between these screen pyrotechnics appears a simple line form gyrating in smooth rhythm. Sound effects are created by registering sound shapes directly on the soundtrack of the film.

A film in cut-out animation depicting the demographic problems of the world. It shows that in many countries freedom from the old scourges of famine and disease has in turn created the new problem of more mouths to feed. The film suggests that wealthier nations might increase all forms of aid to struggling nations to create a better world.

An early experiment in employing computers to animate film. The result is a dazzling vibration of geometric forms in vivid color, an effect achieved by varying the speed at which alternate colors change, so producing optical illusions. In between these screen pyrotechnics appears a simple line form gyrating in smooth rhythm. Sound effects are created by registering sound shapes directly on the soundtrack of the film.

"A film in which both sound and image were created with a minimum of photographic or electronic equipment. The images are a few simple geometric forms – squares, circles, lines, ellipses – arranged and counter-arranged to generate an increasing number of perceived images. Their appearance on the screen is as percussive as the sound that accompanies them." — National Film Board of Canada

"A film in which both sound and image were created with a minimum of photographic or electronic equipment. The images are a few simple geometric forms – squares, circles, lines, ellipses – arranged and counter-arranged to generate an increasing number of perceived images. Their appearance on the screen is as percussive as the sound that accompanies them." — National Film Board of Canada

A hand-made, scratched-on film experiment in intermittent animation. The images are a group of twenty-four visuals, all non-representational, which arrange and rearrange on the screen in many combinations. The result is a changing pattern of sound and image that has its own rhythm for eye and ear.

This feature documentary about education explores the mid-century state of learning in the classrooms of North America. New approaches to learning and the emerging technologies that facilitate them are explored, including the new roles of the computer, tape recorder and television.

A hand-made, scratched-on film experiment in intermittent animation. The images are a group of twenty-four visuals, all non-representational, which arrange and rearrange on the screen in many combinations. The result is a changing pattern of sound and image that has its own rhythm for eye and ear.

Abstract film by Pierre Hébert, originally made in 1964 and remastered in 2007.