René Jodoin (30 December 1920 – 22 January 2015) was an animation director and producer who founded the French-language animation studio of the

National Film Board of Canada The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; french: Office national du film du Canada (ONF)) is Canada's public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary f ...

. Born in Hull, Quebec on December 30, 1920, Jodoin died in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

on January 22, 2015 at the age of 94.

Joining the NFB

Jodoin was invited by animation pioneer Norman McLaren to join the NFB in 1943. He worked in the NFB's original animation unit, then left the NFB in 1947. He returned to the Film Board in 1954, working in a variety of capacities, including as head of an NFB animation program producing films for the Department of National Defence and as head of NFB's Science Film Program.

French animation studio founder

In 1966, he founded the French Animation Studio. He produced two

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

-nominated animated shorts during his tenure: ''

Hunger In politics, humanitarian aid, and the social sciences, hunger is defined as a condition in which a person does not have the physical or financial capability to eat sufficient food to meet basic Human nutrition, nutritional needs for a sustaine ...

'', by Peter Foldes and '' Monsieur Pointu'', by André Leduc and Bernard Longpré, as well as ''

Balablok ''Balablok'' is a 1972 animated short written and directed by Břetislav Pojar exploring the human propensity for resorting to violence over reason. Accolades The 7 min 27 sec film received the 1973 Short Film Palme d'Or, Grand Prix du Festival for ...

'' by

Břetislav Pojar Břetislav Pojar (7 October 192312 October 2012) was a Czech puppeteer, animator and director of short and feature films. Born in Sušice, Czechoslovakia, Pojar started his career in the late 1940s with his work on ''The Story of the Bass Cello'' ...

, winner of the Grand Prix du Festival for Short Film at the

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...

, and ''

The Bronswik Affair ''The Bronswik Affair'' (french: L'Affaire Bronswik) is a 1978 Canadian short film, directed by Robert Awad and André Leduc for the National Film Board of Canada. Summary An animated mockumentary, the film satirizes advertising and marketing thr ...

'' by Leduc and Robert Awad.

Directorial credits

Jodoin's directorial credits include two short films with McLaren: ''Alouette'' and ''Spheres'', an abstract film set to the music of

Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the ''Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard wor ...

as performed by

Glenn Gould Glenn Herbert Gould (; né Gold; September 25, 1932October 4, 1982) was a Canadian classical pianist. He was one of the most famous and celebrated pianists of the 20th century, and was renowned as an interpreter of the keyboard works of Johann ...

. He was also sole director on a cycle of geometrical animated shorts: ''

Dance Squared Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoire ...

'',Dance Squared
Dance Squared video on

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Notes on a Triangle Note, notes, or NOTE may refer to: Music and entertainment * Musical note, a pitched sound (or a symbol for a sound) in music * ''Notes'' (album), a 1987 album by Paul Bley and Paul Motian * ''Notes'', a common (yet unofficial) shortened version ...

'', ''

Rectangle & Rectangles In Euclidean plane geometry, a rectangle is a quadrilateral with four right angles. It can also be defined as: an equiangular quadrilateral, since equiangular means that all of its angles are equal (360°/4 = 90°); or a parallelogram containin ...

'' and ''

A Matter of Form A, or a, is the first Letter (alphabet), letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, Latin alphabet, used in the English alphabet, modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name ...

''.

Post-NFB

Jodoin resigned as head of the French Animation Studio in 1977 and left the NFB in 1985. In 2001, he was awarded the

Prix Albert-Tessier The Prix Albert-Tessier is an award by the Government of Quebec that is part of the Prix du Québec, given to individuals for an outstanding career in Quebec cinema. It is awarded to script-writing, acting, composing music, directing, producing a ...

, given to individuals for an outstanding career in Québec cinema.

References

External links

*
''René Jodoin (1920-2015)''
NFB.ca * {{DEFAULTSORT:Jodoin, Rene Canadian animators Film directors from Quebec Canadian film producers Canadian animated film producers Artists from Quebec People from Gatineau Visual music artists French Quebecers National Film Board of Canada people 1920 births 2015 deaths Deaths in Canada Prix Albert-Tessier winners