Frédéric Back.

72-year-old Frédéric Back, two time Academy Award winner for Crac! and The Man Who Planted Trees, was recently in Los Angeles for the opening of an exhibition of his animation drawings at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The exhibition, with art work from nine of his films, will run until August 25, although the panels of The Man Who Planted Trees and The Mighty River will be sent to the Hiroshima Film Festival after August 11. I got a chance to ask Mr. Back a few questions just before the opening night reception.

Moritz: Do all your animation films, from Abracadabra in 1970 until The Mighty River in 1993 belong to the Société Radio Canada [the French language division of the CBC]?

Back: Yes, that's right. I was an employee of Radio Canada--sometimes a freelance, because depending on how interesting I found the work, sometimes I'd quit, and then return at a later date.

Moritz: Now they've closed down the animation section of Radio Canada ...

Back: Yes. And it's too bad. Hubert Tison at Radio Canada really gave me the opportunity to work in good conditions. Before that, I wasn't so interested in animation. The National Film Board was doing lots of fine animation, but no other place had good equipment and professional cameramen that could do that kind of work. Then Tison built up a professional animation studio at Radio Canada.

I had made many short pieces of animation for music broadcasts and documentaries, so when I began with Radio Canada, I made mainly short films. But the improved conditions Tison offered meant a more complex, higher standard of animation, and I gradually learned to make better, more complex films.

The Mighty River. © SRC

One of the good ideas Tison proposed to Radio Canada was an international exchange of animation films. Before that, and still now, there are regular exchanges of usual live-action television programs, but nothing with animation until Tison initiated it. It was very important, because it meant you could produce high-quality animations relatively cheaply, since for each film Radio Canada made, they got an additional 20 or more--one from each of the other participating countries. This exchange functioned for about 15 years, and it only stopped because gradually too many people too often would buy poor, cheap animation films just to have something to exchange, and the countries that worked hard for higher quality were disappointed. It was really too bad it stopped, since it gave work to animators in many countries, as well as Canada, and encouraged the production of short films.

Moritz: Is Hubert Tison still with Radio Canada?

Back: No, he retired. After the animation department was gone, I quit, and there was nothing really to interest Hubert. Closing down animation was such a waste. The wonderful computer-assisted camera, which allowed me to make so many camera movements, rotations and dissolves for The Mighty River (so that it seemed spacious, multiplane and flowing like the river), I was the only person who ever got to use it. Where is it now?