Cordell Barker's Master Class in Animation (Part 1)
2009 · 15m · Canada
Genres: animation, documentary
Tones: contemplative
Animator Cordell Barker leads a master class on the making of The Cat Came Back, filmed during the 2009 edition of Get Animated!
Picked by Margot
The scouts
A master class about making animation is basically the opposite of subversive—it's cinema's version of reading the instruction manual. Pass.
Barker's decision to film the pedagogical moment itself, rather than just showcase the finished work, creates a meta-documentary that sits beautifully in the lineage of artist-on-artist discourse; the form becomes the argument about craft itself.
The real move here is letting Barker's voice and thinking guide us through *process* rather than product—it's a teaching film that respects the audience enough to show the actual decision-making, which is where animation's real magic lives anyway.