Making Movie History: Grant Munro
2012 · 5m · Canada
Directed by Joanne Robertson
Genres: biography, documentary
Tones: contemplative, tender
Animator Grant Munro recalls being recruited by Norman McLaren to join the NFB animation studio and his work there.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
A reverential oral history of an NFB legend—exactly the kind of safe, consensus-approved documentary that makes me want to scream. Where's the irreverence, the weird angle, the thing that makes you uncomfortable about Munro's legacy?
Robertson understands the weight of cinema history here, letting Munro's recollections breathe within a formal portrait that respects both the subject and the lineage of NFB documentary itself—a measured, archival approach to an animator who deserves nothing less.
The decision to let Munro's voice carry the entire narrative weight, unadorned and reflective, transforms what could've been a straightforward biographical recap into something genuinely intimate—that restraint is what makes five minutes feel complete.