Making Movie History: Kaj Pindal
2014 · 5m · Canada
Directed by Joanne Robertson
Genres: biography, documentary
Tones: contemplative
Animator Kaj Pindal reflects on arriving at the NFB, developing his cartoon style and creating early works including What on Earth!
Picked by Margot
The scouts
A 5-minute monument to an animator's own mythology—Robertson lets Pindal do the narrating, which is either restraint or cowardice, and I'm genuinely unsure which makes it more interesting.
Robertson's archival approach situates Pindal within the NFB's lineage of formal innovation, letting his reflection on *What on Earth!* articulate a whole aesthetic tradition through one artist's voice—that's curatorial work.
The decision to let Pindal's own commentary run over his animated work, rather than imposing a narrator's frame, trusts the specificity of his voice to do the heavy lifting in five minutes.