Caroline Leaf
Countries: Canada / United States
Born: 1946
Films directed by Caroline Leaf
Quotes by Caroline Leaf
"I don't storyboard too closely; to have done all the fun work, and to animate it, there are no surprises left. But I also need to know where I'm going since I work under the camera. If I take a wrong turn I can't go back. So, as I come to each scene, I do some little sketches, particularly to know what the characters look like in different positions, so I don't get lost."
-- Caroline Leaf
(source)
"I tell stories with my animation, and I have always worked directly under the camera, drawing, shooting it, changing the drawing, etc. To me it seems to be more alive than conventional cel animation, both to make it and to see it, for it is all made in one stage and the finished film shows my hesitations and miscalculations and flickers with fingerprints and quick strokes."
-- Caroline Leaf
(source)
"The strongest influence on me is from literature rather than film. Kafka, Genêt, Ionesco, Beckett, have affected me most with the depths of their visions and world views, and ways of breaking up time to tell a story."
-- Caroline Leaf
(source)
Quotes about Caroline Leaf
"[Caroline] Leaf draws in front of the camera, films her drawing and then destroys it in order to create the next one. In the end all that is left is the movie, which emerges from a process that she calls 'one-off performance.'"
-- Cesar Coelho et al
(source)
"Using simple means—sand, silhouettes, and drawings etched directly onto film—Caroline Leaf has created films that possess the disturbing power of dreams."
-- Wyndham Wise
(source)
Quotes about Caroline Leaf [in French]
"[Caroline Leaf] dessine devant la caméra, filme le dessin puis le détruit avant de passer au suivant. Au final, il ne lui reste que le film, fruit d'un travail qu'elle qualifie de 'performance unique'."
-- Cesar Coelho et al
(source)
"Les films d'animation de Caroline Leaf doivent beaucoup au vocabulaire du cinéma de prises de vue réelles : mouvements de caméra, gros plans, plans composés en grande profondeur de champ, simultanéité d'actions sur deux plans... La spécificité de cette cinéaste ne réside pas tant dans ce qu'elle 'fasse cinéma', mais plutôt dans sa façon de prouver que l'animation peut tirer profit de la physicalité du matériau (le sable, la couleur) pour transmettre tout un registre de nuances et de textures."
-- Nicole Gingras
(source)
For QUOTES about a specific film by Caroline Leaf, please see: Sand or Peter and the Wolf
How Beaver Stole Fire
The Owl Who Married a Goose: An Eskimo
Legend
The Street
The Metamorphosis of Mr. Samsa
Interview
Two Sisters
Notes about Caroline Leaf
- Born in the U.S., in Seattle.
- Studied at Radcliffe College.
- Began working at the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) in 1972.
- Was introduced to animation by Derek Lamb's courses at Harvard.
- Left the National Film Board of Canada in 1991.
- Moved to London, England, where she taught at the National Film and
Television School.
(sources)
Bibliography for
Caroline
Leaf
Section 1: Publications by Caroline Leaf
-
Leaf, Caroline. "Montréal cartoon."
In Montréal, ville de cinéma, edited by Pierre Véronneau. Montréal: Cinémathèque québécoise/Musée du cinéma, 1992.
[in French] (p. 78)
Section 2: Publications about Caroline Leaf
Book Chapters
-
Canemaker, John. "A Conversation with Caroline Leaf."
In Storytelling in Animation: An Anthology, edited by John Canemaker, 51-58. The Art of the Animated Image, vol. 2. Los Angeles: American Film Institute, 1988. 'Published in conjunction with the Second Annual Walter Lang Conference on Animation, held on June 11, 1988'.
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Coelho, Cesar, Marcos Magalhães, Aida Queiroz, and Léa Zagury. "Caroline Leaf."
In Animation Now!, 86-93. Edited by Julius Wiedemann. Koln: Taschen, 2004.
-
Laybourne, Kit. "Sand and Paint-on-Glass Animation."
In The Animation Book: A Complete Guide to Animated Filmmaking—From Flip-Books to Sound Cartoons to 3-D Animation, 142-149. New York: Three Rivers Press, 1998.
Brief Sections of Books
-
Lenburg, Jeff. Who's Who in Animated Cartoons:
An
International Guide to Film & Television's Award-Winning and Legendary
Animators. New York: Applause Theatre & Cinema Books, 2006.
(s.v. 'Leaf, Caroline')
-
Levitin, Jacqueline. "Contrechamp sur les démarches de quelques réalisatrices."
In Femmes et cinéma québécois, edited by Louise Carrière. Montréal: Boréal Express, 1983.
[in French] (pp. 237-242)
-
Russett, Robert, and Cecile Starr. "A Rising Generation of Independent Animators."
In Experimental Animation: An Illustrated Anthology, edited by Robert Russett and Cecile Starr. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1976.
(pp. 14-15)
Journal Articles
-
Roberts, Eric. "Poznámky-k animovanym filmum
Caroline Leafové." Film a Doba 45, no. 1 (Spring 1999): 50-55.
[in Czech]
-
Schenkel, T. "Talking with Carolyn Leaf." Film Library Quarterly 10, no. 1-2 (1977): 31-35,38-39.
Articles from Newspapers, Magazines, or News Websites
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Blumer, Ron. "Smiles in the sand: Caroline Leaf." Interview with Caroline Leaf. Cinema Canada, October 1976.
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Elia, Maurice. "Caroline Leaf." Interview with Caroline Leaf. Séquences, January 1978.
[in French]
-
Gingras, Nicole. "Retours sur un cinéma ludique." 24 Images, Summer 1989.
[in French]
-
Hamel, Jean-François. "Grandeur et humanisme." Ciné-Bulles, Winter 2010.
[in French]
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James, Caryn. "Caroline Leaf: An animated life." New York Times, May 6, 1992.
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Pagliano, Jean-Pierre. "Caroline Leaf : Je n'aime pas les contes de fées." Interview with Caroline Leaf. Positif, June 2003.
[in French]
-
Vimenet, Pascal. "Caroline Leaf, les chemins de la
liberté." CinémAction, April 1989.
[in French]
Documentaries
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Hand-Crafted Cinema. Directed by Erik Roberts. Griffith University, 1998.
Web Sites
Section 3: Publications about the Films of Caroline Leaf
Articles from Newspapers, Magazines, or News Websites
-
Pym, John. "The Owl Who Married a Goose." Review of The Owl Who Married a Goose: An Eskimo
Legend. Monthly Film Bulletin, April 1978.
The Street
(1976) (also known as:
"La rue")
Book Chapters
-
Schenkel, Thelma. "Storytelling as Remembering: Picturing the Past in Caroline Leaf's The Street."
In Storytelling in Animation: An Anthology, edited by John Canemaker, 41-50. The Art of the Animated Image, vol. 2. Los Angeles: American Film Institute, 1988. 'Published in conjunction with the Second Annual Walter Lang Conference on Animation, held on June 11, 1988'.
Brief Sections of Books
-
Laybourne, Kit. "Sand and Paint-on-Glass Animation."
In The Animation Book: A Complete Guide to Animated Filmmaking—From Flip-Books to Sound Cartoons to 3-D Animation. New York: Three Rivers Press, 1998.
(pp. 145-149)
Journal Articles
-
Wood, Aylish. "Re-animating space." Animation 1, no. 2 (2006): 133-152.
Articles from Newspapers, Magazines, or News Websites
-
Blumer, Ron. "The Street." Review of The Street. Cinema Canada, October 1976.
-
Pym, John. "The Street." Review of The Street. Monthly Film Bulletin, March 1978.
Journal Articles
-
Wood, Aylish. "Re-animating space." Animation 1, no. 2 (2006): 133-152.
Dissertation Chapters
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Saint-Pierre, Marie-Josée. "Interview : la réalisation professionnelle des femmes et l'autoréflexivité."
In "Cinéma d'animation, féminismes et conditions de création : les réalisatrices de l'Office national du film du Canada (1970-1979)," 368-406. PhD diss., Université du Québec à Montréal, 2021.
[in French]
Two Sisters
(1991) (also known as:
"Entre deux soeurs")
Book Chapters
-
Laurence, Amy. "Two Sisters."
In Women and Experimental Filmmaking, edited by Jean Petrolle and Virginia Wright Wexman, 195-201. Urbana: University of Illinois, 2005.
Articles from Newspapers, Magazines, or News Websites
-
McGreal, Jill. "Reviews: Two Sisters directed by
Caroline Leaf." Review of Two Sisters. Sight & Sound, May 1, 1992.
Documentaries
-
Caroline Leaf and Her Two Sisters. Directed by Donald McWilliams and Isabelle Turcotte. ASIFA-Canada/Association internationale du film d'animation, 1994.
Archival Collections
These archival institutions have holdings related to Caroline Leaf or her films:
