The Flying Sailor

Directed by Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby

Canada, 2022 (animation, 8 minutes, colour)

Also known as "Le matelot volant"

Image: © National Film Board of Canada

Video (National Film Board of Canada)
Video (National Film Board of Canada) [French]

Film Description:
"In 1917, two ships collided in the Halifax Harbour, causing the largest accidental explosion in history. Among the tragic stories of the disaster is the remarkable account of a sailor who, blown skyward from the docks, flew a distance of two kilometres before landing uphill, naked and unharmed. The Flying Sailor is a contemplation of his journey. Drawing on reports of traumatic shock and near-death experiences, animators Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis consider the kind of cataclysmic moment that pulls us from our path, strips us bare and utterly shifts our perspective. By suspending the Sailor in a state of near-death, the film contemplates the stuff of life that is at once fleeting, profound and utterly insignificant.[...] Employing a wealth of techniques (3D, 2D, live action, and photographs), along with a bold mix of comedy, suspense, philosophy and playful abstraction, The Flying Sailor is an exhilarating meditation on a few seconds of a life, and a celebration of the wonder and fragility of being."
-- National Film Board of Canada (source)

Film Credits (partial):
Written by:	Amanda Forbis, Wendy Tilby
Produced by:	David Christensen
Animation:	William J. Dyer, Anna Bron
Film Editing:	Chelsea Body
Music:	Luigi Allemano
Production Company:	National Film Board of Canada / Office national du film du Canada

(sources)

Award won by The Flying Sailor

Canadian Screen Award: Best Animated Short -- awarded to Wendy Tilby, Amanda Forbis, David Christensen

Notes about The Flying Sailor

Film without dialogue.
Shown at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2022.
Nominated for an Academy Award in the Short Film (Animated) category.

(sources)

Quotes by the Director

"[Betty Roodish Goodwin] did these wonderfully gorgeous paintings of bodies. Whether they were floating or lying on the ground, you always felt like something terrible had happened to them. But they were also so beautiful and [in The Flying Sailor] they were very much an inspiration for the sailor in the sky, just the posing and the slumping and the rounded backs."
-- Amanda Forisb (source)

"[Wendy Tilby and I] happened to be in Halifax more than 20 years ago and went to the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, where there was a display about the explosion and this tiny paragraph about a sailor who was sent two kilometres in the air by the explosion, landing without his clothes. We were both struck by that, and wondered what the trip would look like. For one reason or another, we had to put it aside for a long time, but it stuck there."
-- Amanda Forbis (source)

"Production on [The Flying Sailor] overlapped with the pandemic, which was obviously a terrible thing for everyone but beneficial for animation projects, because being cloistered indoors is conducive to getting work done. Animation is a very labour-intensive thing, and because we work experimentally, we need the time for trial and error."
-- Wendy Tilby (source)

Bibliography for The Flying Sailor

Articles from Newspapers, Magazines, or News Websites

Hertz, Barry. "'It's a pretty good track record': Meet the Canadian animators who secure Oscar nominations time and again." Interview with Amanda Forbis, Wendy Tilby. Globe and Mail, January 24, 2023.
Wolfe, Jennifer. "'The Flying Sailor' finds the beauty in history's most devastating, non-nuclear explosion." Interview with Amanda Forbis, Wendy Tilby. IndieWire, December 14, 2022.

Web Sites about The Flying Sailor

National Film Board of Canada. "NFB -- The Flying Sailor." National Film Board of Canada. http://onf-nfb.gc.ca/en/our-collection/?idfilm=67596.
Office national du film du Canada. "ONF -- Le matelot volant." Office national du film du Canada. http://onf-nfb.gc.ca/fr/notre-collection/?idfilm=72215. [in French]