Blackfly

With a rollicking song, we get to see the world of the black fly. They are the peskiest, most distracting creatures on earth. They have a nasty bite and fly in your face when you are trying to accomplish something. Obviously over the top, this song is so fetching and the whole image so engaging, I thoroughly enjoyed it I am taken with these Canadian productions so much.

Wow, did the Canadians have a lot of nominees for the Best Animated Short Film Oscar over the last few decades. It seems they have long appreciated and encouraged short film and not surprisingly two of the three films nominated in this category in 1992 were from the Canadian National Film Board. I have loved some of the past nominees from them--especially THE BIG SNIT. However, I gotta admit that 1992 was not a great year for nominees as none of them really seemed memorable or that innovative. Still, the Canadians were well represented.

BLACKFLY is a simple idea and at first, I wasn't all that impressed. However, over the course of the film, I found myself humming along and laughing at the torturous blackflies as they made our hero miserable. Many people who have never been up north have never experienced the yearly summer plague of blackflies--they are indeed hellacious!! Having experienced them when I was a kid, I could sure laugh along with the film and enjoyed it. Nice but not great enough to seem like an Oscar nominee.

I think the best humor requires context from outside. That way the viewer does some of the work, adding in bits that make the thing funny. Collaboration in funniness is always the funniest.

The context here is Canadian's notion of their land as a glorious place. Its probably first in terms of self-definition, the purity of their souls conflated with the purity of their place. From this comes their patient tolerance, even with Frencies, and their gentle place as humanitarians in the world.

It is a glorious place of course, in many respects and absolutely in comparison to its neighbor.

That's what a viewer, and especially a Canadian viewer would bring to this, a simple, unending torture that a place visits on a man.

Really funny. The jaunty song adds.

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

I saw the french version of this short animated film from the National Film Board of Canada. It's called "Mouches noires". The song by Wade Hemsworth is translated and adapted by Kate and Anna McGarrigle. Marcel Aymar sings it.

It's a fabulous short animated (5 minutes and 6 seconds) about a group of surveyors working in Northern Ontario. All day long, they have to deal with the blackflies. Being myself from Northern Ontario, I found it funny how Christopher Hinton puts it! And yes, there's a lot of blackflies, I can testify about it! Just like the song says: "A square dance of blackflies in the beard and the hair"! If you can see this one, don't miss it.

The English version is equally good with the great song from Wade Hemsworth.

Seen the French version at home, in Toronto, on December 2nd, 2002. As for the English version, I've seen it in Sudbury (Northern Ontario!) on December 31st, 2002. And again at the Médiathèque of the National Film Board, in Toronto, on December 17th, 2004.

91/100 (****)

I love this cartoon! It's basically an animated song about a surveyor and the constant irritations caused by blackflies found everywhere. Lots of nice audio and video touches here. Deservedly nominated for a Academy Award. Recommended.