Filmmaker, performer, visual artist and writer, Pierre Hebert is acutely aware of the anomalous position he occupies in the world of animation. His work spans the distance between the most primitive forms of representation and the most sophisticated technology and crosses many media, from printmaking and photography to writing and film. His animated films are unusually searching, conceptually and formally complex, while his unique methods of production are far removed from those employed by industrial and art animators alike. He may be unique in all of animation in the crucial role that live performance has played in his work. Many of his films began as live-animation performances and have been completed by structuring, recombining and adding to the results of these imporvised film events. He has worked closely with musicians and dancers and has toured as a performer. In short, his work is an uneasy companion to both the commercial fare and the "fine animation" that characterize most of the field.
Although Hebert has been recognized by key international venues - including a 1997 retrospective at the prestigious Festival international du film d'animation in Annecy, France - he remains little known outside of Quebec, a situation aggravated by the fact that many of his films have never been made available in English-language versions. And, like all animators, his work is largely ignored by the world of "serious" cinema. As Hebert puts it, "I was in an uneasy situation because I never recognized a difference between animation and cinema. The cinematic tradition I admired refused animation, excluded it. I have lived through this contradiction until very recently."
Let us fix this
Pierre Hebert - Autor de la Perception
Although Hebert has been recognized by key international venues - including a 1997 retrospective at the prestigious Festival international du film d'animation in Annecy, France - he remains little known outside of Quebec, a situation aggravated by the fact that many of his films have never been made available in English-language versions. And, like all animators, his work is largely ignored by the world of "serious" cinema. As Hebert puts it, "I was in an uneasy situation because I never recognized a difference between animation and cinema. The cinematic tradition I admired refused animation, excluded it. I have lived through this contradiction until very recently."
Let us fix this
Pierre Hebert - Autor de la Perception
