The Street, by Caroline Leaf (Academy Award nominee for Best Animation, 1976)
The Street by Caroline Leaf, National Film Board of Canada
I first saw this amazing piece of animation over 30 years ago, and it's stayed with me ever since. I was finally able to track it down thanks to someone at IMDb compiling a list of every animated short nominated for an Academy Award. It's based on a short story by famed Canadian author Mordecai Richler, and the animator, Caroline Leaf, painted it directly on glass, smearing and moving the paint around for every frame. It's an impressive combination of storytelling, art, and sound, told through narration as well as dialog and wordless sequences. Do yourself a favor -- unplug yourself for ten minutes, sit back and watch this lovely story, which plays beautifully in full-screen. Note: it's animation, not a cartoon.
