Alexandre Alexeieff

The Pinscreen is a tool that was created in the 1930s to make animation films. Although it no longer provides any technical advantages, a handful of animation directors still use it. This film explores why it is so important to create something handmade with constraints, in a time when everything is turning towards instantaneous digital technology.

This documentary is a portrait of the animator of Le Paysagiste, from his childhood in Eastern Quebec to his career at the NFB. Trained at the École des beaux-arts de Montréal and the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), Drouin became in some ways the heir to Alexandre Alexeïeff when he began working with the Alexeïeff-Parker pinhole screen in 1974. Recounting his relationship with the filmmaker and inventor, coming back with lucidity and precision on the whole of his own filmography, Jacques Drouin delivers here a precious testimony on creation. Enriched with numerous excerpts and unpublished images from the filmmaker's personal archives, Jacques Drouin en relief is both the adventure of a lifetime and a valuable lesson in cinema.

Alexander Alekseev, Alyosha, Alfeoni ... artist, animator, inventor. The author of "Night on Bald Mountain" — one of the most mysterious films in the history of animation and the inventor of a unique device — a needle screen . He did the first color commercials and the prologue to the Orson Welles film "The Trial". He made dreams come true and subordinated reality to his own imagination.

Pinscreen animation makes use of a screen filled with movable pins, which can be moved in or out by pressing an object onto the screen. The screen is lit from the side so that the pins cast shadows.

Alexandre Alexeïeff is at work in his studio on the large pin screen during the making of The Nose. The film was probably shot by Claire Parker.

Alexandre Alexeieff and wife Claire Parker demonstrate and comment on animation techniques used to create illustrations for books like Zhivago and films such as The Nose and Night on Bald Mountain.