Overview
This collection contains completed prints, production materials, and promotional materials for the short films and commercials of award-winning animator Caroline Leaf. Production materials are composed of workreels; test film scratches; storyboards; photographs; slides; drawings; glass panes; and writings, while promotional materials include film guides; posters; and stills. In addition to her own work, the collection also contains films that she collected from others, films that she collaborated on and film, audio, and paper materials produced about her, such as newspaper articles; film and audio interviews; and animation workshops.
Dates
- Creation: 1968-2013
- Creation: Majority of material found within 1968-1998
Language of Materials
Materials are in English and French.
Access Restrictions
There are no restrictions on physical access to the paper portion of this collection. Collection is open for research. The Harvard Film Archive's manuscript collections and paper-based materials are accessed through the Houghton Library Reading Room. This material is shelved offsite at the Harvard Depository. Retrieval requires advance notice. Researchers should check with Houghton Public Services staff to determine retrieval policies and times.
Access to audiovisual material is by appointment only. Applications to consult this material should be directed to the staff of the Harvard Film Archive. Film prints are made accessible in close consultation with HFA staff. Although materials do not circulate for individual use, students, filmmakers, artists, and researchers are encouraged to use the collections on-site.
Use Restrictions
Reproduction and/or publication of materials subject to copyright requires written permission from a) the copyright owner, his/her heirs or assigns and from b) the Harvard Film Archive, owner of the original material.
Extent
1 collection (46 reels of 16mm film material, 5 reels and 3 sheets of 35mm film material, 17 sheets of 70mm film materials, 19 videotapes, 3 audio tapes, 1 DVD, 3 glass panes, and .85 cubic ft. of paper material)The Caroline Leaf Collection consists of prints and production materials for many of her animated and live-action shorts produced between 1968 and 1998. Production materials sometimes include storyboards, test scratch frames, drawings, photographs, glass panes, or several workreels, documenting the filmmaking process. In addition to film prints and workreels, there are many videocassette copies of Leaf's commercial work, as well prints and some production materials for films she collaborated on, contributed to, or was gifted. The collection also includes select promotional materials: film guides, posters, and stills for some of her original works. As a multi-award winner, Leaf participated in many interviews and also had some films produced about her, mainly between the 1970s through the late 1990s, some of which are represented in the collection in articles, audio interviews, and films.
Biography
Canadian-American animator and filmmaker Caroline Leaf (1946- ) is an innovative, award-winning figure in her field best known for her experimental techniques such as sand animation and scratching images directly onto film frames. She began her art education in the late 1960s at Harvard University under animation instructor Derek Lamb, who later became her colleague at the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). After leaving Harvard University in 1972, she moved to Canada where she found support for her work from the NFB as a staff filmmaker and director until 1991. During this time, Leaf worked on a range of projects, including animated and live-action shorts and documentaries such as Kate and Anna McGarrigle (1981). Her inventive methods are often the graphic vehicles for powerfully emotional content, exploring themes like social interaction and perception. Leaf has also retold many folk stories, such as the Inuit fable of The Owl Who Married a Goose (1974), using her techniques to evoke fresh themes. After leaving the NFB in 1991, she worked to adapt her techniques to commercial work for a brief period of time.
Throughout her life, she also acted as an instructor and mentor for other animators. From 1996-98, she returned to Harvard University as an animation instructor, closing the circle on her animation career that had first flourished at Harvard decades earlier. She was also an animation instructor at Konstfack in Sweden and senior tutor at the National Film and Television School in England. Leaf also adapted her innovative techniques for workshop formats, regularly conducting animation workshops internationally. Aside from teaching, she has established herself as a fine arts painter.
Arrangement
This collection is arranged chronologically by film or material within the following series and subseries:
- I. Original Works
- ___Shorts
- ___Commercials
- ___Tests and Miscellaneous
- II. Contributions and Collaborations
- III. Films in Caroline Leaf's Personal Collection
- IV. Works About Caroline Leaf
- V. Promotional Materials
Acquisition Information
The Caroline Leaf Collection was donated to the Harvard Film Archive by Caroline Leaf.
Processing Information
Processed and encoded by: Tricia Patterson, 2013
Genre / Form
- Animated films
- Animated films -- Canada
- Animated films -- Croatia
- Animated films -- United States
- Experimental films
- Lectures
- Personal papers
- Photographs
- Press materials
- Production materials
- Publications
- Short films
- Slides
- Television commercials
Topical
- Absurd (Philosophy)
- Advertising
- Animation (Cinematography)
- Art
- Artists
- Cockroaches
- Credit titles (Motion pictures, television, etc.)
- Death in motion pictures
- Dependency (Psychology)
- Eskimos -- Canada -- Folklore -- Caricatures and cartoons
- Fables
- Fables, Greek
- Geese -- Caricatures and cartoons
- Haydn, Joseph, 1732-1809. Anima del filosofo
- Mister Rogers' neighborhood (Television program)
- Motion pictures -- Production and direction
- Nonsense verses
- Older people
- Owls -- Caricatures and cartoons
- Parents -- Death
- Poetry
- Sisters in motion pictures
- Women artists -- Canada
- Women authors
- Title
- Leaf, Caroline. Caroline Leaf Collection, 1968-2013 : A Guide
- Author
- Harvard Film Archive, Harvard University
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- hfa00031
Repository Details
Part of the Harvard Film Archive, Harvard Library, Harvard University Repository
The Harvard Film Archive is one of the largest university-based motion picture collections in the United States, with a collection of 40,000 audio visual items, a growing number of manuscript collections, and nearly one million still photographs, posters, and other promotional materials from around the world and from almost every period in film history. The HFA's collection of paper materials, including the documentation of individual filmmakers as well as promotional materials such as posters, film stills, and ephemera are accessible to Harvard affiliates as well as to outside researchers.
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