Pierre Hébert

Mount Fuji Seen from a Moving Train (2021)

This is a poetic and animated meditation inspired by two trips the director made to Japan. Images and sounds from daily life as well as recordings of his performances, most notably one with the dancer-choreographer Teita Iwabushi. There is no story as such ...

La statue de Robert E. Lee à Charlottesville (2018)

In a world where work rhymes with identity and productivity, we meet a man in his fifties who has not worked for several years. A question is asked: what happened at the time for him to quit his job? ...

But One Bird Sang Not (2018)

Scratched directly onto 35mm film stock, this abstract film is a visual interpretation of a piece for solo violin based on a Bosnian popular song from Bosnia-Herzegovina. The composer, Malcolm Goldstein, describes it as a gesture of hope for peace in that ...

Bazin's Film (2017)

A meditation on the passing of time, on a film that was never completed, upon Bazin's death, on restoration and the future of ruins and on modern-day life that continues in resonance with the old stones. ...

Scratch (Triptych 3) (2016)

At the end of 2016, some circonstances made that after a gap of 15 years I resumed scratching directly on film. I first made a series of thirty one short loops that were posted as GIF's on Facebook, in May and June 2016. Then I proceeded to build a film ou ...

Cycling Utrecht (2015)

Cycling Utrecht is number seven in the «Places and Monuments» series. As with all the other opus of this series, the live action images have been submitted to a process of digital processing in order to give them a greater temporal and spatial density an ...

You Look Like Me (2014)

First, about ten years ago, there was a text by Paule Marier. Then, René Lussier made a song from that text for his 2014 album (Toucher une âme). Jim Corcoran translated the text to English and recorded it for his CBC radio program, but instead he decide ...

Triptych - 2 (2013)

Abstract film made from the video capture of a live animation performance presented in Vienna on May 30th 2011 at the Stadtkirche with Andrea Martignoni in the context of the Vienna Independent Shorts Festival. It was a double performance where parts engra ...

Rivière au tonnerre (2011)

An intense exercise of looking at a rockface shot near the waterfalls of Rivière au tonnerre, on the North Shore of the St-Lawrence river. A meditation about opacity, about the fissures that can open up anything, any situation on the infinity of meaning. ...

Variations on Two Photographs of Tina Modotti (2005)

Originally, the images of Variations on two photographs by Tina Modotti were engraved directly on 16mm film to be projected as a backdrop for Louis Bédard's choreographic piece entitled Elles, which was inspired by the life and work of the well-known Mexi ...

The Statue of Giordano Bruno (2005)

This film was made out of the capture of a live animation performance presented in Rome in January 2005 by Pierre Hébert and the musician Bob Ostertag. It is based on live action shooting done that same afternoon on the Campo dei Fiori where the philosoph ...

Between Science and Garbage (2004)

A whirlwind of improvisation combines the images of animator Pierre Hébert with the avant-garde sound of techno whiz Bob Ostertag in this singular multimedia experience, a hybrid of live animation and performance art. ...

La Pirouette (2002)

Short animation from Tali ...

Black Soul (2000)

Painted directly on glass, Black Soul is an exhilarating immersion into the heart of Black culture—a whirlwind voyage through the defining moments of Black History. ...

Under the Weather (1997)

This animated short follows a group of happy vacationers sunbathing... under cloudy skies. Despite the weather, they look cheerful, eating ice cream and hot dogs, frolicking in the sand. When the sun finally breaks through the clouds, everyone deserts the ...

La Plante Humaine (1996)

La Lettre d'amour (1989)

Such diverse modes of expression as dance, music, poetic narration and images drawn directly on film combine to tell the story of a letter and the joy it carries to its destination. In French, with English sub-titles. ...

Adieu bipède (1987)

In Adieu bipède (1987), Hébert turned to performance, using the scratching technique for the scenes with dancing and music. He used the same technique in La Lettre d'amour (1988). ...

Songs and Dances of the Inanimate World: The Subway (1984)

In this animation film without words, filmmaker Pierre Hébert and musicians Robert Lepage and René Lussier worked together, and separately, in their respective media. This cinema/music performance recreates, impressionistically, the dehumanizing environm ...

Memories of War (1983)

This haunting animation film, rich with symbolism, is the filmmaker's plea for a peaceful world in which to raise his newborn son. Using the menacing imagery of the howling wind, the artist provokes viewers to reflect on the insanity of war. While the film ...

Entre chiens et loup (1978)

Gives us a glimpse of a life which remains very monotonous despite the social upheavals that mark the country. ...

Santa Claus is Coming Tonight (1974)

Festive experimental animation ...

A Piece of Cake (1974)

Du coq à l'âne (1973)

This animated film, a small educational musical comedy, offers the viewer a proper enigma. He is very smart who succeeds in solving it the first time; because against this background of cold reasoning, fantasy and delirium retain all their rights. ...

Catuor (1971)

This film is about cats--actually, one very clever cat. The title is a play on the French quatuor, meaning quartet, but the chorus is not the usual alley-cat variety. The cat in this film is talented indeed. He is both pianist and piano, trumpet and trumpe ...

Fundamental Principles in Genetics (1971)

The Crow and the Fox (1969)

A satirical, updated take on the classic Jean de La Fontaine fable. ...

Around Perception (1968)

An early experiment in employing computers to animate film. The result is a dazzling vibration of geometric forms in vivid color, an effect achieved by varying the speed at which alternate colors change, so producing optical illusions. In between these scr ...

Population Explosion (1968)

A film in cut-out animation depicting the demographic problems of the world. It shows that in many countries freedom from the old scourges of famine and disease has in turn created the new problem of more mouths to feed. The film suggests that wealthier na ...

Opus 3 (1967)

"A film in which both sound and image were created with a minimum of photographic or electronic equipment. The images are a few simple geometric forms – squares, circles, lines, ellipses – arranged and counter-arranged to generate an increasing number ...

Op Hop/Hop Op (1966)

A hand-made, scratched-on film experiment in intermittent animation. The images are a group of twenty-four visuals, all non-representational, which arrange and rearrange on the screen in many combinations. The result is a changing pattern of sound and imag ...

Knowing to Learn (1966)

This feature documentary about education explores the mid-century state of learning in the classrooms of North America. New approaches to learning and the emerging technologies that facilitate them are explored, including the new roles of the computer, tap ...

Opus 1 (1964)

Abstract film by Pierre Hébert, originally made in 1964 and remastered in 2007. ...

Histoire Verte (1963)

"In Green / Gray Story, for the most part, [one saw] vertical streaks and textures, with patterns that flew by. It was partly washed film on which I etched and I drew elements after washing. I used color inks, but since I did not have the money to make col ...

Scratches of Life: the Art of Pierre Hébert (2024)

A moving portrait of filmmaker Pierre Hébert, which retraces his extraordinary career and shares all about his passion for burning onto film. ...

The Reach of Resonance (2011)

Miya Masaoka uses music to interact with plants and insects; Jon Rose turns fences into musical instruments with a violin bow in conflict zones ranging from the Australian outback to Israel; John Luther Adams translates geophysical phenomena in Alaska into ...

The Private Life of Cinema (2011)

A two-part in-depth exploration of the evolution of the private film industry, seen through the eyes of more than 50 industry professionals. Part One (1939-1979) : Artists and professionals from the social and commercial film sectors recount the struggle ...

Trying to Describe Oneself (2005)

Trying to describe oneself is a movie about representation. How it is possible, through film, to describe oneself and describe others. With the camera as mirror and third eye. At first, a collage-like combination of letter-writing, investigation and journe ...

Between Science and Garbage (2004)

A whirlwind of improvisation combines the images of animator Pierre Hébert with the avant-garde sound of techno whiz Bob Ostertag in this singular multimedia experience, a hybrid of live animation and performance art. ...

Barbaloune (2002)