Craig Welch
Craig Welch (September 27, 1948 – May 18, 2020) was a Canadian animator.[1] He was most noted for his short films No Problem, which was a Genie Award nominee for Best Animated Short Film at the 14th Genie Awards in 1993,[2] and How Wings Are Attached to the Backs of Angels, which won a number of awards at film festivals in 1996.[3]
Welch, a native of Windsor, Ontario,[4] owned an independent bookstore in Oshawa for a number of years before deciding to study animation at Sheridan College, where he released his first short film, Disconnected, as a student project in 1988.[1] He subsequently joined the National Film Board of Canada, for whom he made both No Problem (1992) and How Wings Are Attached to the Backs of Angels (1996).[1]
His final short film, Welcome to Kentucky, was released in 2004, and was a Jutra Award nominee for Best Animated Short Film at the 7th Jutra Awards in 2005.[5] He then retired from the NFB and settled in Montreal, where he pursued painting.[1] He was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in the late 2010s, and died of COVID-19 in Montreal on May 18, 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic in Montreal.[1]
References
- "It's been six months since COVID-19 came to Canada. Here are some of the lives we've lost". The Globe and Mail, July 20, 2020.
- "The nominees are...". Edmonton Journal, October 20, 1993.
- Jayne Pilling, ed. (2012). "On Craig Welch's How Wings Are Attached to the Backs of Angels". Animating the Unconscious: Desire, Sexuality, and Animation. Wallflower Press. ISBN 978-0231161992.
- Craig MacInnis, "Windsor native is having No Problem enjoying Cannes". Windsor Star, May 16, 1992.
- Karl Filion, "Jutra 2005 : Les gagnants". Cinoche, February 20, 2005.