Joyce Borenstein

Joyce Borenstein is a Canadian director and animator. Borenstein worked extensively in the independent animation field in the 1970s before joining the National Film Board of Canada in the 1980s,[1] culminating in her best known work: the short animated documentary The Colours of My Father: A Portrait of Sam Borenstein (1992) about her father, painter Sam Borenstein, which was nominated for an Academy Award for best short documentary at the 65th Academy Awards.[2]

Joyce Borenstein
Born
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
EducationB.A., M.F.A.
Alma materMcGill University, California Institute of the Arts
Occupation(s)Animator, Director, Writer

Borenstein has won the prize for originality at the Canadian International Amateur Film Festival (CIAFF) for her film Tricycle (1970), as well as the Montreal Prize at the Montreal World Film Festival for her film The Plant (1983) which she co-directed with Thomas Vámos.[3]

Early life and education

Joyce Borenstein was born in Montreal, Quebec. She is the daughter of Sam and Judith Borenstein, both painters whose respective works feature in her films The Colours of My Father: A Portrait of Sam Borenstein and Mother's Colours (2011). She received her Bachelor of Arts in piano performance at McGill University in 1971, and later received her Masters in Film Animation at the California Institute of the Arts in 1974.[4][5][6][7]

Career

Joyce Borenstein's career as a director and animator has spanned over four decades, beginning with her debut Tricycle in 1970, to her most recent work Mother's Colours in 2011. She worked independently as an animator during the 1970s, winning several student film awards before joining the National Film Board (NFB) in the 1980s. In 1980, Borenstein became a member of the publication board of the International Animated Film Association (ASIFA) in Canada, a newsletter focusing mainly on the activity of Canadian members of the association, many of whom are associated with the animation studios of the NFB.[3] Borenstein's work has been showcased by Quickdraw Animation Studios[8] and festivals across North America and Europe including the Genie Awards, the Columbus International Film & Video Festival, and the Festival of Films on Art in Lausanne, Switzerland.[4] She is currently the company officer of Illumination Magique Inc., an animation company based in Montreal and active since 1994[9] that has produced several of her films including Mother's Colours and One Divided by Two: Kids and Divorce (1997), as well as a children's picture book, Cat and Bear (2003) written and illustrated by Borenstein herself. Since 1980, Borenstein has held a part-time professorship position in film and animation at Concordia University.[4]

The Colours of My Father: A Portrait of Sam Borenstein

Joyce Borenstein's best known work came in 1992 with the biographical documentary The Colours of My Father: A Portrait of Sam Borenstein. Produced by the National Film Board, the film details the life and career of her late father who worked intermittently as a painter throughout his time in Montreal. Borenstein, who wrote and directed the piece, employs different documentary and animation techniques including: interviews with her mother, Judith; archival material (such as excerpts from Sam Borenstein's personal journals used as narration and voiced by an actor); and a combination of Borenstein's original animation, snapshots of her father's work, and filmed sequences taking place in Montreal and the Laurentian Mountains.[10] The film was nominated for an Oscar for best short documentary at the 65th Academy Awards, and won for best short documentary at the 12th Genie Awards.

Filmography
Year Film Nomination/Awards
1970 Tricylcle Award for Originality, Canadian International Amateur Film Festival
1972 Opus 1
1974 Revisited First Prize, Canadian Student Film Festival
1976 Traveller's Palm
1977 Onions and Garlic
1981 Five Billion Years
1983 La Plante Montreal Prize, Montreal World Film Festival
1987 The Man Who Stole Dreams
1992 The Colours of My Father: A Portrait of Sam Borenstein Nominated Best Short Documentary, 65th Academy Awards
1997 One Divided by Two: Kids and Divorce
2011 Mother's Colours
2017 Lida Moser Photographer

Other credits
  • Cat and Bear (2003), author and illustrator

References
  1. Wright, Jean Ann (2013-07-18). Animation Writing and Development: From Script Development to Pitch. New York, London: Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9781136144059.
  2. "The 65th Academy Awards | 1993". Oscars.org | Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 2016-10-15.
  3. Lerner, Loren Ruth (1997-01-01). Canadian Film and Video: A Bibliography and Guide to the Literature. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. ISBN 9780802029881.
  4. Holmes, Gillian (1999-06-01). Who's Who of Canadian Women, 1999-2000. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. ISBN 9780920966556.
  5. "Joyce Borenstein | Great Women Animators". greatwomenanimators.com. Archived from the original on 2016-10-19. Retrieved 2016-10-15.
  6. Canada, National Film Board of, The Colours of My Father: A Portrait of Sam Borenstein, retrieved 2016-10-15
  7. Canada, National Film Board of, Mother's Colours, retrieved 2016-10-15
  8. Robinson, Chris (2005-01-01). Unsung Heroes of Animation. Eastleigh: Indiana University Press. ISBN 0861966651.
  9. "Illumination Magique Inc. - Montreal QC Canada". www.companiesofcanada.com. Retrieved 2016-10-15.
  10. mark (2013-11-29). "The Colours of My Father: A Portrait of Sam Borentstein (National Film Board, 1992)". The Richard & Beryl Ivey Visual Resources Library. Archived from the original on 2016-11-04. Retrieved 2016-10-20.
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