Frédéric Back
Biography
Frédéric Back was born on the 8th of April, 1924 in St. Arnuald, near Saarbrücken. He stayed successively in Strasbourg, Paris, and Rennes, where he attended the Fine Arts School and had the chance to study closely with Mathurin Méheut. In 1948 he came to Canada where he met his future wife Ghylaine. They were married in 1949, had three children and have stayed in Montreal ever since. Back was professor of drawing at the School of Applied Arts and for illustration at the Fine Arts School in Montreal. In 1952, the Societe Radio-Canada created a television channel where Back was employed as an designer of decorations; since 1962 he was engaged in the team of artists working for the new-established animation section. As an artist, animator and director, Back created for Radio-Canada more than dozen of animated films including the renowned titles like Abracadabra (1970), La création des oiseaux / The Creation of Birds (1972), Crac! (1981), L'homme qui plantait des arbres / The Man Who Planted Trees (1987), Le fleuve aux grandes eaux / The Mighty River (1993). He repeatedly won the Academy Award for Animated Short Film – in 1982 for his film Crac! and in 1987 for The Man Who Planted Trees, an exceptional film based on a novel by Jean Giono. Frédéric Back died on the 24th of Decembre, 2013 in Montreal.
Illustration Features
Frédéric Back played a principal role in the technological and artistical development of animation creation within the frame of Radio-Canada society. In this rapidly evolving medium, the necessity of motion in those drawings became urgent. Back worked out all kinds of tricks and gimmicks with cut-out paper, strings, lights, gobos, and scale models to introduce animation and special effects into programs. They were successful and became almost a trademark of many programs of Radio-Canada, in child, scientific, and cultural domains. Back had concentrated in his film work more and more on the environmental topics. For him, the urge to do something to correct the situation was a priority. He used the power of animation to sensitize the public and tried to offer an alternative which everyone can apply to bring a personal solution to a global problem.