Dobson, Nichola. "World Traveller." Norman McLaren: Between the Frames. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2017. 81–108. Animation: Key Films/ Filmmakers. Bloomsbury Collections. Web. 10 Oct. 2021. <http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781501328800.ch-003>. Downloaded from Bloomsbury Collections, www.bloomsburycollections.com, 10 October 2021, 14:47 UTC. Copyright © Nichola Dobson 2018. Released under a CC BY-NC-ND licence (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/). You may share this work for non-commercial purposes only, provided you give attribution to the copyright holder and the publisher, and provide a link to the Creative Commons licence. 81 Chapter 3 W ORLD TRAVELLER Norman McLaren was fortunate throughout his life to be able to travel quite extensively. From trips to Europe with his family during his late teenage years and an informative trip to Russia, to the eventual winter breaks in Mexico and frequent trips as jury member for the increasing number of fi lm festivals he was invited to. He enjoyed the experience of travel and lived during an exciting time of new developments including air travel and later in his life, the bullet trains of Japan. His letters home detailed his weeklong sea voyage to the United States from Glasgow and later his fi rst fl ight. Th is chapter examines some of the most infl uential voyages, looking at his fi rst job in London, his eye- opening trip to Spain at the start of the Civil War, his move to New York and later to Canada for his career at the NFB. Th e trip to China for UNESCO gave him another perspective and reinforced his humani- tarian politics, leading to one of his most obviously political fi lms, Neighbours (1952). Th e chapter also discusses some of the other places he enjoyed visit- ing, particularly when the cold Montreal winters made working more diffi cult. All of these experiences informed his work in some way, from the political extremes of war, to the Indian music of Ravi Shankar, who would contribute to the soundtrack of the fi lm A Chairy Tale (1957). Th ough he did not always enjoy the social aspect of the duties at fi lm festivals, he appreciated the oppor- tunity to visit new places, oft en travelling via Scotland, and as discussed previ- ously, the chance to catch the sun. Russia Th roughout the letters, and throughout various times in his life, McLaren was interested in Russia in terms of both its culture and politics. Th e fi lms of the Russian, Sergei Eisenstein inspired him to turn to the moving image, and in his formative years he looked to Russia as an example for political success. In the script for the Creative Process documentary, he recounted how shocked he was at the scenes of deprivation in the slums in Scotland during the Depression. 9781501328817_pi-168.indd 81 16-11-2017 20:04:28 82 82 Norman McLaren Figure 3.1 Postcard from Moscow, September 1935. McLPost001. So, like many young people, in the Great Depression, our minds went to Russia as a possible experiment along new economic lines. My father, who was a staunch conservative, pillar of the church and all that, was greatly con- cerned when he found that I had such left - wing thoughts and feelings. When I suggested I wanted to go to Russia, he said ‘fi ne. I’ll give you enough money for a good tour in Russia, and you’ll see how they live, and you’ll be cured from thinking that communism is a good thing . .’ Actually I went to Russia, and it was for a fi lm and theatre festival. So I had a marvellous time. [You weren’t cured?] No, I was far from cured. But I began to get cured when the purges happened in Russia. 1 Th is trip was an adventure for the 21- year- old McLaren, who wrote to friend Biddy Russell that he was saving hard. ‘Sailing to Leningrad on Sat, I’m busy packing my suitcase with fi lms & myself with Russian’ (19 August 1935). 2 He sent a postcard from the trip, which reinforced that he had enjoyed himself, ‘I’m having a very energetic holiday here. Th e Moscow theatre Festival is providing an excellent menu of opera, ballet and plays. I’ve managed to see over a fi lm factory, & have met many fi lm people. I saw today one of the latest fi lms. “New Gulliver” – it’s a hum- snorer of a picture’ (7 September 1935).3 At this time he identifi ed himself as a communist, but by 1938 he had declared himself a pacifi st, having witnessed the march to war as well as the Civil War in Spain. Th e possible admiration of a communist, or rather Marxist, ideol- ogy would resurface when he visited China (discussed further in this chapter) but more in terms of social justice. Directly aft er his trip to Russia, he was 9781501328817_pi-168.indd 82 16-11-2017 20:04:28 83 World Traveller 83 Figure 3.2 Postcard from Moscow, September 1935. McLPost001. interested in making a fi lm about Russia with Helen Biggar, though this never materialized. In 1943 he and Glover had decided to take Russian lessons as he thought it might be a useful language aft er the war. Th ough Glover’s nephew David Lloyd Glover confi rmed his uncle’s profi ciency with languages, it was never men- tioned elsewhere in the archive; there is nothing to suggest they went beyond this initial interest. He did however visit Russia again in the 1970s and was always interested in seeing the Russian ballet when he had the chance. Spain McLaren’s political views had already been formed before he visited Spain dur- ing the Civil War. His anti-war fi lm Hell Unltd with Helen Biggar, discussed in Chapter 1 , showed the strength of his feelings. In late 1936, aft er moving to London to begin his work at the GPO for Grierson, he discovered that he was getting the opportunity to develop his technical training by accompanying director Ivor Montague to Spain to capture footage of the war. He wrote about the trip to his parents and friends Helen Biggar and Biddy Russell. To his par- ents, he was keen to stress his safety would be assured; he would only be fi lm- ing refugees at the border. 4 Earlier that week, he told Helen a bit more about the technical details and asked her about the cameras she had previously used, “Ivor Montague is phoning me up . they’re going to be fi lming in Spain, or a fi lm about Spain, apparently or something & and they want to know what 9781501328817_pi-168.indd 83 16-11-2017 20:04:28 84 84 Norman McLaren kind of camera would be best” (3 November p/ m 1936). 5 Interestingly, in his next letter to Helen, on the same day as his parents, when he told her that he was going to Spain, he suggested that it was somehow a secret; this suggests he knew there might be an element of risk that he did not want his parents to be aware of, ‘its all hush hush . been told to write for a leave of absence for illness to go for three weeks . Mr Grierson knows the truth’ (11 November 1936). 6 In a letter on his return, he suggested that someone high up at the GPO might have found out and that he might lose his job. Again he did not tell his parents this. In a longer letter to his parents dated Wednesday, 2 December 1936, ‘9.30pm’, McLaren outlined the horror of the bombing and what the people were endur- ing, as well as the poverty in the villages. 7 He told them that he is learning a lot about the history and culture of the area (near Madrid). He talked positively about the experiences of fl ying across the Pyrenees and the kindness and hos- pitality of the villagers but was obviously aff ected by the horror. He asked for donations to help them. Th e horror of what he witnessed was recounted more than once to Biddy Russell. In December 1936, when he was safely back in London and work- ing on the fi lm, he talked about the urgency of the work, “Its so important to get this Spanish fi lm out soon , that I’m letting everything else go to Hell’ (14 December 1936). 8 He outlined the terrible situation, especially for the children, and described the lack of medical attention. His party visited the only hospital in Madrid that had not been bombed. ‘Th e civilians are hav- ing a terrible time of it. Its criminal that so little’s being done to give medical assistance.’ ‘Wait until you see our fi lm & you’ll see what its really like. By God, its criminal. By the way the GPO Film Unit & my visit to Spain must not be mentioned in the same breathe please.’ 9 Th is secrecy was again reiter- ated, the political aspect presumably seen at the time as sensitive. If the fi lm had not offi cially been sanctioned by the GPO, Grierson had certainly been involved in its inception, even if only by virtue of knowing what McLaren was doing (and setting up the opportunity to learn camera work fi rst hand). Th is plea is interesting, as it reveals the diffi cult political position Grierson was in. With the benefi t of an historical lens we can see that the fi lm was too important to Grierson to go through the GPO offi cially, and as such both Montague and McLaren were offi cially on leave while away fi lming.