| Boogie-Doodle | |
| Director: | Norman McLaren |
| Producer: | Norman McLaren |
| Music: | Albert Ammons |
| Distributor: | National Film Board of Canada (NFB) |
| Runtime: | 4 minutes |
| Country: | Canada |
| Language: | none |
Boogie-Doodle is a 1940 drawn-on-film visual music short by Norman McLaren, set to the boogie-woogie music of African-American jazz pianist Albert Ammons.[1] [2]
Though released by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) in 1941, Boogie-Doodle was actually made by McLaren in New York City in 1940, a year before he was invited by John Grierson to Canada to found the NFB's animation unit.[3] McLaren, who had been influenced by the hand-painted films of Len Lye, was in New York exploring the technique on a grant from the Solomon Guggenheim Foundation, creating Boogie-Doodle along with three other cameraless films: Dots, Loops and Stars and Stripes.[4]
The animation in Boogie-Doodle coincides exactly with Ammon's musical piece, with McLaren's animation beginning at the very first bar and concluding at the final note.[5]