Rob Munday
My grandad was a navy man, and although he had some stories to tell about his time in the forces, they were nothing compared to that of fellow sailor Charlie Mayers. On a December morning in 1917, Mayers was onboard the cargo ship Middleham Castle when the SS Imo and the SS Mont-Blanc collided in Halifax harbour, setting off an explosion that would destroy an entire neighbourhood and kill thousands of people. Despite being thrown around 2km by the blast and having his clothes torn off him by the force, he lived to tell his story – a tale that is poetically reimagined in Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby’s acclaimed animation The Flying Sailor.
Although there’s not much written about Mayers and his unexpected journey, after visiting a museum in Halifax with an exhibition dedicated to the explosion, the filmmakers found themselves fascinated by his experience and decided to make it their focus of their next short film. “When we saw this little write-up about him we were intrigued” Tilby reveals in conversation with Ben Mitchell for Skwigly. Explaining that they wanted to combine the reported sense of peace common in most near-death experiences, with the horror of his situation, the pair approached their short almost like “a ballet”. Adding that “it was just sort of so beautiful to think of this pink, naked sailor up there, amongst all this debris” and found the idea of slowing his airborne adventure down both “funny and quite moving at the same time”.
As the sailor is sent flying through the air, his life flashes before his eyes.
She wasn’t wrong! The Flying Sailor provokes a real mix of emotion throughout its eight-minute run-time. Opening in quite a jaunty fashion, as we watch the ships collide and our titular marine man witness the event while smoking dockside, this breezy beginning is soon sent flying when the explosion arrives. From here on, things really pick as we’re hit with a bombardment of disorientating images, before things slow down once again as our now naked protagonist twirls through the air on his oddly tranquil maiden flight.
To bring the explosion and their sailor’s journey to life Forbis and Tilby adopted a mixed-media approach (3D, 2D, live action, and photographs) and embraced 3D animation after realising “it just was not feasible for us to blow down a city in 2D animation”. Despite tackling some new techniques and fearing the film may “look horrible in a digital way” the outcome is still distinctly recognisable as a Forbis and Tilby film. There’s just something about the character design and the general tone of the short that you instantly know it’s a film by the pair. Despite only creating three films together, over a 23-year period, the Canadian animators have managed to create a recognisable, trademark style, the only downside being you wish they treated us to it more often.
With both of their previous shorts, When the Day Breaks (1999) and Wild Life (2011), nominated for the Best Animated Short Film Oscar, it came as no surprise to see The Flying Sailor on the latest Academy Award shortlists when they were announced earlier in December.