Chris Lan­dreth turned to ani­ma­tion as a sec­ond career and even­tu­al­ly land­ed an Oscar with Ryan (2004), a short ani­mat­ed film based on the life of Ryan Larkin, an artist who pro­duced influ­en­tial ani­mat­ed films dur­ing the 1960s, before falling into a per­son­al down­ward spi­ral. You can revis­it two of Lark­in’s ani­mat­ed films (both ref­er­enced in the film above) on NFB.CA. Start with the Oscar-nom­i­nat­ed short, Walk­ing, from 1969, and then turn to Street Musique (1972). And don’t for­get to down­load NFB’s free iPad app where you can watch Ryan in a portable yet visu­al­ly com­pelling for­mat.

The Landreth/Larkin films men­tioned above have been added to our col­lec­tion, 4,000+ Free Movies Online: Great Clas­sics, Indies, Noir, West­erns, Doc­u­men­taries & More.

If you would like to sup­port the mis­sion of Open Cul­ture, con­sid­er mak­ing a dona­tion to our site. It’s hard to rely 100% on ads, and your con­tri­bu­tions will help us con­tin­ue pro­vid­ing the best free cul­tur­al and edu­ca­tion­al mate­ri­als to learn­ers every­where. You can con­tribute through Pay­Pal, Patre­on, and Ven­mo (@openculture). Thanks!

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Watch 66 Oscar-Nom­i­nat­ed-and-Award-Win­ning Ani­mat­ed Shorts Online, Cour­tesy of the Nation­al Film Board of Cana­da

200+ Films by Indige­nous Direc­tors Now Free to View Online: A New Archive Launched by the Nation­al Film Board of Cana­da

Nation­al Film Board of Cana­da Launch­es Free iPad App

Ryan Wood­ward has worked on the art direc­tion of many big name Hol­ly­wood films – Iron­man 2, Spi­der­man 2 & 3, The Iron Giant, the list goes on. But he had an idea for a short ani­mat­ed film, a love sto­ry expressed through dance, and it led to a fruit­ful col­lab­o­ra­tion with dance chore­o­g­ra­ph­er Kori Waka­mat­su. This short, behind-the-scenes film doc­u­ments their artis­tic col­lab­o­ra­tion, reveal­ing every­thing that went into mak­ing Thought of You, the 2D ani­mat­ed film fea­tured above.