Who is Norman McLaren?

The terrible thing is we have to ask. One of Scotland's most adventurous and innovative animators and filmmakers, McLaren (1914-1987) won an Oscar, a Bafta and praise from Francois Truffaut and Pablo Picasso no less. But he remains something of a secret in his homeland.

That may be about to change. In this, the year of his centenary (he was born on April 11, 1914), a huge celebration of his life and work is being held in Glasgow, Edinburgh and his home town of Stirling, as well as across the UK as part of Culture 2014. A plaque is to be unveiled at 21 Albert Place in Stirling next week; there will also be an exhibition at the Smith Gallery in the town, workshops around the country and a BBC documentary.

But at the heart of the celebrations will be McLaren's films. And that's as it should be. McLaren was a radical innovator. In his early films he scratched and painted directly onto film stock. His Oscar-winning film Neighbours - a humorous and horrific commentary on the Cold War - used the stop-motion technique pixillation.

But all of this only matters because the innovation was married to the material. McLaren's animations are often music videos before the fact, a thrilling visual interpretation of the sound. His film Begone Dull Care, which riffs on an Oscar Peterson track is a perfect example. "Virtually alone among jazz films, it works with the music rather than against it," film historian Jonathan Rosenbaum has argued. "It is as proper to say that in Begone Dull Care, Peterson illustrates McLaren." His 1968 short Pas De Deux may be the most beautiful dance film ever made. But then McLaren once said: "For me, cinema is a form of dance."

Of course the reason McLaren is not as well known in his own country is that he spent most of his life out of it. After studying at Glasgow School of Art he decamped to New York just before the war and then headed to Canada to work with fellow expat John Grierson. His long-term partner Guy Glover was also a director for the National Film Board in Canada.

But he never lost touch with home. He sent letters to his parents, William and Jean, signing them "Your affectionate son, Norman", until their deaths in the 1960s. Now held at the McLaren Archive in Stirling University, the letters tell the story of a filmmaker who was in Spain during the Civil War and China during the Communist Revolution. And they reveal a man devoted to his craft on his own terms. In the extracts below we get a glimpse of McLaren's life in his own words.

In 1936 McLaren travelled to Spain as a cameraman: Wednesday, December 2, 1936, 9.30pm

"We arrived at Alicante and went straight inland by lorry to Madrid, where we spent 5 days. The scenes we saw were hard to believe. A quarter of Madrid … is in Ruins. We saw large German air planes of the Junker type come across and drop bombs on all parts of the city. The bombs are very large and not only totally wreck huge 7 or 8 storey buildings but also set them on fire. There is no protection anywhere, not even in the cellars and basements, because if one is down there and a bomb hits the building one gets entombed alive, and eventually burnt. We visited points where bombs had just fallen. The destruction was terrific. Hundreds of men immediately get to work clearing the debris,in order to try and rescue the men women and children who are trapped underneath the colossal mountain of twisted ironwork, fallen walls,and smashed up furniture,some of whom may be alive, others squashed and wounded,and others dead.

... The Morgues are full of the bodies; children and women who are the majority of the victims of Franco's airplanes.(We filmed the morgues also) …The rebels seem to have no scruples about bombing anything."

Letter to parents 20 March, 1938. from London:

"Last night … a friend of Guys was along for dinner & we spent the rest of the evening talking about the world political situation. I think it goes from bad to worse … It will end up with a long & terrible war - infinitely worse than the last one & probably much longer … Under the shadow of such a future, it is quite impossible to think of a career in film directing with any hope at all. It is a shame but all the dreams I've had, amount to nothing in the face of what's going to happen."

Letter from New York City, December 19, 1939:

"I have had a job of hand painting a short 2 minute film for the National Broadcasting Company's television program … It is going to be televised tomorrow evening … The film is a sort of moving "Xmas card" - or Xmas film. We took the tune "Jingle Bells" on a record, & I drew on clear film with Indian ink & a mapping pen, hundreds of little drawings (3,600 to be exact) each slightly different from the one before. I drew all sorts of Xmas symbols, stars, bells, Xmas trees, stockings, holly, plum pluddings, etc., and made all of them dance & play hide & seek with each other, and do acrobatics. The result is a very gay + lively little cartoon film. …

The idea of drawing straight onto the film without a camera is new - & my own one. The television people advised me to patent it."

Ottawa, August 16, 1945:

"I arrived back in Ottawa from my holiday yesterday, V-J Day. The day was glorious and the streets were filled with people,in their brightest clothes. The young people were celebrating in a wild way, people were filing paper from windows, bands were playing,car drivers were honking their horns, people were tooting whistles and turning rackets, there was a big parade in the centre of the town in the afternoon and in the evening,the streets in the center of town,were cleared for dancing. Masses of people jammed the sidewalks and streets. It was a scene that is difficult to forget. I suppose you must have had quite some celebrations in Stirling. What were they like?"

July 18, 1946:

"By the way,I received what was for me the greatest compliment and encouragement that I can think of. The Film Board got a report from Paris the other day, saying that Picasso, probably the world's greatest living painter saw two of my films (Hen-hop, and C'est L'aviron) and was very much impressed by them. This stimulated me no end; even tho he is an old man now, and of a school that is out of date, I have the greatest respect for his work."

January 24, 1948:

"I believe in doing things when I'm feeling in the mood for it, and the spirit is upon me. That's when it really means something to me,at other times it becomes nothing but a duty; and what is more dismal than a duty, if it is nothing more than a duty? That's a philosophy about life that I believe in. Especially in my work; but in everything too. Do a thing when the spirit is upon you … Of course it is not always possible, but it is worth trying to do. The opposite is, of course, that it is not worth doing anything, if your spirit is not in it. That's why I turned down a very good offer to do a job in Hollywood recently … What is all the money in the world worth,if your spirit is not in the job you are doing."

In 1949 McLaren travelled to China at Unesco's behest, to teach filmmaking.

Letter from Unesco, Pehpei, January 11, 1950, Szechuan, China:

"I am doing well and,apart from a spot of dysentery am keeping fit … The changeover to the new government went very peacefully here; there was no fighting at Pehpei, tho in the surrounding countryside there was quite a bit of looting by the retreating nationalist troops. The whole town turned out to welcome the People's Army and there was much singing and dancing, and the schools and colleges put on a big parade. There is much enthusiasm by the country folk for the new regime, for the old government was so evil,corrupt and full of graft; the old authorities lived lavishly and luxuriously, while most of the farming folk are near starvation; the new authorities live very humbly, and are very strict and puritan."

In 1954 he was invited to film festivals in Brazil and Argentina:

"I left Rio for Buenos Aires on the 5th March in a planeful of Hollywood stars very few of whom I knew since I go to the cinema so seldom. You may know some of their names - Errol Flynn, Walter Pidgeon, Edward G Robinson, Mary Pickford, Fred MacMurray and so on. Jeanette MacDonald was sitting beside me … The first day we arrived we were all introduced to President PERON informally. And so it goes - much, much too social for my taste."

His home town newspaper, the Stirling Observer, summed up his achievements in an edition of August 6, 1952, the year he made his best-known film, Neighbours:

"Dreams, backed by inexhaustible industry, is an incalculable asset to a man of talent - but not in Stirling. Such a man needs more breadth of scope than this ancient burgh can afford.

And so it is that Canada's National Film Board has Stirling's Norman McLaren, for all Britain, never mind his birthplace, could not find full and proper use for his talent."

Details of the centenary celbration can be found at www.mclaren2014.com. Thanks to the McLaren Archive, Stirling University for their help with this article.