Boogie-Doodle

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]

Boogie-Doodle
Directed by	Norman McLaren
Produced by	Norman McLaren
Music by	Albert Ammons
Distributed by	National Film Board of Canada (NFB)
Release date	1940 (1940)
Running time	4 minutes
Country	Canada
Language	none

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]