The Flying Sailor (2022)

This movie is based on a real event. On the morning of December 6th, 1917, the steamship Mont-Blanc, inbound from the Atlantic with war material for France, entered the Halifax Harbour Narrows. The Norwegian ship Imo left Bedford Basin, outbound for New York to load supplies for occupied Belgium. In homes, schools, and factories lining the shores, people started a new day in a busy wartime port. When Imo crossed The Narrows into the harbor in Halifax and struck Mont-Blanc’s bow, Mont-Blanc’s main cargo of bulk high explosives met the barrels of petrochemical on deck, it triggered the blast and the ship was transformed into a three-kiloton bomb in a busy modern port. 1700 were killed and 9,000 were wounded in the blast. commands the right balance of poignancy and levity. It’s undeniably funny--the unsuspecting sailor has his clothes blasted off, and his naked form is catapulted into the air, where he somersaults over the town that he was strolling down the streets of seconds before. The short animation employs a wealth of techniques (3D, 2D, live action, and photographs), along with a bold mix of comedy, suspense, philosophy and playful abstraction, and is an exhilarating meditation on a few seconds of a life, and a celebration of the wonder and fragility of being.