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Derek Lamb (interviewed September 2005) was the head of the National Film Board of Canada during a creative surge from the mid-70s to mid-80s.  If you listened to our interview with Kaj Pindal, you already know a bit about Lamb.  However, most of you, I’m sure, if you don’t know Derek Lamb, certainly know the National Film Board of Canada, in my opinion, the longest, most consistent, run of top flight animation using almost every technique imaginable, and usually for the first time.  But this interview with Derek Lamb was conducted several years before the one with Pindal.  It happened at the lovely home of his longtime friend, Dal LaMagna, in Poulsbo, Washington State.  We did the interview on the back veranda, looking out over the Puget Sound.  Every now and then you’ll hear our tea cups clinking, and Dal asks an excellent question toward the end of the interview.  It was difficult to cut out as much UPA references, as we usually like to do, since Lamb intertwined UPA into much of what he talked about.  But, there is still plenty of meaty stuff in here, and he has some wonderful observation about animation in general, and NFB people in particualr, plus a rather surprising comment on the future of commuter animation.

Derek Lamb was born in England, and began his career in London, but he is most remembered for his guiding influence during his yeas as the Executive Producer of the National Film Board of Canada’s English Animation Studio.  He’s a multi-award wining filmmaker and producer, producing the Oscar-winner “Special Delivery”, directed by John Weldon and Eunice Macaulay, plus, he produced and scripted Eugene Fedorenko’s “Every Child”. In 1983, Derek and former wife, animator Janet Perlman, formed an independent production company. Lamb and Fedorenko collaborated on the first animation sequences for an IMAX film, “Skyward”, first presented at Expo ‘85 in Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan.  With Fedorenko and Perlman, Lamb created the animated title sequence for the PBS series Mystery!, based on the art of Edward Gorey. 

Other great Derek Lamb films include, The Great Toy Robbery, a frame of which is seen on the right, There was an Old Lady who Swallowed a Fly, talked about by both Lamb and Pindal, and History of Communications, a typical dry subject, supplied by the Canadian government, which Lamb and his NFB crew, turn into a delightful and creative animation masterpiece.  I hope you find Derek Lamb as gracious and insightful as I did, a true giant in the industry.

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This episode is sponsored by The UPA Legacy Project

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