Al Sens: The Man

Al Sens was drawing and publishing cartoons ever since he was a teenager. Born Albert Sens on December 27^th, 1933, he went on to attend the Vancouver School of Art (now Emily Car University of Art and Design) in the 50s. “After his studies, Sens illustrated cartoons for a variety of Canadian and American magazines including the Saturday Evening Post, Colliers, Liberty and Macleans,”¹ even, at one point, Playboy, according to his own biography (featured below). As less work became available for professional cartoonists, Sens transitioned into animation:

When the magazine world collapsed in the late 50’s, due to the arrival of that dysfunctional new media called television, most cartoonists perished but I survived by buying a camera and pretending to be an animator. We were mistaken for laminators in those days which was a more reputable craft.²

In 1976, writing for Cinema Canada, N’eema Lakin notes:

A growing number of animators are also working independently in individual styles on personal films as well as commercial projects, breaking the previously sharply defined boundaries between the amateur and the professional, and between the commercial and the avant-garde.

Vancouver supports a small but active group of animators. Perhaps not more than 12 individuals could be classified as full-time professional animators. ³

Al Sens was one of the few to make it as a professional animator, despite feeling like he was “pretending” his way through it. In 1958 he opened his own animation studio, Al Sens Animation Limited, producing personal, commercial, and non-commercial films with his wife, Shigeko. He was a pivotal figure in Vancouver’s animation scene and he was generous in his support of younger or less prosperous animators:

Al made more animated short films in Canada than any other independent animated filmmaker … In the early 1970s, he had one of the only 35mm animation-camera services in town, and his generosity made it possible for a large number of independent animators to make films prior to the computer-scanning era. It can be stated without blinking: no Al Sens, no Vancouver independent animation, period.⁴

From 1975-89 he was a part-time lecturer at UBC’s Film and Television Department.⁵ Before transitioning to UBC, Sens was a staff member at SFU (Burnaby campus). He even made the news in The Ubyssey in 1968 when the university commissioned him to made educational animated films for the sciences:⁶

Somewhere along the way from Sens’s early talent in cartoons, to “pretending” to be an animator, he had really become an an animator and helped pave the way for new generations. Of his experience learning to animate, he says: “I was self taught; there really was no place to study animation in those days.”⁷ In 2014 he was recognized for his efforts:

The 2014 Ian Caddell Award for Achievement went to Canadian animation pioneer Al Sens, the self-taught founder of Vancouver’s first animation studio, Al Sens Animation, in 1958.⁸

Here’s some images of Al Sens I came across in my archival adventure at RBSC:

 

 

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1. “Fonds RBSC-ARC 1729 – Al Sens collection.” RBSC/OSC Archives. UBC, n.d. Web. 8 Mar. 2016. http://rbscarchives.library.ubc.ca/index.php/al-sens-collection.
2. Sens, Al. “A biography (of sorts).” [19–?]. Al Sens Collection. RBSC-ARC 1729, box 2, folder 27. Rare Books and Special Collections, Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver.
3. p. 35: Lakin, N’eema. “Animation in Vancouver.” Cinema Canada, Aug. 1976. Web. 2 Apr. 2016. http://cinemacanada.athabascau.ca/index.php/cinema/article/viewFile/613/685.
4. Marv Newland. qtd. in Eisner, Ken. “Vancouver turns 125: Top 10 pioneers of Vancouver’s screen scene.” The Georgia Straight, 30 Mar. 2011. Web. 20 Mar. 2016. http://www.straight.com/article-383932/vancouver/top-10-pioneers-vancouvers-screen-scene.
5. Benson, Marilyn Leigh. “The Birth of the Frederic Wood Theatre: How the Early Development of the University of British Columbia Fostered the Establishment of the Theatre Department and the Frederic Wood Theatre.” MA thesis. University of British Columbia, 1991. Open Collections. UBC, 2010. Web. 10 Apr. 2016. https://open.library.ubc.ca/cIRcle/collections/ubctheses/831/items/1.0098713.
6. p. 13: “SFU cartoons teach sciences.” The Ubyssey, 16 Feb. 1968. Web. 2 Apr. 2016. http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/pdfs/ubyssey/UBYSSEY_1968_02_16.pdf.
7. p. 36: Lakin, N’eema. “Animation in Vancouver.” Cinema Canada, Aug. 1976. Web. 2 Apr. 2016. http://cinemacanada.athabascau.ca/index.php/cinema/article/viewFile/613/685.
8. Lederman, Marsha. “Vancouver Film Critics Circle names 12 Years a Slave best film of 2013.” The Globe and Mail, 8 Jan. 2016. Web. 2 Apr. 2016. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/film/vancouver-film-critics-circle-names-12-years-a-slave-best-film-of-2013/article16229736/.
9. “Biographies.” Toronto Film Society, 1965. n.p. Al Sens Collection. RBSC-ARC 1729, box 2, folder 30. Rare Books and Special Collections, Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver. Print.
10. p. 15: Belanger, Lynka. “Animation: Animation in TV Ads.” Canadian Cartoonist, 1990: 14-15. Al Sens Collection. RBSC-ARC 1729, box 2, folder 30. Rare Books and Special Collections, Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver. Print photocopy.