A printer’s devil pays homage to his long-time mentor in a love letter animated by the same ancient letterpress she taught him to master.
When he was 13, Duncan Major spent a summer working as a printer’s devil for artist Tara Bryan in her bustling Newfoundland studio. Surrounded by ink, paper and hand-operated presses, Duncan discovered a passion for letterpress printing that would shape the course of his life. Years later, following Tara’s passing, he creates Imprint—a poetic animated short made using the very materials and tools Duncan’s mentor left behind. Blending letterpress animation, watercolour painting, photography and cut-outs, Imprint is both a heartfelt farewell and a celebration of creative inheritance. Through tactile imagery and an evocative soundscape, the film reflects on mentorship, grief and the enduring marks people leave on one another. At once intimate and universal, Imprint reminds us that art lives not only in what we create, but in the lives we touch along the way.
Imprint, Duncan Major, provided by the National Film Board of Canada