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Up There in the Mountains

Name: Up There in the Mountains
Director: Norman McLaren
Released: 1946
Duration: 3 min

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Representation Score

0.0/10

Minimal

1946

Director

Norman McLaren

Runtime

3 minutes

Average Rating

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New Showbiz Analysis

Norman McLaren’s *Up There in the Mountains* is a groundbreaking example of modernist cinema, emphasizing formal experimentation and sensory abstraction over traditional storytelling. The film prioritizes aesthetic innovation and sensory experience over narrative structure. Because it is entirely abstract, it does not engage with issues of identity, power dynamics, or systemic representation. Its departure from conventional filmmaking is purely aesthetic, rather than socio-political.

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Category Breakdown

Does Up There in the Mountains have LGBTQ+ representation?

Minimal

The film is an abstract animation made up of geometric shapes and lines, with no characters or interpersonal relationships, so there are no LGBTQ+ themes present.

How does Up There in the Mountains portray gender?

Minimal

The work does not depict any gendered roles or social interactions. Instead, it focuses solely on the interplay of pastel colors and rhythmic patterns.

How racially and ethnically diverse is Up There in the Mountains?

Minimal

As an experimental short focused on abstract visual patterns, the film does not have a cast and avoids depicting ethnic identities.

How does Up There in the Mountains represent religion and culture?

Minimal

The film is purely formalistic and does not engage with religious or cultural institutions. There is no depiction of family or organized religion.

Does Up There in the Mountains include disability representation?

Minimal

The work does not feature sentient beings or characters, so there are no depictions of physical or neurodivergent identities.

Present on Screen

The film stands as a pioneering work of avant-garde animation and formal experimentation.
McLaren employs a sophisticated chiaroscuro-inspired technique using pastel drawings.

Limited or Absent

The film lacks any characterization or human-centric narrative elements.
The complete rejection of figurative representation prevents any engagement with social or identity-based themes.

Official Synopsis

In Là-haut sur ces montagnes, Mclaren used for the first time a chain-of-mixes (chiaroscuro) on a pastel-drawn landscape. The idea for such a technique had been planted by seeing Alexandre Alexeïeff’s Night on Bare Mountain in the late thirties.

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