Gerald Potterton

Gerald Potterton (1931-2022) was a British filmmaker who spent most of his career in Canada, directing live-action and animated shorts for the National Film Board of Canada. In the 1970s, Potterton produced and directed the recurring George the Farmer segments on Sesame Street, using the pixillation techniques pioneered by his NFB colleague Norman McLaren. The scripts specify Potterton (for his studio, Potterton Productions) for each segment.
Potterton was an assistant animator on the 1954 animated adaptation of Animal Farm before moving to Canada. He was at the National Film Board of Canada from 1955 to 1968, initially animating on shorts by Grant Munro and later directing his own. He was one of four directors (with Munro, McLaren, and Jeff Hale) on the 1965 Academy Award-nominated short Christmas Cracker. Potterton experimented with silent-style comedy films, directing Buster Keaton in 1965's The Railrodder. 
After leaving the NFB (although he would direct occasional return shorts), Potterton worked on the animated film Yellow Submarine and established his own studio. He directed a 1969 NBC Experiment in Television documentary on playwright Harold Pinter, the 1973 live-action film The Rainbow Boys, and was a sequence director on the Joe Raposo-scored Raggedy Ann and Andy. He directed the 1981 animated anthology film Heavy Metal (with the voices of John Candy, Joe Flaherty, and others). 
==External links==
*Official site (in memoriam) 
*National Film Board of Canada - selected shorts streaming
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Category:Directors