About

I am an ex-pat Canadian film critic and literary scholar living in Germany.  Since 2006, I have written the film blog Nishikata Film Review, about Japanese Visual Culture.  I am known in particular for my writings on independent animation from Japan.  

I came to my love of animation through my childhood in Canada, where I was exposed at an early age to the films of the NFB and wonderful public broadcasting animation on TVO.  As my parents were school teachers, they would sometimes bring home a 16mm projector with films to watch.  One of my earliest animation memories is watching Godzilla Meets Bambi at one of my birthday parties.  

In the 1980s, NFB films became available on video tape in the public library and this is how I came to discover the wonderful films of Norman McLaren, Evelyn Lambart, Co Hoedeman, Caroline Leaf, Jacques Drouin,  and many more.  

In 2013, I began teaching Canadian culture to German university students and high school teachers in Hesse and discovered that the wonderful teaching materials on the NFB website have limited access.  Many of the NFB teaching guides for the films are also out of date, or aimed at children.  So I decided to start this blog in order to share my knowledge and teaching materials with others.

I hope you will learn to love and appreciate Canadian animation as much as I do.

Cathy Munroe Hotes