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Tali -
Born in 1964 in Buckingham, Quebec, Tali studied graphics at Dawson College in Montreal before heading off to France to travel. She resumed her studies while abroad, attending the Arts and Communication program at the École des beaux-arts in Toulouse and the École des beaux-arts in Perpignan. She returned to Quebec before completing her studies.
Back in Montreal, she began working with the mentally handicapped, doing illustration, graphics and cartooning on the side. Circumstance brought her into contact with the National Film Board of Canada, where she was encouraged to try her hand at animation. With the NFB's support, she made a one-minute animated film. She submitted the film along with a script she'd written to the Cinéaste recherché(e) competition held by the NFB's French Animation Studio. Winning the competition in 1994 gave her the opportunity to make her first animated film, Under the Weather (1997), using drawings photocopied onto cels. The film, a humorous tale with an environmental message, is notable for its strong visual style.
In 2002, Tali completed her second short, the bitingly funny Pirouette-a work that examines the yawning gulf between consumers and their food and the tendency to forget that food was once alive. Her extraordinary characters and their bizarre actions both charm and repel, but remain compelling throughout.
Her third work, At Home with Mrs. Hen, was completed in January 2006. A film by turns touching and comical, At Home with Mrs. Hen pokes gentle fun at motherhood as a temperamental, tantrum-prone tyke is set on the right path gently but firmly by his loving mother.
