When a nearby ship explodes, a sailor is launched on an unexpected existential voyage.[9] The 8-minute short explores the fragility of life through a sailor's near-death experience[10] inspired by the real life catastrophic Halifax Explosion of 1917. The last credit states the film is dedicated to "Charlie Mayers - A Sailor who, in the Halifax Explosion of 1917, flew over 2 kilometers and lived to tell about it."[11][12]
Inspiration
Charles Mayers was an officer aboard the SS Middleham Castle, a ship moored at a wharf in Halifax Harbour on the morning of the explosion. Mayers was blow from the ship's deck to land on Fort Needham Hill overlooking the harbour, injured and naked but alive. Tilby and Forbis were inspired by the story when they encountered it on a visit the to Halifax Explosion exhibit at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax.[13]
^Milligan, Mercedes (2022-11-18). "Watch 'The Flying Sailor' in The New Yorker's Screening Room Today". Animation Magazine. Retrieved 2022-11-20. Forbis and Tilby are Calgary-based animators who have shared Best Animated Short Film Academy Award nominations for When the Day Breaks (1999) and Wild Life (2011), with Tilby also nominated individually for Strings (1991).
^Robinson, Chris (2022-07-29). "Know Your Indie Filmmaker: Amanda Forbis And Wendy Tilby". Cartoon Brew. Retrieved 2022-11-20. The duo just finished the short, The Flying Sailor. The film is inspired by the apparently true story of a man who survived being blown a mile into the sky during the Halifax Explosion of 1917.
^Cooke, Stephen. "Animated short inspired by Halifax Explosion to premiere at TIFF 2022 | SaltWire". www.saltwire.com. Retrieved 2022-11-20. The collision of the Mont Blanc and the Imo in the Halifax Explosion is shown in The Flying Sailor, a new animated film from the National Film Board receiving its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September. - National Film Board
1 These two films were given honorable mentions rather than officially winning the award, but are included here as no other winner was named above them.
