This is Grim Natwick. I first read of him in the Winter 1975 issue of FILM COMMENT magazine where I learned he created Betty Boop for the Max Fleischer Studio and served as principal animation artist on the character of SNOW WHITE for Walt Disney.
At Toronto’s Rochdale College in 1968 I met Judith Merril, the mother of modern SF. J. G. Ballard called Judy the strongest woman in a genre created by weak and ineffectual men. That is one helluva statement in any direction we look at it.
Judy said, “At Rochdale there are no teachers. Each Rochdalian is called to be their own teacher. There are resource people. These are people who having achieved much in their lives are here to speak with young people starting out. We are not here as teachers. The young are called here to be their own teacher.”
This was interesting to me personally as I had just bought my first copy (of many) of THE WILHELM/BAYNES edition of THE I CHING which teaches that learning and doing must be wed otherwise both are dead.
I embraced the Rochdale idea of being my own teacher.
Years later reading THE NEW TESTAMENT I learned that Jesus said, “Call no one teacher. Let no one call you teacher.”
Jesus expressed the Rochdale idea long before Rochdale.
In 1970 a friend invited me out to Hollywood. I went. All I had by way of identification was a Toronto Public Library Card. I travelled from Toronto to Hollywood in 1970 with only a Toronto Public Library Card for identification. That is how much we have lost.
I arrived in Hollywood to learn the house my friend was staying in was a bordello (that is not an Italian desert).
“You’re hot. I can use you,” said the fellow running it.
I said, “I can make love. I can’t charge a fee for it.”
He said, “You have to pay rent.”
I had no money. I looked for work.
The next morning after walking nearly 20 miles on an empty stomach I found myself at the door of a mission. I wanted nothing to do with them. As I walked away I reflected I had not had breakfast, would not have lunch or supper and that they probably had coffee and doughnuts.
I went inside, filled out theirs forms and filled myself with coffee and doughnuts.
I stated I was Canadian. I stated, knowing I could not be hired without one, that I did not have a work permit.
“I can’t hire you without a permit. What are you doing here,” said the man in charge.
I told him bluntly, “I’m living in a house. It’s time to pay rent. It is either peddle my ass or get a job.” I chose the words “peddle my ass” deliberately figuring he would throw me out.
He said, “The LORD says I am supposed to help you. The law of the land says I can’t. What do I do?”
I said, “That is your question.”
He said, to my surprise, “Then I have to hire you.”
In that moment I understood there are two laws: the law of GOD; the law of man.
Who we become depends entirely upon which of those two laws we choose to break.
“What did you do in Toronto?” said a Los Angeles police officer who had stopped me on my way home after I showed him my Toronto Public Library Card.
“I showed films at Rochdale College,” I replied.
When he said, “Do you mean Canada’s Communist Training Centre?” I felt at once that if the police in Hollywood knew about Rochdale College then Rochdale College had to be the most important place on earth to be. I had to get back to Toronto.
The police gave me a ride to where I was staying. I had them drop me off before I got there.
In front of the house was a car with Ontario plates.
A week later I walked into Rochdale College. I met with the then President Peter Turner. I said, “I want to be part of this.”
“What can you do?” said Peter.
I replied, “I an give you a film program.”
Peter said, “Then you are Director of Cinema Studies. We can give you a space. We can’t give you money.”
I replied, “I don’t need money but can I borrow $5?”
With that $5 I printed some posters.
This is PRIDE MONTH in Toronto.
Toronto is not a city I am proud of.
For decades people in this city have turned a blind eye while myself and others have been slandered with street flyers designed to incite hatred and violence upon us (Google “Oliver Moore/Reg Hartt/The Globe and Mail”).
Chester Brown ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chester_Brown ) created a poster designed to help me raise funds. That is an incredible honour.
That poster was turned into an ad for used bikes being sold by the people doing their best to ruin me.
All this is actually for the good.
THE ROCHDALE idea of being our own teacher is the only idea which matters.
“Most teachers say you should go to school to get your degree to have something to fall back on. Aside from being a huge lie, that also creates a very high level of mediocrity, because nobody who really believes that is going to take the leap of faith required to be a serious artist. Stay out of school.”–Ellis Marsalis to his sons Branford, Delfeayo and Wynton.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YonLUG7gRyY
I keep THE ROCHDALE idea alive at The CineForum in Toronto.
Myself and The CineForum are a resource.
“At the top in Toronto is a very high level of mediocrity,” said Jane Jacobs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqlqWyZFka8 .
I decided in 1970 to return to Toronto to be part of the most important experiment in alternate education ever undertaken anywhere/anytime: ROCHDALE COLLEGE.
I trusted I could do in my life what Jesus had done with a few loaves and fishes in his.
As far as I know I am the only person doing that right now.
Will Sloan is not Emo Philips.
Will Sloan thinks me mad saying be your own teacher.
Emo Philips sent me a postcard on which he wrote, “I honestly believe you are the greatest teacher I know for only you preach the evil of teaching. Well, not only you. David Mamet confirms everything you have been saying all along.”
Emo is not the only one.
In life we either trust GOD or we do not.
If we trust GOD the storm beats against our house in vain.
If we do not trust GOD the storm sweeps our house away.
Trusting GOD does not mean dropping bombs on those who seek to destroy us.
It means TURNING THE OTHER CHEEK.
It means leaving VENGEANCE TO GOD.
It means praying for and doing good to those who seek to destroy us.
Why? Because otherwise we become what we hate.
“Reg Hartt has had an amazing impact given the size of the venue and the esoteric nature of the programming. He’s had an incredible impact on the city. No one else is doing it. No one else has ever done it,” stated a Toronto writer.
“Reg Hartt teaches like Neal Cassady drove a bus.”—Joe Fiorito, Toronto Star.
Believe me if you were in a bus driven by Neal Cassady you would not need to do it twice to remember it.
“REG HARTT is what living in a metropolis is all about. He personifies the city as a meeting place of ideas, as a feast of experience and discussion and debate, as a triumph over the banal and soporific of the original and provoking.”–MICHAEL VALPY, GLOBE AND MAIL.
THE I CHING tells me there is a wrath coming down which will make me weep for those it falls on.
The City of Toronto chose Barabbas.
This world always chooses Barabbas.
Called a queer as a boy Jean Cocteau said, “Whatever the world condemns you for make it your own. It is yourself.”
Being called QUEER is a compliment. It means we different from the destroyers.
The challenge is not to see with mountains of money the wise of this world invest in us. They do this because they believe their investment will profit them.
The challenge is to see what we can do with a few loaves and fishes.
The challenge is not to see what we can learn in the classroom.
The challenge is to see what we can do by becoming our own teacher.
I learned we can do a helluva lot.
ROCHDALE COLLEGE lives at THE CINEFORUM in Toronto.
Be your own teacher.
In 1990, the year Grim Natwick turned 100, I bought a full page ad that let the world know it. Why? Because I loved him.
Here, because I trusted in the Rochdale College idea, is your chance to learn from the man Chuck Jones called, “The Merlin on animation.”
Grim Natwick
1980 Toronto
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDAcJW66MkM
1982 Toronto
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CEYYLr9tRU
Grim Motion Picture Academy 1984
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0AivWOg7bI
Grim Natwick 100th Birthday 1990
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEWI5WodkD8&t=565s
BASQUIAT _ 12×15-_gold frame- pen & India ink-_original
