Walter Tournier
Filed under: People, Animator, Artist, Director, Puppeteer, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, Documentary, Stop Motion, Technicolor, Tournier Animation, Uruguay, Walter Tournier,
Full Name:Walter Tournier
Occupation / Title:Animator, Artist, Director, Puppeteer
Date of birth:14/07/1944
Date of death:present
Birthplace:Montevideo, Uruguay
Associated studios:C3M (Cinemateca del Tercer Mundo, Montevideo, 1969-1974)
IMAGNENES, 1985-1994/96
Tournier Animation, 1994/96-present
Biography
Walter Tournier is a Uruguayan animator, director, and sculptor known for his specialization in stop-motion animation.
Tournier studied at the Faculty of Architecture in Montevideo when he discovered his true interest in film (“Walter Tournier”). He joined C3M (Cinemateca del Tercer Mundo, Montevideo, 1969-1974), where he produced his debut film, En la Selva hay Mucho por Hacer (In the Jungle There is Much to Do)(1973) (Ibid.).
In the forthcoming years until 1985, Tournier was in exile in Peru, where he produced a series of stop-motion animated shorts and documentaries, including El còndor y el zorro (The Condo and the Fox) (1980), El clavel desobefiente (The Disobedient Carnation) (1981), Nuestro pequeño paraíso (Our Little Paradise) (1983), and On Paper a Dream (1983) (Ibid.). Among which, The Condo and Our Little Paradise were awarded Animation Choir at the New Latin American Cinema Festival in Cuba in 1980 and 1983, respectively (Ibid.).
As he returned to Uruguay from exile, Tournier founded IMAGENES with Mario Jacob. During his time at IMAGENES, Touriner produced The Tales of Don Verídico (1986), which was awarded the Best Animation Award at the South American Short Film Festival in Paraguay and the Best Selection Award at the 1st Latin American Film and Video Festival in Argentina in 1990; Octavio Podestá (1988), which was awarded the Golden Caravel Grand Prize at the National Film and Video Competition in Uruguay and the 1st Best Video Documentary Award at the Latin American Film and Video Festival in Argentina; Los Escondites del Sol (The Hiding Places of the Sun) (1990), which was awarded the 3rd Prize at the Uruguayan Film Library Festival in Uruguay; and La Rambla Montevideana (1992) (Ibid.).
Around 1994–1996, Tournier left IMAGENES and founded a new studio, Tournier Animation, with Lala Seeveri. He stays in the new studio until present days, during which his known works include Los Tatitos (1997), the awarded El jefe y el carpintero (The Chief and the Carpenter), Caribbean Christmas (2001), and Selkirk, el verdadero Robinson Crusoe (2012) (“Animaciones: Stop-Motion Para Niños Y Adultos”).
Currently, Tournier works as an artist whose sculptures were exhibited in multiple galleries in the city of Montevideo, including the Palleiro Gallery in 2017, Casa Bernarda Castilla in 2018, and a home studio in 2019 (“Biografía”).
References:
“Animaciones: Stop-Motion Para Niños Y Adultos.” Tournier Animation, tournieranimation.com/animacion.
“Biografía.” Walter Tournier, waltertournier.com/biografia.
“EN LA SELVA HAY MUCHO POR HACER (1974).” cinedata.uy, www.cinedata.uy/catalogo/en-la-selva-hay-mucho-por-hacer.
“Walter Tournier.” IMAGENES, web.archive.org/web/20140102200535/http://imagenes.org/CVs/WT.htm.