A puppeteer makes sense of an overwhelming world by shrinking it down to size

The way that the Canadian puppeteer Ronnie Burkett tells it, it was an aimless, fortuitous dive into the ‘P’ volume of an encyclopaedia as a child that led him to his life’s work. Produced on the occasion of his receiving a Lifetime Artistic Achievement Award at the Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards in Canada, this short takes viewers on a rollicking ride through Burkett’s life and career – which are in many ways inseparable. Bringing viewers into his home studio, which overflows with both work-in-progress marionettes as well as his expressive final products, Burkett details how growing up as a queer kid in Medicine Hat, Alberta led him to a craft that allowed him to shrink the world down to a ‘manageable size’. Featuring several of his favourite characters, including the faded diva Esmé Massengill and the provincial widow Edna Rural, the film makes for a joyful introduction to Burkett’s small-yet-expansive artistic universe.