This animation short by Ryan Larkin recounts some “comical experiences” Larkin had during his many years as a panhandler in Montreal. It tells the story of Astral Pan, a street beggar, who takes us on a wild journey from the sidewalks of a wintry Montreal day, to the gates of Heaven and Hell and back. The great filmmaker passed away before finishing his film. Spare Change was completed by a friend, producer and singer-songwriter Laurie Gordon, assisted by a team of young, devoted animators.

In this experimental animated short, Ryan Larkin creates a series of figures who move across the screen and disappear into a hole. Eventually, the hole metamorphoses into a bridge, on top of which stands the young man from whom the other figures originated.

Just watched this on the National Film Board of Canada site where they have about 300 of their material presented for your enjoyment. Having previously viewed and commented on a couple of shorts associated with animator Ryan Larkin, I was excited when Street Musique was presented on the NFB site twice in both French and English title form (otherwise, it's the same film). Starting with black-and-white live-action of a fiddle player and a mandolin player performing on a downtown sidewalk, Larkin then does abstract line drawings on white that become images that are very hard to describe. He then does some watercolor (at least that's what I think it is) images that are likewise. All this is done to the music of those two players that matches the drawings perfectly. Nothing else to say except for anyone who loves abstract animation, I highly recommend Ryan Larkin's Street Musique.

1968 Canadian animated short film directed by Ryan Larkin

She was the nymph who found refuge in the river reeds when the goat-god Pan pursued her. Syrinx is the first film of Ryan Larkin, a young artist from Norman McLaren’s student group. To illustrate the ancient Greek legend of how Pan made his pipes, he employs various charcoal sketches. Accompanying music is Claude Debussy’s Syrinx for solo flute.