Floyd Norman To Attend Smithsonian Screening Of Floyd Norman: An Animated Life

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture will screen the documentary Floyd Norman: An Animated Life on March 10 as part of its Through the African American Lens series.

The event, presented in the museum’s Oprah Winfrey Theater, is free and open to the public with registration available here. A rare East Coast conversation with Norman will follow the screening, offering audiences an opportunity to hear directly from one of American animation’s most important figures of the 20th century.

Directed by Michael Fiore and Erik Sharkey, Floyd Norman: An Animated Life (2016) chronicles Norman’s groundbreaking, six-decade career in animation. In 1956, Norman became the first Black artist hired on a long-term basis at Walt Disney Studios. He contributed to features including Sleeping Beauty, The Sword in the Stone, and The Jungle Book, later working at studios such as Hanna-Barbera and Pixar. The film blends archival material, interviews, and original animated sequences to present an affectionate and candid portrait of a singular creative voice.

Following the screening, Norman will join museum curator LaCharles Ward for a discussion about his life and work, situating his story within a broader history of African American media arts.