AllMovie

Set to the song of the same title by Canadian folk balladeer Wade Hemsworth, with backup vocals by Kate McGarrigle and Anna McGarrigle, the Chris Hinton-directed and illustrated, five-minute animated short Blackfly comically details the struggles that Hemsworth encounters while laboring as a surveyor one summer in Northern Ontario, Canada. His daily tribulations grow more unbearable during an onset of irksome black flies that refuse to leave him alone. A National Film Board of Canada-funded production, Blackfly appeared in two alternate versions -- English-language and French-language ones -- with the title of the French version listed as Mouches noirs.