Grieving family finishes late son’s claymation film

A family in Cape Breton took on the daunting task of finishing a video their son started, but was never able to complete before his death.

Cameron MacLeod died from an inoperable brain tumour a year and a half ago.

This weekend his clay animation short film will premiere at the Lumiere Arts Festival in Sydney.

Kelly and Ken MacLeod said their son was like any other 12-year-old boy before the diagnoses: he loved video games and playing with his friends and art. He was especially drawn to making figures out of clay and using them in stop-motion videos.

In 2011 he was diagnosed with a terminal brain tumour.

Along with their other son, Jordan, the MacLeod's packed as much as they could into the year they were given, including a trip to Disney World and Canada's Wonderland.

 They celebrated Cameron's 14th birthday, just weeks before he died.

“Cameron's spirit is just, like it's always with me,” said his mother.

After his death, Kelly decided to take Cameron’s more than 1,000 pictures of clay men and finish the project he had started.

Cameron also left his family a large catalogue of video diaries. The videos show him being goofy and explaining how to create clay people.

Kelly says the project helped with her grieving.“When I saw this incomplete, I wanted to complete it for him. I wanted people to see his legacy, one of his legacies,” she said.

The video is “about a clay man that died and went to heaven and there's a group of clay men that gather around, they're kind of relaxed at first and then they decide, ‘Well, let's go help him.'”

As they laboured on the video the MacLeods said they thought of entering Lumiere, the annual arts festival in downtown Sydney.

They applied and were accepted.

Ken MacLeod said it’s what his son would have wanted.

“Cameron would be proud and he would be excited to know that his project would in Lumiere, and we know he would be thrilled,” he said.

The short film will be shown at Rascal Kidz Clothing on Saturday night.