Editing Why Man Creates (section)

{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox film
| name           = Why Man Creates
| image          = Why Man Creates.jpg

| caption        =
| director       = [[Saul Bass]]
| producer       = Saul Bass
| studio = [[Kaiser Aluminum]], [[Saul Bass]]<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ti6C0lFsfk Documentary Winners: 1969 Oscars]</ref> & Associates
| writer         = [[Saul Bass]]<br>[[Mayo Simon]]
| narrator       =
| starring       = [[Paul Saltman]]
| music          = [[Jeff Alexander]]
| cinematography = Erik Daarstad
| editing        = [[Kent Mackenzie]]<br>Albert Nalpas<br> Cliffe Oland
| distributor    = Pyramid Films
| released       = {{Film date|1968}}
| runtime        = 25 minutes
| country        = United States
| language       = English, Spanish
| budget         =
}}
'''''Why Man Creates''''' is a 1968 animated short [[documentary film]] that discusses the nature of [[creativity]].<ref>[http://nightflight.com/why-man-creates-saul-basss-short-film-on-the-nature-of-creativity/ “Why Man Creates”: Saul Bass’s short film on the nature of creativity—Night Flight]</ref>  It was directed by [[Saul Bass]], who co-wrote it with [[Mayo Simon]]. It won the [[Academy Awards|Oscar]] for [[Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject)|Best Documentary Short Subject]].<ref name="Oscars1969">{{Cite web|url=http://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1969 |title=The 41st Academy Awards (1969) Nominees and Winners |access-date=June 8, 2019|work=oscars.org|date=4 October 2014 }}</ref> An abbreviated version of it ran on the first broadcast of [[CBS]]' ''[[60 Minutes]]'' on September 24, 1968.

''Why Man Creates'' focuses on the creative process and the different approaches taken to that process. It is divided into eight sections: The Edifice, Fooling Around, The Process, Judgment, A Parable, Digression, The Search, and The Mark.

In 2002, the film was selected for preservation in the United States [[National Film Registry]] by the [[Library of Congress]] as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."<ref>{{Cite web|title=Librarian of Congress Adds 25 Films to National Film Registry|url=https://www.loc.gov/item/prn-02-176/librarian-of-congress-adds-25-films-to-national-film-registry/2002-12-17/|website=Library of Congress|access-date=2020-05-14}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Complete National Film Registry Listing |url=https://www.loc.gov/programs/national-film-preservation-board/film-registry/complete-national-film-registry-listing/|website=Library of Congress|access-date=2020-05-14}}</ref>

Saul Bass started thinking about creativity in the mid-1950s when he participated  in a New York Art Directors Club "Visual Communications Conference on Creativity (1958). In 1966 he was hired by the Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Company to produce what was essentially  a recruiting film for scientists and engineers from the East Coast, which then financed ''Why Man Creates'' with a budget of $200,000, which eventually exceeded $400,000.<ref>{{Citation|last=Horak|first=Jan-Christopher|title=Qui êtes-vous, Saul Bass?|date=2014-10-15|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.5810/kentucky/9780813147185.003.0001|work=Saul Bass|pages=1–32|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|doi=10.5810/kentucky/9780813147185.003.0001 |isbn=9780813147185 |access-date=2022-02-18|url-access=subscription}}</ref>