A series of animated shorts illustrating young people’s perspectives of living as refugees and asylum seekers. Part of the BBC Two Learning Zone, this series won a Children’s BAFTA in 2012.
Produced by Mosaic Films in London, UK.
Director: Andy Glynne
Animation Directors: Salvador Maldonado, Karl Hammond, Tom Senior and Jonathan Topf
A great short film about a young man’s experience of homelessness and his reflections on the divide between the wealthy and the poor in modern day America. The film ends on an uplifting positive note which leaves you rooting for the protagonist.
Created for the American Refugees Service, were you can see three other animated documentaries – it’s worth a visit.
We found this film via our friends over at Short of the Week.
Anna Ginsburg’s snappy animated documentary, Private Parts, sidesteps social taboo by presenting frank and funny discussions about sex, with particular focus placed on the female anatomy.
Commissioned by Channel 4’s Random Acts, in partnership with It’s Nice That, Anna Ginsburg felt compelled to address the lack of attention given to carnal gratification when female sexuality is depicted in our society: “Conversations I’ve had with close female and male friends over the last decade have shed light on the continuing struggle that women have to engage with and love their own bodies, and to access the sexual pleasure they are capable of… I’ve been exposed to ‘dick drawings’ since primary school but have rarely, if ever, seen a vagina visualised other than in a clinical medical context. So I thought that talking to men and women about vaginas, masturbation and pubic hair – and then animating them as talking genitals – would be a good place to start in my crusade to open up these issues of sexual inequality and get the conversation started.”
The ‘nuts and bolts’ of sex is a difficult matter to discuss both directly with an intimate partner but also between friends. In many respects the leap between the noticeably non-verbal language of sex and frank discussion is vast. This void is often first bridged by state sanctioned sexual education, however the increasing reach of internet pornography means that children as young as 8 are first learning about sex through media largely tailored to the male gaze.
While it is not Anna’s explicit intention to make a sexual education film, she is clear about her interest in promoting open discussion: “Communication is the key to improving sexual confidence and sexual relationships… This documentary does not give any answers it just presents the sexual struggles, insecurities and successes of a range of people.”
Ginsburg is working in the tradition of Creature Comforts, Aardman’s first Oscar winning short featuring non actors in vox-pop style interviews. Each subject was represented as a personified animal. Crucial to the success of this claymation documentary was the enormous attention paid to the characters facial expressions and gesticulation.
Directing 14 animators, Ginsburg places special focus on the design of each personified genitalia,: “Details like the foreskin, pubic hair and labia are used to give each penis and vagina a specific character, reflecting the specific human voice it embodies.”
Anna interviewed 22 participants for the film: “Usually it was just a case of talking to the person and giving them enough time to relax and adjust to the fact they were being recorded…I found interviewing people in small groups worked well as people would be encouraged by each others’ honesty and often get over-excited and hysterical which led to entertaining interactions.”
Anna was compelled to address these issues as an interview based animated documentary. Such a methodology allowed for authentic voices to be brought into the limelight without pushing the participants into a public forum. This anonymity minimised their feelings of embarrassment and inhibition.
Ginsburg added that this process also puts the audience at ease: “Drawings are abstract enough to bring the feeling of universality to an individual voice… The use of animated characters in place of photographic footage works as a protective barrier which can quash ingrained prejudice and allow empathy to flow unobstructed. It is way easier to pass judgement on a person based on a photograph than based on a drawing – even if it is a drawing of a giggling vagina.”
Reference:
Source of interview itsnicethat.com/features/anna-ginsberg-private-parts-channel-4-random-acts-170516
Watch the trailer for a new film by Zagreb and Ottawa award winner Claudio Diaz at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fc4nNopowHE
‘Fraid my Spanish is not up to translating the film’s blogspot page, but you can read a review in English here.
The film’s official site here: http://chileimaginario.blogspot.co.uk
An article, published yesterday on the BFI site, on the series of films for autism charity Spectrum which we blogged back in August.
http://www.bfi.org.uk/news/animating-autism-spectrum-portraits-project
We can only find a clip for this animated documentary, but it’s one we would like to include!
Five beautifully designed and animated short films about individuals who UK autism charity Spectrum work with, made by Art & Graft, Matthias Hoegg, Mikey Please, Kristian Andrews and Sebastien Eballard.
You can watch all the films from the project page here
There’s also a film by Art & Graft about the charity and what they do on their website at
http://www.spectrumasd.org
Two clips from ‘Invisible Slaves’, MTV Exit’s new film featuring the stories of four young people as part of a campaign to combat human trafficking in Mexico. Presented by Puerto Rican band Calle 13 the film brings together the Pan American Development Foundation with the Mexican government, private sector companies, and civil society groups to increase awareness and prevent human trafficking among youth.
The film will premiere on August 31st on MTV Latin America! More info at MTV Exit.
Invisible Slaves- Capsule Maria from MTV EXIT on Vimeo.
Invisible Slaves- Capsule Jose from MTV EXIT on Vimeo.
This is the first of two films I’ve made for national mental health charity Rethink.
I was given audio recordings of interviews with 14-25 year olds which I edited down to illustrate and articulate the experiences and aspirations of the young people.
The film was used in a bid that secured £1.2 million of Big Lottery funding to run highly successful recovery-orientated groups, known as the Uthink programme.
ANIMATEDDOCUMENTARY.COM 