Autobiography and Authenticity in Stop-Motion Animation

Abstract

This chapter explores ideas of authenticity in relation to autobiographical stop-motion animation, using Georgia Christindis’ concept of the “authenticity effect”, Steven Lipkin’s work on “warranting strategies” and Elizabeth Bruss’ three autobiographical values. These ideas are used to analyse two short film: Karen Watson’s Daddy’s Little Bit of Dresden China (1988) and Timothy Mercier’s Model Childhood (2018). The chapter concludes that both these short films use stop-motion animation with a handmade, homemade quality, in combination with other “authenticity effects” and warranting strategies to evoke a sense of authenticity. Both films use form and technique to interrogate not only the personal history of the filmmaker but also the very nature of remembering and representing the past.