Ecstatic (re)constructions: The creative practice in animated documentary

Abstract

This study explores non-fiction animation as a creative practice. It specifically engages with practitioners’ creative intervention and their reconstruction of the world we inhabit as human beings. Beyond artistic and expressive illustration, animated documentary strives towards an augmented representation of real narratives. Such a representation demands a felicitous approach from the practitioner/s for a heightened evocation of emotions, as in Ari Folman’s Waltz with Bashir and Nina Sabnani’s Tanko Bole Chhe (The Stitches Speak). I examine these two animated documentaries, and my investigation offers in-depth analyses of the practitioners’ engagement with memory and reconstruction. I employ Aumont and Marie’s (1988) film analysis method, especially the iconic analysis technique, followed by the filmmakers’ insights to understand the embedded characteristics of the filmmakers’ creative approach. I argue that the practitioner is central to the practice of eliciting emotions embodying animated subjective testimonies and manifestations. In addition, the practitioner–subject association is inclusive in the practice and evokes an affective exposition of the narratives through the creative narrative design in the animated documentary.