Animated Documentary Research Articles

Approaching Reflexivity in Animated Documentary through a Spatial Taxonomy: An Analysis of Polonia (2023)

Animated documentary has at its core the tension of the filmmaker attempting to represent and speak about the historical world while working in a medium that is wholly constructed and lacking in evidentiary indexicality. Reflexivity – the revelation of animation’s constructedness – is considered by many scholars to be a key element in resolving this tension and granting animation documentary legitimacy. In this article, the author reflects on the reflexive strategies he used in making the animated documentary, Polonia (2023). He posits that the film is the result of the dynamic between the processes of reconstruction – the piecing together of the historical narrative through the collection of testimony and gathering of evidence – and construction – the building of the filmic world. These processes are manifest in the film as distinct aesthetics and a spatial taxonomy – ‘archival’ and ‘cinematic’ spaces that embody the tension between actuality and creative interpretation.

Imaginative Animated Non-Fiction: Educating Adults about Child Soldiers

This case study investigates the overlapping categories of animated documentary, useful animation, and fiction inspired by real events. It analyzes a training video for adults who work with child soldiers that was created by IoM Media and the Dallaire Institute for Children, Peace, and Security. This video incorporates elements of animated narrative fiction, children’s television animation, reenactment, and photographic and auditory indexicality. Ultimately, no one form has a greater claim to the truth than the others; rather, truth is constructed through the interrelation of disparate elements, and the video’s pedagogical and activist ends are served by abstraction and anti-realism as much as by indexicality. The video also prompts wider questions about temporality and degrees of abstraction in different modes of documentary. The arguments this article presents about the case study are more broadly applicable to non-fiction animated film and to both live-action and animated documentary.

Animated Documentaries in Modern Cinematic Art: Specifics of Production

The purpose of the article is to analyze the peculiarities of animated documentary films’ production in the modern film process. It also aims to investigate the specifics of the combination of real facts and events with the animation of the storyline sequence in films, reveal modern animation techniques and the specifics of their combination with footage, determine their impact on the viewer, and identify the peculiarities of using storyboards for organizational and filming processes. Research methodology. It consists in applying of the following methods: theoretical-comparative – comparison of foreign animation-documentary films of the last century with modern ones; practical – disclosure of the peculiarities of work on “animadocs” and plagiarism in author’s and studio projects; analysis – the influence of audiovisual means of expression on the audience’s perception of animation style, sound accompaniment, and counterpoint in animated documentary cinema. Scientific novelty. For the first time the influence of stylistic features of animated documentaries on the viewers’ perception of the depicted events has been analyzed, the importance of using storyboards during the organizational and shooting process in Ukraine has been systematized, the main aspects of working with film dramaturgy have been revealed and the problems of using non-linear dramaturgy in animated films have been considered, the differences in story presentation between feature films and animated documentaries have been revealed. Conclusions. The peculiarities of animated documentary film production in the modern film process have been analyzed, the peculiarities of combining real facts and events with animation of the sequence of storylines in films have been investigated, and modern animation techniques and the peculiarities of their combination with film frames have been revealed, the specifics of film production and their impact on the viewer through audiovisual means of expression have been determined.

Flee: Sounds of Fright and Flight

Animation and live-action are two closely related media, which are foremost distinguished by the ideas and conventions surrounding them. The diverging discourses around animation and live action have tended to focus on animation as something constructed to represent characters and settings and on live action as something capturing actors and sets representing characters and settings. This difference between constructing and capturing, along with the perceived indexicality of the photo, is what seems to suggest live action as the preferred medium for documenting real events. Sound effects, in the form of recorded and edited sounds of objects, actions and environments, are of particular interest here, as they can be considered to balance somewhere between these poles of construction and capture, between the non-indexical and indexical, and ultimately between representation and reproduction. In this article, I will focus on aspects of ‘truth’ (understood as corresponding to some external reality) and ‘realism’ (understood as a representation of external reality) and how something comes to be perceived as truthful or realistic in animated documentaries in relation to the role played by sound effects. By discussing the Danish film Flugt [Flee], I will show how sound effects can aid in creating representations of truth.

Looking at China from Abroad: intermediality as a tool for documentary

In 2020, due to the Coronavirus Pandemic, travel to China and around the world was mostly suspended. In the face of such restrictions, the ‘Looking China Youth Film Project’ took a different approach by inviting students from around the world to make documentary short films in remote mode. This meant employing different expressive resources and a mixed-media format, including techniques such as animation, graphics, typography, photographs, and paintings. The aim of this article is to shed light on this pioneering initiative from the point of view of the relationship between intermediality and forms and functions of the documentary genre. It opens with a discussion around the question of intermediality in the audiovisual media, considering how a realist impulse coexists in the cinema with its mixed-media nature, thus bringing together Bazin’s ontology of the photographic image and his case for cinema as an impure form of art. This is followed by a discussion about the recent field of the ‘animated documentary’, both as a practice and as a theoretical debate, which faces the apparent incongruity between film’s unique ability to record reality – which gave rise to the documentary genre, and animation’s creation of a world without any referent in reality. Finally, it considers the experience of the Looking China Youth Film Programme in 2020, with a special emphasis on six documentary films made from a mixture of live images, animation sequences, graphics and screens. The examples analysed allow me to delve into different aspects of the research on cinema and intermediality, including the animated documentary, the influence of the internet in audiovisual media, and the possibilities of a remote practice of film production.

Neurosynergy: an animated documentary exploring the synergistic capabilities of art, science, and medicine

Neurosynergy is an award-winning animated documentary film focussed on the convergence of art, science, and medicine. It highlights Dr. Joel Schechter, a retired medical instructor who has been drawing and teaching medical students for several years. The use of animated documentaries has great potential in connecting viewers with lived experiences of individuals.

‘Storylistening’ as a methodology for peacebuilding among young survivors of conflict and their communities in Colombia

Working on a participatory arts project with former child soldiers and young survivors of conflict in Colombia’s indigenous Nasa community led to the development of an alternative to the qualitative interview, which we call ‘story listening’. Storylistening is a methodology for peacebuilding that took shape within a narrative based culture and embraces the importance of acknowledging the everyday, as perceived and lived by young indigenous people. Within the context of conflict and reintegrating former child soldiers, storylistening emerged from a strong oral storytelling tradition to offer a dynamic and local approach to peacebuilding. This methodology shaped the production of an animated documentary, El árbol del amor (The Tree of Love), which explores the world of forced recruitment and child soldiering. The storylistening concept contains elements of auto/biography, in that it engages with memory and identity, where space and time are important. Based on Durkheimian notions of the socioemotional, storylistening shows how sharing emotions contributes to creating, maintaining and strengthening social bonds that can inspire change. It is an active process and has a shared impact on the ‘listener’ and the ‘teller’, whereas storytelling is an individual process that does not always carry the guarantee of being listened to. For the individual, storylistening offers the potential of catharsis, while for the community, it offers the opportunity for collective reflection. In the particular case of former child soldiers, storylistening engenders effective reintegration and more broadly fosters reconciliation, which underpins peacebuilding at the community level.

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

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.

Analysis of short animated documentary films programmed in key UK festivals: 2016–20

This study of 144 short UK animated documentaries, exhibited between 2016 and 2020, identifies frequently occurring characteristics in the films’ content and production contexts. Analysis of the films shows that the majority of these films are made by directors from an animation background, rather than from a documentary background, and also shows a high occurrence of films made by female and disabled filmmakers. It also shows that self-funding is frequently adopted in the production of these films, and that the films in the study favour 2D digital and traditional animation techniques over 3D animation. Funding and finance contexts are shown to be broad, and to correlate with trends in theme, for example social issues, health and mental health were more common in films supported by trusts, charities and foundations than those made in other finance contexts. In general, the findings support many of the suggestions and observations that have been made about animated documentary by scholars such as Annabelle Honess Roe, Paul Wells and others. However, they also raise questions, for example the high rate of self-funding, often alongside other sources of funding, suggests potential barriers to entry for those from diverse social-economic backgrounds. This study suggests areas for future research that can be taken up in the field of animated documentary, and contributes to an increased focus on quantitative research alongside qualitative analysis in the study of animated documentary, of short-form film and of films made outside of commercial contexts.

Representational risks associated with interview-based animated documentaries.

This article provides an analysis of representational issues associated with interview-based animated documentary productions directed by non-autistic filmmakers, attempting to represent one or more autistic participants. The article draws insights from three case studies: A Is for Autism (Webb 1992), An Alien in the Playground (Glynne 2009) and the author's own practice-based research film, Drawing on Autism (Widdowson 2021). Drawing insights from psychoanalysis, film theory and ethnography, the article will examine animated documentary practice in terms of the risks of Othering participants, look for evidence of the filmmaker's unconscious bias and consider how the cinematic gaze can be used to decode ideological systems that informed their construction. From this analysis, the author reaches the conclusion that the properties of documentaries, that rely on animation rather than live-action cinematography, present a specific set of ethical responsibilities that skew towards issues of representation.

Animating Truth: Documentary and Visual Culture in the 21st Century

Animating Truth: Documentary and Visual Culture in the 21st Century

Animação como Estratégia Documental do Graffiti Writing. Representação e Reconstrução de Memorias

Graffiti Writing, a Seventies-born visual subculture, spread globally over the decades. Despite the large amount of material documenting it (both in editorial and cinematographic fields), it remains a marginal subculture, little known by large audiences, in its deepest characteristics.The following paper presents a practice-based research, whose objective is to investigate the contribution of animation to the documentation and communication of the subculture of Graffiti Writing, deciphering its interpretation for uninformed audiences. Through documentary fieldwork, with testimonies and memories emerged in interviews, are registered artists from the Writing movement. The study aims to provide a partial-multifaced description of the phenomenon, supplied by the artist different approaches and styles. This fieldwork starts by contextualizing the province of Ferrara, in northern Italy.The documentary work is developed with representation strategies and narrative reconstruction aiming the communication of this graphic subculture in a specific geographical context, through the project for an animated documentary short film. It is fulfilled as a documentary strategy for the representation and reconstruction of Graffiti Writing memories. The choice allows the exploration of new concepts with the encounter of two distinct visual arts, the Graffiti Writing and the animation, simultaneously allowing the definition of an authorial language appropriate to the project and its theme.

Experiments in Hybrid Documentary and Indigenous Model Animation

Nonfiction has proved to be a long-term strategy of Native/First Nations filmmakers and, as this documentary tradition moves across contemporary mediums, one corner of its experimental aesthetics has focalized around animation. This article explores hybrid documentary approaches in Indigenous model animation across techniques and styles, namely digitally-supplemented stop-motion and game-based machinima. It begins by examining three principal characteristics of Indigenous animated documentaries: (1) they engage with the politics of documentary in the context of Indigenous and settler-colonial history; (2) they use animation to record stories and express ideas not authorized by the settler archive; and (3) they communicate via embedded Indigenous aesthetics and cultural protocols. A material analysis of Indigenous animation then accounts for how three Native artists centre re-mediation and re-embodiment in their work. These artists adapt new techniques in animation to documentary as a process of decolonization, precipitating a distinct hybrid aesthetics that travels across forms to question the veracity of settler documentary. Each reconstructs histories of settler colonialism – which has always chosen to record and authorize as ‘history’ some images and narratives and not others – with model animation practices and new media platforms. Indigenous animation expresses slippages between nonfiction and fiction by creating imagined documents, which strike at the legitimacy of settler institutions.

Evocative animated documentaries, imagination and knowledge

ABSTRACT This article refines previously made claims that evocative animated documentaries enable us to gain knowledge about unfamiliar states of mind and mental experiences through prompting our imagination. Building on recent scholarship in philosophy of mind, cognitive film theory and film and animation studies, I argue that it is evocative animated documentaries that do not, counterintuitively, invite audiences to identify or empathise with individual characters or documentary subjects that effectively prompt knowledge-through-imagination. This is because these films elicit a primarily epistemological rather than emotional response. The films in question, which include the Animated Minds films (2003–ongoing) and An Eyeful of Sound (Samantha Moore, 2010), feature documentary subjects that stand in for a mental health condition or psychological state that we are invited to primarily understand rather than feel. It is in this way that these evocative animated documentaries are less like fiction than their live-action documentary counterparts, despite their animated form. Applying philosophical ideas on the relationship between imagination and knowledge to a new filmic context, this article offers a way of understanding how these films work and how they are effective as documentaries of subjective, psychological experience

ДОКУМЕНТАЛЬНАЯ АНИМАЦИЯ: ГЕНЕЗИС И СПЕЦИФИКА (ОБЗОРНО-АНАЛИТИЧЕСКАЯ СТАТЬЯ)

Animated documentary is becoming one of the fastest growing phenomena of modern screen art in the post-truth era. The review and analysis of scientific works devoted to animated documentary is seen as relevant both for the further development of scientific thought and the search for new research strategies that expand the problem field, and for the practical sphere. The research was conducted on the basis of a review and analysis of scientific literature (monographs and articles in international journals included in electronic research system international databases Scopus, Web of Science, eLibrary.ru) in English, Spanish and Russian for the period 1997-2019. The novelty of the review article is not only an attempt to present a systematic view of animated documentary as a phenomenon of screen art, but also to identify and systematize the areas in which scientific discussions are conducted. It introduces the reader to theoretical views on the terminology, Genesis, specifics, nature, and classification systems of documentary animation. Animated documentary appeared when the cinema was just taking first steps but its development began in the 1980s. At this time, animation begins to take an interest in reality, inner peace, and socially taboo topics. Since the 1990s, the foundations of animated documentary are laid, narrative strategies are developed, and a new language are actively sought. Interest in animated documentary from the scientific community arose only in the 2000s. On the one hand, it has been manifested by the increasing role of documentation in the art, which has taken on an attraction character since the advent of digital technology; on the other hand, and as a consequence of the convergence of screen arts and the emergence of hybridization trends. The academic community has focused around developing definitions and understanding what can be attributed to the field of documentary animation. By 2010, the scientific literature focused on issues related to the specifics of animated documentary, ways of presenting reality, and indexing. By the mid-2010s, animation is becoming the subject of interdisciplinary study. At this time, there are develop tools for analyzing works of animated documentaries, and its genre system begins to build. One of the main features of animated documentaries is hybridity. Its dual nature is born of fluctuations between the certainty of facts and artistic embodiment. The problems of authenticity and representation of reality become one of the most controversial topics in an animated film. The work provides an overview of theoretical studies on the genesis, history and particularities of animadoc. The theoretical texts identify three approaches that form the main directions in the analysis of animated documentary. The first group of researchers analyzes this phenomenon and its nature based on the theories of documentaries and the transformation with the advent of digital technologies, of the concepts of reality, authenticity and fact (document). The second group of authors considers animation as a phenomenon of modern animation that arose as a result of technological renewal and changes in its role as a socio-cultural practice. A third group of scientists believes that animadoc is a post-postmodern phenomenon that arose as a means of presenting a world in which there is mobility of borders and cyberspace becomes a new reality. The review allows us to conclude that animated documentary is a manifestation of a new mode of postphotographic vision of a reflexive nature, in which the imagination that refracts images of reality becomes of primary importance. Despite the interest in it from the academic community and the emergence of theoretical works, the study of this phenomenon is only at the initial stage. Despite the interest in it from the academic community, there is a small number of deep theoretical works caused by the hybrid nature of the phenomenon itself, the imperfection of working models and methods for analyzing representational strategies, and the problems of forming a conceptual apparatus.

ДОКУМЕНТАЛЬНАЯ АНИМАЦИЯ ИЛИ АНИМАЦИОННАЯ ДОКУМЕНТАЛИСТИКА? Размышления об ее истории и современной ситуации на примере Польши и других стран

Documentary animation is a hybrid cinematic form, the history of which goes back over 100 years. Earlier such films were rather a rarity, while lately they appear on screens more and more often. Using numerous examples, the article discusses the goals of artists turning to this unusual and controversial practice. The main thematic blocks are highlighted, the boundaries between the fictional artistic world and the real basis of a film are determined. The author also attempts to distinguish between animated documentary and “full-fledged” documentary animation. After reviewing the genesis (films by W. McCay, J. and F. Hubley) and films that have become modern classics of the direction (Waltz with Bashir, Crulic: The Path to Beyond etc.), the most notable modern samples—primarily those filmed in Poland and in Russia, where animadoc is rapidly gaining momentum—were analyzed in detail. Directors use this form when talking about historical events (reconstruction), ambiguous personalities and unusual places, as well as about their own or others’ internal problems and experiences. Documentary animation is becoming a common means of (auto)psychotherapy and fits into the current trend of pronouncing taboo topics and working out hidden traumas. Animation allows to penetrate deeply into the world of characters without violating their personal boundaries. An important place is held by metafilms, reflecting on the language of the animadoc and cinema in general. Today, documentary with the use of animation is more common than “real” animadoc, although the line between the fictional artistic world and the actual basis of films is rather fluid. The phenomenon is still in the making. Nevertheless, such films must have a real component: interviews (usually off-screen), newsreels, photographs, genuine objects, etc. The factual basis is not a sufficient argument to classify the work as a documentary animation—the decisive factor here is the hybridization of the form.

Rethinking Journalism Practice Through Innovative Approaches to Post Conflict Reporting

ABSTRACT Since peace negotiations between the Colombian government and Farc guerrillas began in 2012, it is generally accepted in the country that journalism has a responsibility to nurture peace and that the media can positively influence reconciliation. But a recent analysis of domestic news concluded the voices of victims were distinctly absent and that the majority of coverage involved official sources. This paper argues that a journalism intended to promote reconciliation must speak to those who have direct experience of conflict and suffering. We argue that a deeper understanding of trauma may strengthen resilience and contribute to peacebuilding. Drawing on the authors’ research working with young people embroiled in Colombia’s conflict, the paper explores an alternative, innovative approach to the retelling of the stories of others and to post-conflictreporting. At a societal level, the project aimed to contribute to the process of reconciliation, using an autobiographical approach to capture and re-construct participants’ experiences of the conflict and to highlight challenges of re-integration. It presented their hopes for reconciliation through creation of an animated documentary. At a journalistic level, the project explored the efficacy of combining traditional methods of storytelling with animation to offer anonymity to vulnerable contributors of testimony.

VR 애니메이티드 다큐멘터리 의미 고찰과 발전 과제

The rapid development of virtual reality (VR) technology affects the development of new types of media content. In particular, VR media content in the documentary mode provides viewers with the opportunity to participate directly and observe personal or collective memories by reproducing certain events, situations and characters that actually existed in the past. This process can then evolve into user experience-based content that empathizes with the pain and difficulties of others. The content planning strategy used at this time is related to the personal and historical narrative by traditional storytelling methods, and to the visual aspects of the animated reality. In this context, I explore animated documentary contents based on virtual reality technology, dividing it into two main categories: the visual fiction based on animated representation and the content based on documentary reenactment from an epistemological perspective of reproduction, centering on Charles Perth's indexicality. Therefore, this research examines the theoretical background of VR animated documentaries by comparing them with traditional documentary concepts, including live-action-based documentary and animated documentary films. Based on the meanings and characteristics derived from a literature review, the analysis criteria that define VR animation documentary contents are derived from the key elements needed to plan VR animated documentaries in terms of content. Furthermore, this paper examines major insights as well as limitations through analyses of domestic and overseas cases related to VR animation documentary contents. Accordingly, future directions of VR animated documentaries are explored through connectivity with other forms of media content or through extendability with other media (e.g., interactive game media).

Makun (Don’t Cry): recreating vetoed realities through the animated documentary and animated journalism

<p><em>MAKUN (NO LLORES) - Dibujos en un C.I.E. </em>es un documental animado de 30 minutos que se adentra en una realidad muy opaca: los centros de internamiento de extranjeros (CIEs), cárceles para personas inocentes en los que normalmente no están permitidas las cámaras de vídeo. Habiendo conseguido un material documental único —los dibujos dejados en las paredes del CIE de Fuerteventura por miles de presos— sobre un tema que nos interesaba, decidimos dar vida al mismo por medio de la animación, confiando en conseguir algo más que la mera ilustración de los testimonios orales recogidos para la película. En el presente artículo, el director de la película, Emilio Martí, resume de manera personal la experiencia de abordar la preparación y rodaje de <em>MAKUN</em>, así como algunos aspectos de su distribución.</p>

De Angola a Yugoslavia. Periodismo, conflictos bélicos y documental animado

<p>El presente artículo se centra en Un día más con vida (Another Day of Life, Raúl de la Fuente, Damian Nenow, 2018) y Chris the Swiss (Anja Kofmel, 2018), dos relevantes documentales animados que profundizan en sendos conflictos bélicos que definieron el devenir histórico de la segunda mitad del s. XX. Y lo hacen denunciando el horror de la guerra a través de las experiencias vitales y profesionales de sus protagonistas, testigos privilegiados de dichos acontecimientos. Por un lado, Un día más con vida recrea las peripecias del reconocido reportero polaco, Richard Kapuscinski, durante el proceso de descolonización de Angola como provincia portuguesa en 1975. Por otro lado, Chris the Swiss se acerca a la guerra de los Balcanes durante los años 90, a través de la investigación personal desarrollada por la cineasta Anja Kofmel por comprender el cruel asesinato de su primo Christian Würtenberg, por aquel entonces un joven reportero de guerra.</p>