2004 Program Guide - DOXA Documentary Film Festival

illustrating the point: the use of animation in documentary
Is a documentary still a documentary when the narrator
is a singing peanut suffering from Western liberal
guilt? The works presented in this program challenge
our expectations of traditional documentary-making by
either incorporating or relying upon various methods
of animation in their storytelling. The techniques used
range from ‘blink-and-you’ll-miss-it’ film manipulation,
to rough and jarring scratch animation, to beautifully
developed 3-D characters. Their effectiveness in
evoking a range of emotions spanning from hilarity to
heartbreak is remarkable. And the questions raised by
the very use of animation in a genre most revered for its
ability to depict ‘reality’, are intriguing. DOXA invites
you to enjoy the work of just a few of the new directors
choosing to break from tradition, and illustrate their
point.
Lee Johnston
Frog
Canada, 1999, Colour, video, 30 secs
Directed by: Jules Molloy, Angus MacTavish , Jordan
Willox, Raven McKenzie
There’s a lesson to be learned from our amphibious
neighbours in this PSA, produced as part of the AMES
Youth in Media - Action on Climate Change program.
Street Sweep Suite
Canada, 2003, colour, video, 4 mins
Director: Jeremy Benning
A night in the life of a street sweeping vehicle as it cleans
up urban waste and the subtle messages hidden therein.
38
Street Sweep Suite Child of Chernobyl
Normal
Canada, 2002, b&w, film, 5 mins
Directors: Caitlin Padget, Alyson Titkemeyer, M.A.
Chorna, Arlena Barnes, Silas Pronk
This black and white short uses scratch animation to
juxtapose the filmmakers’ artistic visions with authority’s
clinical view of depression and its sufferers.
Child of Chernobyl
Canada, 2001, colour, video, 5 mins
Director: Eva Ziemsen
A lone teddy bear playing by itself outdoors pays tribute
to the smallest victims of nuclear mismanagement, the
children who must live with the consequences of adult
actions.
Hidden
Sweden, 2002, colour, 35mm, Swedish w/English
subtitles, 8 mins
Directors: Hanna Heilborn, David Aronowitsch, Mats
Johansson
The directors of Hidden originally interviewed 12 year old
Giancarlo, a Peruvian refugee hiding in Sweden, as part
of a radio documentary, but were moved by his storytelling
ability and determined to share it with a wider audience.
Using charming drawings animated in 3-D, the
directors re-create the interview room, the subjects, and
themselves as they struggle to respond to Giancarlo’s
complicated situation. In delicately representing this
marginalized segment of society, the filmmakers give
face to a subject whose true identity can’t be known.