Animated Recollections

Despite the surge of 3D features by Disney/Pixar and Dreamworks, animated film long ceased to be considered a medium primarily suited for young audiences, or one that is suitable for conveying relatively simple truths only. Animated shorts presented at festivals such as Annecy International Animated Film Festival, Animafest Zagreb, or Ottawa International Animation Festival proved to the contrary, repeatedly stunning the audiences with their ability to portray (and invent visual metaphors for) difficult and complex subject matter, such as trauma, amnesia, repressed memories, or the ambiguities involved in the process of recollection.

In a sequence of case studies of short animated films on memory and remembrance presented during this workshop, we will explore narrative and depiction strategies (drawing style, colour, animation technique, materials/media employed) chosen by authors like Ülo Pikkov, John Canemaker, Yuri Norstein and Alex Grigg, in order to understand how animated film itself becomes a surrogate for a 'talking cure', either for the story, or/and for authors themselves.