WOMENST 3BB3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Animated Documentary
6 Sep 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Animated documentaries, comics, and graphic novels
Keyword - animated documentary
● Recorded or created frame by frame
● About the world rather than a world wholly imagined by its creator
● Has been presented by a documentary by its producers or received as a documentary
by audiences, festivals, or critics
● Animation and documentary seem to be at odds with each other - documentaries
typically rely on video recordings of the topic as proof. But documentaries are still
produced
● Animated documentaries are often dismissed because they are seen as being made by
artists, not filmmakers
Reasons animation is used
● Animation can recreate historical images that we don’t have footage of
● Can obscure people’s identity
● Can reach different audiences
● Show things that can’t be captured on camera
● Can explain concepts, geography, strategies
● Can elicit feelings - humour, symbolism
● Challenge the “authenticity” of live action
Three animated documentary modes
● Mimetic substitution - realistic representation when no footage exists
● Non-mimetic substitution - animates themes when no footage exists. Not necessarily
realistic representation
● Evocation - certain concepts, emotions, feelings and states of mind are particularly
difficult to represent through live action imagery
● Animation can broaden and deepen the range of what we can learn from documentaries
by showing us aspects of life that are impossible to film in live action
Keyword - comic books
● Use text and images to convey a storyline
● Comics communicate in a “language” that relies on a visual experience common to both
creator and audience
● Began in the 1930s (ex. Superman 1938, Batman 1939)
● Were very contentious due to their depictions of violence
● Depiction of women in comic books often critiqued - oversexualizaton, lack of women
superheros
Indigenous peoples and comic books
● Often depicted in racist or stereotypical ways - tied to nature, transform into animals
X-men and difference as analogy
● Society rejects and fears mutants
● Comparisons to Jewish people and the Holocaust
● War between assimilationist and separatist points of view
● Critiqued for being too universal
● Primary audience is young white straight men
Document Summary
About the world rather than a world wholly imagined by its creator. Has been presented by a documentary by its producers or received as a documentary by audiences, festivals, or critics. Animation and documentary seem to be at odds with each other - documentaries typically rely on video recordings of the topic as proof. Animated documentaries are often dismissed because they are seen as being made by artists, not filmmakers. Animation can recreate historical images that we don"t have footage of. Show things that can"t be captured on camera. Mimetic substitution - realistic representation when no footage exists. Non-mimetic substitution - animates themes when no footage exists. Evocation - certain concepts, emotions, feelings and states of mind are particularly difficult to represent through live action imagery. Animation can broaden and deepen the range of what we can learn from documentaries by showing us aspects of life that are impossible to film in live action.
