11 documentary cartoons about love, injustice and finding yourself
Miscellaneous / / May 15, 2022
Animadoc is a new genre that is just gaining momentum.
Documentary animation is based on the memories of eyewitnesses, historical artifacts, records in archives, film, audio and photo chronicles. And instead of a camera - or in addition to it - artists, animators and directors use other tools: plasticine, computer graphics, collage.
We have collected several pictures with which you can take a trip into history: get to know the eyewitnesses of the first mass shooting in University, listen to an interview with John Lennon, which was taken from him by a 14-year-old boy, and find out how the doctor treated impotence with transplantation goat testicles.
1. "His Mother's Voice" - the story of a woman who learned about the death of her son
His Mother's Voice
- Australia, 1997
- Duration: 14 minutes.
Teenager Matthew Isdale was shot dead in April 1995. A few weeks later, his mother, Cathy Isdale, was interviewed for ABC radio. In his work, the director used this audio twice, showing the look of an involved and third-party person.
In the first part, we see what is happening through the eyes of the mother of the murdered teenager. These shots are colorful, extremely detailed and full of emotion. And in the second - through the eyes of the operator filming the report. He behaves aloof, his eyes wander and he does not know what to do and how to react to the situation. Both of them are trying to survive the pain in different ways.
2. "Never like the first time" - people's memories of the first sex
Aldrig som första gången!
- Sweden, 2006
- Duration: 14.5 minutes.
Jonas Odell is the master of animation interviews. This film consists of stories from four people, each of whom shares the story of their first sexual experience. There are also comical events here - for example, how the main character is frantically looking for a condom in the midst of a party, and terrifying - when a girl is physically threatened. violence.
Odell's heroes reminisce with nostalgia, embarrassment and fear, but they have one thing in common: it will never be the same as the first time.
3. Persipolis is a coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of the Iranian Revolution
Persepolis
- France, USA, 2007.
- Duration: 90 minutes.
Marjan Satrapi is a famous comics artist. She was born in Tehran, was a fan of Bruce Lee and wanted to become a prophet. Marzhan's childhood coincided with a civil coup in Iran, when Islamic fundamentalists came to power and tightened the country's laws. They executed oppositionists, forced women to wear headscarves, and introduced separate education for boys and girls.
In the Percypolis comic, Marzhan describes his coming-of-age story, dwelling on the most important and emotional events: the death of his beloved uncle, forced emigration to Vienna, a betrayal by a boyfriend, the experience of living on the street, and finally returning to Tehran.
Retaining the recognizable graphic style of the artist, Vincent Paronneau made an animated film of the same name, which was nominated for an Oscar and was awarded a prize at the Cannes Film Festival.
4. "I Met a Walrus" Unauthorized Interview with John Lennon
I Met the Walrus
- Canada, 2007
- Duration: 5 minutes.
In 1969, a 14-year-old boy snuck into John Lennon's hotel room to interview him. On a reel-to-reel tape recorder, he recorded a series of the musician's responses about the war, "inner Jesus and Hitler" and social inequality.
This boy was Jerry Levitan, a Canadian writer, actor and producer. He believes that Lennon's thoughts have not lost their relevance so far. So in 2007, Jerry suggested to director Josh Raskin that the audio be used in a documentary cartoon. So, with the help of simple visual techniques, Lennon's abstract words acquired a material embodiment.
The picture consists of hundreds of changing images that convey the main idea musician: "Do everything for the sake of the world: smile for the sake of the world, go to school for the sake of the world, or, conversely, do not go to school for the sake of the world... "This work was nominated for an Oscar in the category" Animated Short movie".
5. "Waltz with Bashir" - the autobiography of a war veteran who lost his memory
Vals Im Bashir
- Israel, France, Germany, USA, Finland, Switzerland, Belgium, Australia, 2008.
- Duration: 90 minutes.
The director of the cartoon, Ari Folman, was a soldier in the Israeli army during the Lebanon War. Once, having met with a long-time comrade-in-arms, he found that he did not remember anything about that period. And while he was telling him about constantly dreaming nightmares, Folman had only one episode in Beirut.
To reconstruct the events of that day, he met with a psychologist, a reporter, and fellow soldiers who helped paint a true picture of the Lebanese War and how traumatic it turned out to be for many Israelis.
All these dialogues were recorded on a dictaphone, and then the artist David Polonsky superimposed an animation sequence on them. By the way, despite the fact that Polonsky is right-handed, most of the illustrations for "Waltz" he paintedWaltz with Bashir / IMDB left hand, so that the picture does not turn out “too beautiful”.
"Waltz with Bashir" was well received by critics and became the first cartoon ever to receive an Oscar nomination in the Best Foreign Language Film category.
6. "Krulik: the road to the afterlife" - a story about the fight against the prison system
Crulic - drumul spre dincolo
- Romania, Poland, 2011.
- Duration: 72 minutes.
“First, I died. Secondly, I lost 30 kilograms, ”the phrase at the beginning of the cartoon sounds casually.
Anka Damian's work is based on real events. In 2007, Polish authorities falsely accused Romanian Claudia Krulik of stealing and then imprisoned him. The man tried to involve the Romanian consulate, demanded a normal investigation, called for help from his family and responsible persons.
But they all reacted to this indifferently, and as a result, he went on a hunger strike. Krulik died of exhaustion a few hours after he was released from colonies.
This is Anka Damian's debut work as a director. She studied the Krulik case for a year: she interviewed family members and inmates, as well as looked through the files of the Polish police, to which, unlike journalists, she still managed to get access.
The cartoon ends with a video clip of news - this is how Anka reminds the viewer that all this is not fiction and the events took place in the real world.
7. "The Disappeared Image" is a story about a massive cultural genocide in Cambodia
L'image manquante
- France, Cambodia, 2013.
- Duration: 96 minutes.
From 1975 to 1979, the communists - the Khmer Rouge, who were in power in Cambodia - exterminated a third of its population. The victims of the genocide were mainly cultural workers and representatives of intelligentsia. People were even arrested for wearing glasses and knowing foreign languages. All this was carried out in order to change the Cambodian society in accordance with the ideology of Marxism and Maoism.
Cambodian director Rithi Panh focuses on this historical period for a reason. For him, this is a very personal topic: Pan's family was evicted from Phnom Penh and transferred to a labor camp. There his father, mother, sisters and nephews died of starvation and exhaustion.
In the cartoon "The Disappeared Image", the director covers the history of that period and tells how unsuccessfully tried to find a photograph showing the dictators who ruled Cambodia in 1975-1979 years. “This image is missing. Perhaps that is how it should be,” he concludes.
8. "Madness!" - the story of a doctor who transplanted goat testicles into men
Nuts!
- USA, 2016.
- Duration: 80 minutes.
This is the story of John Brinkley, the eccentric genius of the 20th century. He invented a new way to deal with impotence - transplantation of goat gonads to humans. John amassed a multi-million dollar fortune from these operations, built the world's tallest radio tower and opened his own media. "Madness!" clearly shows how willingly people believe in beautiful stories.
“When I began to study the documents, I ran into a difficulty: it was difficult to understand where the truth was and where the fiction was - almost all the archives were created by Brinkley himself,” is dividedEverything is Relevant”: Penny Lane on Making “Nuts!” / The Moveable Fest Penny Lane, film director. This is the first work in which she used animation: computer graphics helped her to display the missing pieces of the story.
9. "The Tower" - a story about the first mass shooting in an educational institution
Tower
- USA, 2016.
- Duration: 80 minutes.
On August 1, 1966, a man, climbing the tower of the University of Texas, opened fire on passers-by from sniper rifles. 16 people died, 33 were injured.
Based on the memories of survivors and archival data, Keith Maitland recreated the chronology of events and released the cartoon "The Tower" on the 50th anniversary of the tragedy. The work focuses on the stories of the victims - it is about how differently people reacted to what was happening, how they tried to survive and helped others.
One of the main characters was Claire Wilson, a girl who was at that time in the 8th month of pregnancy. She spent more than an hour under the scorching sun on the shelled university square, but still survived.
10. “I can’t add anything” - a story about dispossession
- Russia, 2020.
- Duration: 11 minutes.
This is an animated short film that raises the topic of political repressions of the 1930s, which is difficult for all Russians. Tatyana Stefanenko and her friend Maria Lotsmanova created a film about the latter's great-grandfather, Yakov Yantsen. He was dispossessed of kulak in 1933 and sent with his whole family to a special settlement in the Arkhangelsk region.
In the FSB archive, the girls were shown copies of Yakov's interrogations. After reading them, Tatyana realized that the usual form of documentary cinema would not work here: “A person sincerely does not understand what he is being judged for, tries to justify himself, but they do not hear him - and they are not going to. I wanted to give him a voice. I wanted Jacob to speak."
In the cartoon, new details of the case are gradually revealed: it becomes clear that the man was not satisfied regime, starved and suffered while working in correctional camps. In 1938 he was shot.
11. "The Good, the Bad, the Ugly" - A Story of Life with Bipolar Disorder
- Russia, 2020.
- Duration: 4 minutes.
Sonya Gorya is a young Russian artist and illustrator. In 2020, at the Rudnik Film Festival, she presented the cartoon The Good, the Bad, the Ugly, in which she spoke about her own illness, bipolar affective disorder (BAD).
With the help of vivid visual images, Sonya managed to convey how people with this diagnosis feel. “There are, as it were, two poles: depression and mania,” she says at the beginning of the cartoon. If in the first case, existence seems miserable and meaningless, then in the second, life abruptly begins to play with colors: thoughts accelerate, a person feels invulnerable and majestic.
Sonya says that the idea of the cartoon appeared as an answer to numerous questions from friends, acquaintances and relatives: what is bipolar disorder, how does it begin and is there a treatment. You can see it on Sony's personal page in social networks.
Read also🧐
- 15 documentary series that will delight or scare you
- 15 best full-length cartoons for adults
- 20 very scary cartoons: creepy tales, gothic and steampunk
Best deals of the week: discounts from Yandex Market, AliExpress, Podruzhki and other stores