Animated documentary
Encyclopedia
The animated documentary is a genre of film which combines the genres of animation
and documentary
. This genre should not be confused with documentaries about movie and TV animation history that feature excerpts.
, which uses animation to portray the 1915 sinking of RMS Lusitania
after it was struck by two torpedoes fired from a German
U-boat
; an event of which no recorded film footage is known to exist.
Since the 1920s, animation has been used in educational
and social guidance
films, and has often been used to illustrate abstract concepts in mainly live-action examples of these genres. Early examples of fully animated educational films are The Einstein Theory of Relativity (1923) and Evolution (1925) by Max and Dave Fleischer
. Walt Disney
used it in films such as Victory Through Air Power
(1943), How to Catch a Cold (1951) and Our Friend the Atom
(1957).
In 1953, Norman McLaren
's "Neighbours
" won the Academy Awards for Best Documentary (Short Subject). The award is somewhat considered a mistake, but the fact that it was not only indicated into that category, but also won, shows that, somehow, the animated images spoke to the judges almost like a documentary.
Of Stars and Men
, a 1964 animated feature by John Hubley
which tells of humankind's quest to find its place in the universe, won an award in the documentary category at the San Francisco Film Festival.
The 2007 International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam featured a programme based around "documentaries that partly or completely consist of animation". In the article written to accompany the event, Kees Driessen talked about the "least controversial" form of the genre; the "illustrated radio documentary
", citing Aardman Animation's 1987 film Lip Synch: Going Equipped (directed by Peter Lord
) as an example. One of the most consistent creators of this form of animated documentary today is Paul Fierlinger
. His films from the late 1980s-onward typically feature recordings of people talking about certain topics in their lives (such as alcohol abuse or loneliness), accompanied by Fierlinger's animation which mainly illustrates the stories in a realistic way. This is a contrast from films and series such as Aardman's Creature Comforts
, which recontextualise
such audio recordings by combining them with more fanciful, non-realistic animated interpretations.
Fierlinger's 1995 animated feature-length autobiography
Drawn from Memory
, in which he is the main subject as well as the director, voice actor and only animator, was also called a documentary by Driessen. This technique of animating interviews has also been used by other filmmakers, such as Chris Landreth
in his Oscar-winning 2004 short film Ryan
(mainly based on an interview done with animator Ryan Larkin
) and Jonas Odell
in the 2006 Swedish film Aldrig som första gången! (Never Like the First Time!, consisting of animated segments based around people's descriptions of their first time engaging in sex). The film Chicago 10
, about the Chicago Seven
incident, received some acclaim for recreating courtroom scenes using animation. Another documentary with animated elements is the German film Neukölln Unlimited
, which uses animation to depict past traumas of its protagonists.
The 2008 film Waltz with Bashir
was advertised as being the first feature-length animated documentary.
Mosaic Films pioneered the use of animated documentaries in the UK in 2003, with the award-winning series Animated Minds. Animated Minds is an innovative and award-winning series of short animated documentaries, commissioned by Channel 4
, which use real testimony from survivors of mental illness, combined with engaging visuals, to climb inside the minds of the mentally distressed.
The films – directed by Andy Glynne, an award-winning filmmaker and clinical psychologist – were a resounding success, being nominated for and winning numerous awards. The first series (2003) focuses on adults’ experiences of bipolar disorder, psychosis, panic attacks, and obsessive compulsive disorder. The second Animated Minds series (2009) focuses on young people and their experiences of specific mental health problems. They explore eating disorders, deliberate self-harm, obsessive compulsive disorder and the social distress experienced by young people affected by Asperger’s syndrome.
The Animated Minds series were broadcast through Channel 4
and Teachers TV and received a great deal of attention from health, education and community settings in the UK and around the world, as a tool for education and communication.
The first series won a Mental Health Media Award for best documentary (2003), a Grierson Award for Best Newcomer Director (2003), Best Animation at BANFF (2003), and Student Jury Prize at BANFF (2003). The second series went on to win a BAFTA Children’s Award for Secondary Learning (2009), a Mind Mental Health Media Award (2009), a Royal Television Society Award for Best Educational Television (2009), Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Award for Best Animation (2009), and Best Educational Film at the Holland Animation Film Festival (2009).
Animation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
and documentary
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
. This genre should not be confused with documentaries about movie and TV animation history that feature excerpts.
History
The first recognized example of this genre is Winsor McKay's 1918 12-minute-long film The Sinking of the LusitaniaThe Sinking of the Lusitania
The Sinking of the Lusitania is an animated short film by American artist Winsor McCay. It features a short 12-minute explanation of the sinking of the RMS Lusitania after it was struck by two torpedoes* fired from a German U-boat. The film was one of many animated silent films published to create...
, which uses animation to portray the 1915 sinking of RMS Lusitania
RMS Lusitania
RMS Lusitania was a British ocean liner designed by Leonard Peskett and built by John Brown and Company of Clydebank, Scotland. The ship entered passenger service with the Cunard Line on 26 August 1907 and continued on the line's heavily-traveled passenger service between Liverpool, England and New...
after it was struck by two torpedoes fired from a German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
U-boat
U-boat
U-boat is the anglicized version of the German word U-Boot , itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot , and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II...
; an event of which no recorded film footage is known to exist.
Since the 1920s, animation has been used in educational
Educational film
An educational film is a film or movie whose primary purpose is to educate. Educational films have been used in classrooms as an alternative to other teaching methods.-Cultural significance:...
and social guidance
Social guidance film
Social guidance films constitute a genre of films attempting to guide children and adults to behave in certain ways. Typically shown in school classrooms in the USA from the 1950s through the 1970s, the films covered topics including courtesy, responsibility, sexuality, drug use, and driver...
films, and has often been used to illustrate abstract concepts in mainly live-action examples of these genres. Early examples of fully animated educational films are The Einstein Theory of Relativity (1923) and Evolution (1925) by Max and Dave Fleischer
Fleischer Studios
Fleischer Studios, Inc., was an American corporation which originated as an Animation studio located at 1600 Broadway, New York City, New York...
. Walt Disney
Walt Disney
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...
used it in films such as Victory Through Air Power
Victory Through Air Power
Victory Through Air Power is a 1942 non-fiction book by Alexander P. de Seversky. It was made into a 1943 Walt Disney animated feature film of the same name: Victory Through Air Power.-Theories:...
(1943), How to Catch a Cold (1951) and Our Friend the Atom
Our Friend the Atom
Our Friend the Atom is a 1957 Walt Disney Productions film describing the benefits of atomic power. As well as being presented on the TV Show Disneyland, this film was also shown to almost all baby boomers in their public school auditoriums or their science classes and was instrumental in creating...
(1957).
In 1953, Norman McLaren
Norman McLaren
Norman McLaren, CC, CQ was a Scottish-born Canadian animator and film director known for his work for the National Film Board of Canada...
's "Neighbours
Neighbours (film)
Neighbours is a 1952 anti-war film by Scottish-Canadian filmmaker Norman McLaren. Produced at the National Film Board of Canada in Montreal, the film uses the technique known as pixilation, an animation technique using live actors as stop-motion objects...
" won the Academy Awards for Best Documentary (Short Subject). The award is somewhat considered a mistake, but the fact that it was not only indicated into that category, but also won, shows that, somehow, the animated images spoke to the judges almost like a documentary.
Of Stars and Men
Of Stars and Men
Of Stars and Men is a 1964 animated film from the Hubley family of animators, based on the 1959 book of the same name by astronomer Harlow Shapley, who also narrates...
, a 1964 animated feature by John Hubley
John Hubley
John Hubley was an American animation director, art director, producer and writer of traditional animation films known for both his formal experimentation and for his emotional realism which stemmed from his tendency to cast his own children as voice actors in his films.- Biography :Hubley was...
which tells of humankind's quest to find its place in the universe, won an award in the documentary category at the San Francisco Film Festival.
The 2007 International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam featured a programme based around "documentaries that partly or completely consist of animation". In the article written to accompany the event, Kees Driessen talked about the "least controversial" form of the genre; the "illustrated radio documentary
Radio documentary
A radio documentary or feature is a purely acoustic performance devoted to covering a particular topic in some depth, usually with a mixture of commentary and sound pictures. It is broadcast on radio or published on audio media, such as tape or CD...
", citing Aardman Animation's 1987 film Lip Synch: Going Equipped (directed by Peter Lord
Peter Lord
Peter Lord CBE is a British film producer, director and co-founder of the Academy award-winning Aardman Animations studio, an animation firm best known for its clay animated films and shorts, particularly those featuring plasticine duo Wallace & Gromit.-Biography:In cooperation with David...
) as an example. One of the most consistent creators of this form of animated documentary today is Paul Fierlinger
Paul Fierlinger
Paul Fierlinger is a creator of animated films and shorts, especially animated documentaries. He is also a part-time lecturer at University of Pennsylvania School of Design.-Early life:...
. His films from the late 1980s-onward typically feature recordings of people talking about certain topics in their lives (such as alcohol abuse or loneliness), accompanied by Fierlinger's animation which mainly illustrates the stories in a realistic way. This is a contrast from films and series such as Aardman's Creature Comforts
Creature Comforts
Creature Comforts was originally a 1989 British humorous animated short film about how animals feel about living in a zoo, featuring the voices of the British public "spoken" by the animals. It was created by Nick Park and Aardman Animations...
, which recontextualise
Recontextualisation
Recontextualisation is a process that extracts text, signs or meaning from its original context in order to introduce it into another context. Since the meaning of texts and signs depend on their context, recontextualisation implies a change of meaning, and often of the communicative purpose too...
such audio recordings by combining them with more fanciful, non-realistic animated interpretations.
Fierlinger's 1995 animated feature-length autobiography
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
Drawn from Memory
Drawn from Memory
-Track listing:-Musicians:* Mickey Dale - Keyboards, String arrangements, Guitar* Steve Firth - Bass* Mike Heaton - Drums, Percussion, Loops, Clarinet* Danny McNamara - Vocals, Guitar* Richard McNamara - Guitar, Vocals, Kazoo, Decks, Percussion and Loops...
, in which he is the main subject as well as the director, voice actor and only animator, was also called a documentary by Driessen. This technique of animating interviews has also been used by other filmmakers, such as Chris Landreth
Chris Landreth
Chris Landreth is an American animator working in Canada, best known for his work on the 2004 film, Ryan. He has made many CGI animated films since the mid-90s, including The End, Bingo, The Listener, Caustic Sky: A Portrait of Regional Acid Deposition, and Data Driven The Story Of Franz...
in his Oscar-winning 2004 short film Ryan
Ryan (film)
Ryan is a 2004 animated documentary by Chris Landreth about the Canadian animator Ryan Larkin, who in later years lived on skid row in Montreal following a history of drug and alcohol abuse....
(mainly based on an interview done with animator Ryan Larkin
Ryan Larkin
Ryan Larkin was a Canadian animator, artist, and sculptor who rose to fame with the psychedelic 1969 Oscar-nominated short Walking and the acclaimed Street Musique . He was the subject of the Oscar-winning film Ryan.-Home life and education:Ryan Larkin's father was an airline mechanic...
) and Jonas Odell
Jonas Odell
Jonas Odell is a Swedish music video and film director and founder of FilmTecknarna. Odell, who specializes in a mix of animation and live action, has directed a number of short films, music videos and commercials...
in the 2006 Swedish film Aldrig som första gången! (Never Like the First Time!, consisting of animated segments based around people's descriptions of their first time engaging in sex). The film Chicago 10
Chicago 10 (film)
Chicago 10: Speak Your Peace is a partially animated film written and directed by Brett Morgen that tells the story of the Chicago Eight...
, about the Chicago Seven
Chicago Seven
The Chicago Seven were seven defendants—Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, David Dellinger, Tom Hayden, Rennie Davis, John Froines, and Lee Weiner—charged with conspiracy, inciting to riot, and other charges related to protests that took place in Chicago, Illinois on the occasion of the 1968...
incident, received some acclaim for recreating courtroom scenes using animation. Another documentary with animated elements is the German film Neukölln Unlimited
Neukölln Unlimited
Neukölln Unlimited is a 2010 German documentary. The film follows three Lebanese siblings - Hassan, Lial and Maradona - through their daily lives in Berlin's district of Neukölln....
, which uses animation to depict past traumas of its protagonists.
The 2008 film Waltz with Bashir
Waltz with Bashir
Waltz with Bashir is a 2008 Israeli animated documentary film written and directed by Ari Folman. It depicts Folman in search of his lost memories from the 1982 Lebanon War....
was advertised as being the first feature-length animated documentary.
Animated Documentary in the UK
Animated MindsMosaic Films pioneered the use of animated documentaries in the UK in 2003, with the award-winning series Animated Minds. Animated Minds is an innovative and award-winning series of short animated documentaries, commissioned by Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
, which use real testimony from survivors of mental illness, combined with engaging visuals, to climb inside the minds of the mentally distressed.
The films – directed by Andy Glynne, an award-winning filmmaker and clinical psychologist – were a resounding success, being nominated for and winning numerous awards. The first series (2003) focuses on adults’ experiences of bipolar disorder, psychosis, panic attacks, and obsessive compulsive disorder. The second Animated Minds series (2009) focuses on young people and their experiences of specific mental health problems. They explore eating disorders, deliberate self-harm, obsessive compulsive disorder and the social distress experienced by young people affected by Asperger’s syndrome.
The Animated Minds series were broadcast through Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
and Teachers TV and received a great deal of attention from health, education and community settings in the UK and around the world, as a tool for education and communication.
The first series won a Mental Health Media Award for best documentary (2003), a Grierson Award for Best Newcomer Director (2003), Best Animation at BANFF (2003), and Student Jury Prize at BANFF (2003). The second series went on to win a BAFTA Children’s Award for Secondary Learning (2009), a Mind Mental Health Media Award (2009), a Royal Television Society Award for Best Educational Television (2009), Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Award for Best Animation (2009), and Best Educational Film at the Holland Animation Film Festival (2009).
External links
- Articles about the animated documentary in the March 2005 issue of fps magazineFps magazinefps magazine or frames per second magazine was a magazine specializing in animation, with reviews of animated films and other articles of interest to animation fans....