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Click here for blog post of other videos and discussion of the work of Shirin Neshat.

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Stop motion puppet animation without words about Laali who is molested and raped at the age of 8 years. Tainted by the traumatic psychological and physiological experience her childhood becomes more of a nightmare when she is forced to marry.
For more about this animation see her website: https://www.hamidakhatri.com/animation

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"With words, you can say anything. You can lie as long as the day, but you cannot lie in the recreation of an experience."
~ Louise Bourgeois

Child abuse, rape, forced marriage, acid attack, honor killing, and murder in cold blood are some of the most devastating forms of violence in a third-world country like Pakistan. It was not too long ago that Qandeel Baloch, a Pakistani model was strangled to death by her brother in the name of ‘dishonoring’ her family. And just not too long ago, Asifa Bano, an 8-year old girl from Kashmir, and Zainab Ansari, a 7-year old girl from Kasur, were gang-raped and brutally murdered. These are some of the many cases of sexual violence and child abuse, which were brought forward in front of the media. 

Sahil, an organization working for the protection of children against all forms of abuse in Pakistan, reports that child molestation and abuse takes place in almost all parts of Pakistan and the perpetrators, totaling 60% of the reported population, are amongst relatives and close family friends. Their data also reveals that more than 9 children who are less than 18 years of age are sexually abused every single day. In the year 2017, a total of 3,445 cases of child abuse were reported, out of which 60% were girls and 58% of those were violently murdered after rape; and a total of 143 child marriages have been reported out of which 89% were girls. According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, 80% of Pakistani women experience some form of domestic violence in their lifetime (Human Rights Watch, 2017). These are just some of the stated facts. There are many more, which we are unaware of.

As an advocate for social justice I produced, directed, and animated Laal Ribbon, a stop-motion animation, to collectively respond to the above-stated facts. Here, I share a story of Laali who is molested and raped at the age of 8 years. Tainted by the traumatic psychological and physiological experience her childhood becomes more of a nightmare when she is forced to marry. Being female compels you to be caged within the patriarchal boundaries established around you where suffering and silencing become the food for survival. This animation is my artistic response to the various child sexual abuse, rape, trauma, forced marriage, and domestic violence cases that are reported and unreported in Pakistan. The story is not just about Laali but also of every child, girl, and woman around the world who has faced a similar reality.

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This has more details of my conceptual and technical development of the animations to March 2021.

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'The Airplane': Key Translation Questions

Anger? vulnerability? strength? comedy? tragedy?

Original flat black marker line or more artistic ink?

Use of colour? shape? fracture? follow more African cartoon style?

Narrative options

Sequencing of narrative? As a scene-based sequential narrative? As composite of cycled looped vignettes like 'Tango' to show the burden of things?

Importance of dramatic timing?

Balance between comedy and tragedy to counter 'not all that feminist whingeing again!' reaction and attract attention.

Best way of contextualising the narrative to show that this is the situation of very many women in East Africa. Does the use oSequencing of narrative? As composite of cycled looped vignettes like 'Tango' or more fluid sequential narrative? Book page turn over.

Dramatic timing is keyf photos/sketches work?

A possible second approach I thought of later that would be potentially more faithful to the original workshop process, mixing the images in a looped 'cycle of life' like 'Tango' by Zbigniew Rybczyński, ending with some sort of comic or tragic concluding clip. To show the cyclical build up of pressures to boiling anger.

Illusion of Life: realism/magic balance

How far should the animations observe conventions of visual dynamics? Which visual conventions are necessary for clarity across audiences?

How can clarity and drama be enhanced by selective use of colour? camera moves and lighting?

Which visual conventions can be ignored to follow the original drawings and give a more 'authentic/artistic look'? eg in use or non-use of perspective?

How far should the animations observe conventions of visual dynamics and vary perspective?

Should they follow the flat uniform viewpoint and perspective of the original drawings. eg in use or non-use of perspective.

Which conventions are necessary? Which can be ignored to give a more 'authentic look'?

Need to look at camera moves and lighting

Timing is key

Anger? vulerability? strength?

Original flat black marker line or more artistic ink?

Use of colour? shape? fracture

Creative translation assessment of animatic draft

The community narrative of Mary's story is very important for gender advocacy in coffee sector.

The drawings alone could work very well as simple line animations using Disney principles: squash and stretch, arcs, anticipation etc. Timing will be key. But I discovered that this was far from simple and this requires considerable animation skill and experience.

The current animatic is a 'maximalist version' where I combine different sources together to see how the narrative might work and possible timings with the sound track, and make an initial assessment of how different styles might work together and complement each other for some feedback before redoing the whole thing.

Technical quality: Need much more fluidity and better dramatic timing of the line animations to work with the music, incorporating squash and stretch, camera and viewpoint var. Squash and Stretch.

Fidelity to community voices and context? the focus on animating the original marker line drawings is the closest I can get to fidelity to the original drawn sources. The addition of gouache and crayon overlay on role play photos also maintains close fidelity to what was said in the workshop. But the narratives have sometimes been constructed by me based on contextual information because the workshop documentation had some gaps.

Visual magic and creativity? I find the general style and mix of animated and figurative media quite striking, but there are other contextual photographs and images I could adapt. I now need to think much more strategically about timing, colours and style to reflect the message and how to lighten things with more comedy in order to emphasise the serious points.

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'The Airplane': Key Translation Questions Anger? vulnerability? strength? comedy? tragedy? Original flat black marker line or more artistic ink? Use of colour? shape? fracture? follow more African cartoon style? Narrative options Sequencing of narrative? As a scene-based sequential narrative? As composite of cycled looped vignettes like 'Tango' to show the burden of things?

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Experiment Clip 3: Violence: After Effects on Mobile Phone footage

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Experiment Clip 3: Violence: After Effects on Mobile Phone footage

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Abused in silence: documentary on domestic viuolence in Pakistan

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Abused in silence: documentary on domestic viuolence in Pakistan

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Found mobile phone footage of domestic violence

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Found mobile phone footage of domestic violence

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Film about women challenging power and authority of the father in the family. A religious Muslim family faces financial difficulties caused by too many children and changing times. Bol was a critical and commercial success, and became one of the highest-grossing Pakistani films of all time.

See overview in Wikipedia

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You Tube video on street children in slum areas in Pakistan

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You Tube video on street children in slum areas in Pakistan

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‘The airplane’ Creative translation questions and future steps

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‘The airplane’ Creative translation questions and future steps

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This animation is still very much at the planning stage, with only a few clips and ideas developed. But a lot of possible styles, images and narratives suggested by other animations without words, and footage film and animation from Pakistan.

Because of the artistic and narrative concept I have, and the need to be innovative rather than didactic, this animation is a much more complex task than the other animations. I wanted to incorporate natural as well as digital media but have only got access to my art studio again in July because of household arrangements during COVID-19. The TVPaint animation is also complex and I needed to take this slowly, after the other animations, because of RSI

Creative translation narrative

This could incorporate elements from popular Pakistani cinema and TV to both reinforce the poignancy and tragedy, but also add an element of culturally relevant fantasy and thinking differently.

Different possibilities of linear and/or non-linear narrative sequences eg opening with the cemetery scene or the woman jumping of the roof as in one of Shirin Neshat's films.

There could be other linking formats eg scenes are pushed, or represented by page turns? or linked with characters moving between frames as in 'Merlot'? Looped cycles to present repetitions eg addiction and violence from the mobile phone footage.

Should there be any comedy? If so what? There is nothing comic in any of these community drawings. One possibility would be to end with the woman in a burqa flying high as a pilot like Haroon's Burqa Avenger - see the gouache painting on the right.

A key issue is the need to clarify the characters and style - the community drawings are mostly solid marker, but some in more scratchy biro and felt tip.

Technical quality
I would want to animate the drawings in a mix of gouache, Procreate, TVPaint and charcoal and/or scraperboard Stop Motion on my iPhone. The composite them with the mobile phone footage (part rotoscoped?) and audio in Premiere, possibly adding some Creative Effects and lighting in After Effects.

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Overview of animation ideas September 2021

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Overview of animation ideas September 2021

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'The airplane' is about the contrast between the dreams of empowerment and happy families expressed by women and men in poor communities in Pakistan have – particularly at the time hey are married – compared with the reality of what happens statistically to very many women over time. And also to disappearance of men’s dreams.

The series were selected because of the powerful single image narratives from participatory workshops. I had good workshop reports on the drawings and background discussions, but few photographs and no video or audio.

The most poignant central image is the image of the woman lying dead in a cemetery with her children crying around her – so many women identified with that. Compared to another drawing by an old woman of her vision of flying in an aeroplane and being a happy couple.

The constructed narrative would have the following elements, not necessarily in linear order and including visions of men as well as women to make the animation more like the realities expressed in the community workshops, and less didactic and obvious than animations focusing solely on women:

Scene 1 Visions: A couple just married coming down a path together with a series of flashed up dream bubbles of aeroplanes and happy family etc - including men’s visions of a job, taking his wife to the cinema.

Scene 2 Reality: A sequence of what actually occurred : violence, too many children etc. These could just be sequential still images. Or a series of very short 3-5 frame looped animations. This would also include men’s frustrations and the reasons for their descent into addiction and violence.

Scene 3 Tragic Result: The shot of the cemetery with the children animated then replicated to show the numbers of women in that situation. With an image of a man distraught at what he had done.

I envisage a contrast between artistic black and white animation in the moving image/film style of Shirin Neshat and Brothers Quay. With drawings animated in charcoal or digital scraperboard, interspersed with found video of life in poor housing urban areas and domestic abuse that confirm the reality of the drawings women and men made.

Sound effects are a challenge and will need to be imported together with appropriate ambient sound from on-line video and library.

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Padlet purpose:
This padlet provides an easy entry overview 'map' to the animations, there evolution through different styles and contributory community sources and inspiration.

Contents

Portfolio animation and supporting sketchlog and overview blogpost (in red centre top, larger file size version)

Community sources, overview blog post, key drawings used and sketchlog (in blue bottom left)

Creative translation questions and visual narrative inspiration of options for animation format (in purple top right).

Sequence of stylist experiments (in orange bottom from left to right. Inspiration sources for each in black)

To open the padlet:
Click on the square with arrow on the top right below.

To open the 'paddles':
Click on the paddle title or image, whichever shows a ‘hand’.
If no hand shows, click on three dots top right and expand.

To close, check whether or not the ‘paddle’ has opened in a separate window on your browser. Closing that will bring you back to the overview padlet.

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Burka Avenger: Haroon Pakistani alternative STORYLINE

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Burka Avenger: Haroon Pakistani alternative STORYLINE

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A blockbuster animated TV series about a schoolteacher who puts on a burqa like Batman and fights back against injustice.

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Experiment clip 2: found mobile phone footage

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Experiment clip 2: found mobile phone footage

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TVPaint effects experiment.

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Charcoal animation post with more examples and explanation of tools and techniques for charcoal animation.

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Style: suggestive ghosting: Catherine Anyango Grunewald

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Style: suggestive ghosting: Catherine Anyango Grunewald

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Catherine Anyango-Grünewald uses a similar technique to Kentridge. She draws repeatedly on the same sheet of paper, but instead of using the residue of a material, she focuses on the durability of the surface that she is drawing on. The disintegration of paper beneath her aggressive drawings expresses her personal frustration and anger at police brutality and echoes the imbalance of power of her subject.

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तुमचे मित्र, कुटुंब आणि तुमच्या ओळखीच्या लोकांशी सामायिक करण्यासाठी आणि कनेक्ट होण्यासाठी Facebook मध्ये लॉग इन करा.

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"Live, moments ago. The Death of Michael Brown 9.8.2014," 2015 is a part of a gorgeous hand drawn animation by #CatherineAnyangoGrunewald in #GraphicWitness. Come see the full animation for yourself! #graphicwitness #protest #protestart #catherineanyango #exhibition
Posted by Drawing Room on Wednesday, May 31, 2017

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Pagina Quattro uses an animated sequence of pencil drawings on lined paper with audio to create a very dramatic story.

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"Kimberly" - An animated documentary about depression

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Narrative: Riedl & Schuld Carlotta's Face

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Narrative: Riedl & Schuld Carlotta's Face

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Carlotta's Face | Animated Documentary Short Film by Riedl & Schuld

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Uses inverted photos and effects that could be used in intro and/or final clips.

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Apocalypse Now intro: The Doors, The End {1979}

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This very simple line animation style with music or the audio could be very effective, without using the mobile phone video.

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i always want to go back to since the better.  Pavarotti can help me.

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I could replicate the drawings as this sort of semi-animated book.

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Malaria - curta metragem (short film) HD

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This is a possible scratchy line style.

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Иван Васильев

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Len Lye - Free Radicals  ( "Johnathan Livingston" )

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This brief rotoscoped animation is extremely atmospheric with its suggested shapes.

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hand drawn on floor tiles in 2002 in my parents scullery - when I was teaching myself how to animate as part of a short documentary made with Honore Muneza - his story of exile from Rwanda

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Inspiration from film: Brothers Quay: In Absentia

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Inspiration from film: Brothers Quay: In Absentia

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In Absentia é uma colaboração dos irmãos Quay com o celebrado compositor de vanguarda Karlheinz Stockhausen, que escreveu e regeu a trilha sonora original do filme. Filmado em preto e branco e cor e projetado em CinemaScope, In Absentia combina animação e live action, com um deslumbrante uso da luz, para explorar a mente de uma mulher que obsessivamente escreve uma carta, isolada em uma pequena sala. O filme é “dedicado à memória de E.H., que viveu em um asilo, de onde escreveu cartas para o marido. In Absentia estreou no festival de Cannes e foi produzido para a série Sound on Film International, uma coletânea curtas metragens musicais financiada pela BBC da qual participaram diretores renomados como Hal Hartley, Nicolas Roeg e Werner Herzog.

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Inspiration from film: Hitchcock: Psycho Shower Scene

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Inspiration from film: Hitchcock: Psycho Shower Scene

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The Shower - Psycho (5/12) Movie CLIP (1960) HD

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Ian Gouldstone’s Dog Piano uses a simple mask blended over the image to focus the area of interest on the action and give colour.

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Dog Piano  (2019)
live simulation on clothing airers

Two forms, a red ball and a yellow stick, rest in the silent darkness. They hover in multi-planed space, fractured by the layers of clothing onto which they are projected. The ball becomes another shape, a ship perhaps. The stick an axe. Out of the stillness a white stick emerges from below, almost silent, but maybe a clock ticking. It fades away. Again another white stick thrusts upwards, this time much louder– yes it sounds like a water drop.

The unseen force strikes a third time and launches the ball into the air with an echoing wooden tock. It sails through the air and bounces on an invisible uneven ground. It slowly comes to a stop over some socks and a bathmat. Now it’s another shape. Perhaps a hamburger...

Humdrum, The Store, Dulwich (2019)
Wildcard, ACAVA Studios, London (2019)  (pictured)

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Example of magical dramatic lighting that could be used for the phot and/or violence scenes.

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Prince Bayaya / Bajaja (1950) ENG subs, TVRip

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Style: Silhouette Marjan Satrapi: Persepolis

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Style: Silhouette Marjan Satrapi: Persepolis

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Marjane Satrapi: Persepolis. Uses dramatic black shapes and line.

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Clive Walley Painting build up of textures and framing through tunnels.

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Rebellious Silence, from the Women of Allah series- Shirin Neshat

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The community empowerment drawings from Pakistan are by women and men clients and staff participating in gender workshops for micro-finance programmes 2004 - 2005.

Many of the drawings are in the form of 'Diamond Tools' that I developed for identifying community criteria for assessing empowerment, 'happy families' and differences between women and men's poverty. The Diamond shape was chosen because if you just ask 'what does poverty mean here' people just say 'everyone is poor' or 'has no power'. In order to tease things out I started to ask 'what do the richest people look like?' 'what do the poorest people look like', the Diamond shape representing that one might think those are the fewest people, with most people in the middle. If it turns out most people are at the bottom, then that is a discussion point. For full discussion of the Diamond tool and its various uses see post on my professional blog: https://gamechangenetwork.org/gamechange-methodology/diagram-tools/diamonds The other drawing is a very early 'Road Journey' showing progress over time from bottom left to top right.

These drawings were done before I had developed a systematic process for participatory drawing where everyone has time to reflect and draw for themselves, and then everyone shares and contributes their ideas. The artists are unknown, and also there is limited documentation on the drawing process from Kashf where staff conducted the workshops without me.

Findings and analysis

The same themes recur on most diagrams from different places, and also by men as well as women:

Signs of empowerment and wealth are cars - sometimes driven by women or at least at women's disposal with a driver, mobile phones for women and men, love, affection and respect between husband and wife. In one case also flying in an aeroplane for women. Men also identified being able to educate their daughters (learning to use a video camera and computer) and being able to go out freely with their wives to cinema and elsewhere as being part of a happy family life.

Signs of disempowerment and poverty: violence by men and women (mother-in-law??), dirty unkempt hair and stress, too many unruly children, men's drug addiction, sickness and lack of medical care. Where these are quantified based on assessment of their frequency in the community these issues affect at least two thirds of the population/micro-finance clients.

There are a wide range of styles of figure drawing, even on the same diagrams and using the same media - markers, biro or pencil:

Some of the drawings have very expressive faces. Sometimes this is intentional - frowning, tears, smile. Other times this is from 'happy accident' where expressions are because of lack of drawing experience. But still relevant for my own adaptations either because they are so expressive or they make people laugh.

Type of clothes are important markers eg between rich and poor. But significantly women are rarely drawn with veils either by men or women, even where they were in reality wearing full burqa.

Selection of key drawings

What happened to my airplane?' story line ideas

In terms of storyline, the most poignant is the image of the woman lying dead in a cemetery with her children crying around her - so many women identified with that. Compared to the vision of flying in an aeroplane and the happy couple.

The animation could actually be quite simple. It could focus only on women, or more interestingly/accurately/less stereotypically include the visions and situation of men also expressed in Taraqee Foundation:

Scene 1 Visions: A foreground drawing of a woman with (probably unkempt hair) with a series of flashed up dream bubbles of aeroplanes and happy family etc. This could also include men's visions.

Scene 2 Reality: A sequence of what actually occurred : violence, too many children etc. These could just be sequential still images. Or a series of very short 3-5 frame looped animations. This could also include men's frustrations and the reasons for their descent into violence.

Scene 3 Tragic Result: The final shot of the cemetery with the children animated then replicated to show the numbers of women in that situation. There could also be an image of a man distraught at what he had done.

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The community empowerment drawings from Pakistan are by women and men clients and staff participating in gender workshops for micro-finance programmes 2004 - 2005. Many of the drawings are in the form of 'Diamond Tools' that I developed for identifying community criteria for assessing empowerment, 'happy families' and differences between women and men's poverty.