Category: Films

  • ‘Dole Animators’ Trailer

    Dole Animators is a group of benefit claimants based in the UK who are working together to make an animated documentary about the reality of the impact of the governments recent welfare reform. The final film will use a mixture of stopmotion and collage animation. Animateddocumentary.com’s Ellie Land is working with the group in partnership…

  • ‘BBC Knowledge Explainer DNA’ by Territory Studio

    BBC Knowledge & Learning commissioned Territory Studio to create an animated explanation of the structures, processes and purposes of DNA.  The result is an exquisitely mesmeric graphic exploration of the mysterious structure. With only three minutes to work with, and an incredibly rich topic to explore, the challenge for this film was to gage the appropriate…

  • ‘The Beloved Ones’ by Samantha Moore

    Samantha Moore’s 2007 UK Film Council commissioned animated documentary explores problems of stigma and denial in a Ugandan community through the eyes of two women dealing with the effects of HIV/AIDS in their respective families. The materiality of this animation technique is charmingly tangible. Two examples are the hut roof fashioned from torn corrugated cardboard and…

  • ‘Allergy To Originality’: A New York Times Op-Doc by Drew Christie

    Drew Christie’s animation explores notions of originality through the vehicle of an uncannily informative conversation between a cinema box office attendant and an inquisitive patron. The animated sequence was commissioned by The New York Times’ Op-Doc forum, an online sub-section of the editorial department. This initiative hosts ‘short, opinionated documentaries, produced with wide creative latitude and…

  • ‘I Dreamt of Flying’ by Alex Bland

    Alex Bland conjures the atmosphere of wartime Britain in this nostalgic exploration of the R.A.F.’s Bomber Command, a battalion charged with the treacherous task of attacking German targets at the dead of night. Set out in a roughly chronological narrative, archive recordings and contemporary interviews with ex-crew members narrate the early stages of excitement during enlisting,…

  • ‘Camouflage’ by Jonathan Hodgson

    This animated documentary, directed by Jonathan Hodgson, opens with the statement, ‘Most people’s mums are mad. Mine’s got schizophrenia’. This text crafts the perspective of a child by adopting adolescent rhetoric. The tone of such a statement is carried through an extraordinary series of parallel narratives in which adults recount their experiences in childhood dealing…

  • Review of ‘Tanko Bole Chhe’ – The Stitch Speaks by Nina Sabnani

    I saw this beautifully crafted film at the Animated Realities conference in Edinburgh in 2011. The film animates a traditional sewing and textiles technique developed by the Kutch community, who are from a coastal region in Ahmedabad, India and has for a long time inspired fashion and textiles all over the world. Here is a…

  • ‘In Jennifer’s Room’ by Ryan Gabrielson & Carrie Ching

    A whistle-blowing story, which lends itself to the animated documentary genre, mostly because of the ethical considerations in protecting peoples’ identity. The following synopsis is taken from the films entry on YouTube: “In August 2006, caregivers at the Sonoma Developmental Center found dark blue bruises shaped like handprints covering the breasts of a patient named…

  • Review of ‘The Congress’ trailer – a new film by Ari Folman, from Screenrant

    Well, I was very pleased this morning to find this review, and eager to watch the brand new trailer for the latest animated feature from the director of award winning animated documentary – Waltz with Bashir – Ari Folman. However the trailer has already been removed for copyright reasons! So if anyone out there knows of a link to the trailer…

  • Review of ‘Caldera’, by Evan Viera

    It is not often one comes across a CGI film with such a consistently rich sense of artistry. With his film ‘Caldera’, Evan Viera and a substantial team of supporting artists demonstrate a brilliant sense of composition, lighting design and mastery of the 3D medium. This animated short attempts to represent a series of visual…