59th Ann Arbor Film Festival

BIPOC Experimental Animation

Expired April 1, 2021 4:00 AM
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Carrie Hawks believes in the magic of animation. There are stories that cannot be filmed in real-time with the camera, stories we don’t understand until days, years after they happen and are passed through generations. The artists in this program peer into layers of consciousness, create portraits without faces, detail the ways white supremacy attempts to oppress internally and externally, celebrate resistance to colonial forces, and present the tenderness of a personal archive (aka the voicemail). An escape from terror encapsulated via stop-motion puppetry. You’re invited to enjoy this experimental animation program of films crafted by people of the global majority, BIPOC folks. Curated by Carrie Hawks.


Carrie Hawks confronts self-imposed and external assumptions about identity in order to promote healing, particularly in relation to Blackness, gender, and queer sexuality. They work in animation, drawing, collage, sculpture, and performance, often incorporating humor. Their film black enuf* was nominated for a New York Emmy, won Best Documentary Short at Trans Stellar Film Festival, was broadcast on American Public Television’s World Channel in 2019, and screened at over 40 festivals including Ann Arbor and BlackStar.


Join us after the program for a prerecorded Q&A with the filmmakers.


Presented with support from Deb Greer

The title of this work refers to an elevated state of, or metaphor for, the consciousness transformation known as a rainbow body. Buddhist master Padmasambhava achieved this state in his union with Mandarava, a Tantric Buddhist spirit (dakini) and princess. Through study and physical connection, each played a key role in the other’s enlightenment. The cave structure is elaborated upon and extensively built out, introducing an interior depth where the ultimate transformation happens. I wanted to work with a narrative structure of dreamlike density, moving the viewer through a succession of physical and psychic spaces. The animation begins with Mandarava's dream following her journey through the bardo, passageway between death and rebirth. The camera movement reconfigures the bardo in paintings adding greater space and depth. The work also combines line drawings, watercolors, and paintings with pictorial elements from archival sources. Developed and animated with The Studio NYC.

  • Year
    2018
  • Runtime
    2 minutes
  • Country
    United States
  • Note
    Brooklyn, New York
  • Filmmaker
    Chitra Ganesh