Conversations with filmmakers selected to the festival.
Small moments can have huge impact on our lives. Case in point: Ashton Blyth’s animation debut Felt Right Then, Feels Right Now which captures a two-minute scene that speaks volumes to the director’s life journey.
Ashton is joined by director and Festival Jury member Dean Hamer to how animation can be used to challenge and explore ideas of gender in society.
SPEAKER
Ashton Blyth
Director // Independent
(Felt Right Then, Feels Right Now)
Ashton Blyth is a UK-based FtM transgender artist whose practice investigates the theme of identity, most recently conveying his themes through animations. With his work, he aims to create artworks that question the rules and restraints society lays out for us in regards to our personal identity - in order to challenge and create new ways to represent the constant evolution of gender in society. Identity is an ideological construct created by society, our identity is formed by what tick boxes we fit that society hands us. When you look at a portrait artist’s work, it’s a fixed and permanent view of somebody’s identity. In the modern world, it’s more fluid and non-binary, and this should be represented not only in society, but in art as well. Society’s viewpoints on gender, sexuality, race, religion etc. are changing, and that needs to be showcased more – which is what Blyth intends to do so with his own work.
Throughout the years of his education in the arts, Blyth has developed his skills in a variety of mediums: drawing, etching, printmaking, sculpture, laser-cutting, film and animation. Blyth’s preferred method of creation being to combine several mediums to build an installation that the audience can participate or immerse themselves in. Blyth believes these methods have proven invaluable in improving audience understand of his work and its significance regarding gender and sexuality. Having chosen to explore the contexts of his practice in an assortment of ways, Blyth feels this has enhanced his ability to aid students investigating a multiplicity of mediums and will allow his teaching to cater for a diverse range of interests and abilities, offering direction and support from a place of experience.
Website // Instagram // Facebook
MODERATOR
Dean Hamer
Director // Kanaka Pakipika
Dean Hamer is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker and New York Times Book of the Year author whose feature and short films combine live-action with animation to explore pressing social issues through innovative storytelling. His work has screened and won awards at film festivals around the world including Berlin, Tribeca and Toronto, been viewed by millions on PBS, Netflix and international networks, supported by Sundance, Ford and Pacific Islanders in Communications, and received widespread attention for their role in promoting social change.
Hamer’s recent animated short film Kapaemahu, which won five Oscar-qualifying awards and was shortlisted at the 93rd Academy Awards, is the basis of an upcoming children’s book and museum exhibition about Hawaii’s long tradition of gender diversity.
Conversations with filmmakers selected to the festival.
Small moments can have huge impact on our lives. Case in point: Ashton Blyth’s animation debut Felt Right Then, Feels Right Now which captures a two-minute scene that speaks volumes to the director’s life journey.
Ashton is joined by director and Festival Jury member Dean Hamer to how animation can be used to challenge and explore ideas of gender in society.
SPEAKER
Ashton Blyth
Director // Independent
(Felt Right Then, Feels Right Now)
Ashton Blyth is a UK-based FtM transgender artist whose practice investigates the theme of identity, most recently conveying his themes through animations. With his work, he aims to create artworks that question the rules and restraints society lays out for us in regards to our personal identity - in order to challenge and create new ways to represent the constant evolution of gender in society. Identity is an ideological construct created by society, our identity is formed by what tick boxes we fit that society hands us. When you look at a portrait artist’s work, it’s a fixed and permanent view of somebody’s identity. In the modern world, it’s more fluid and non-binary, and this should be represented not only in society, but in art as well. Society’s viewpoints on gender, sexuality, race, religion etc. are changing, and that needs to be showcased more – which is what Blyth intends to do so with his own work.
Throughout the years of his education in the arts, Blyth has developed his skills in a variety of mediums: drawing, etching, printmaking, sculpture, laser-cutting, film and animation. Blyth’s preferred method of creation being to combine several mediums to build an installation that the audience can participate or immerse themselves in. Blyth believes these methods have proven invaluable in improving audience understand of his work and its significance regarding gender and sexuality. Having chosen to explore the contexts of his practice in an assortment of ways, Blyth feels this has enhanced his ability to aid students investigating a multiplicity of mediums and will allow his teaching to cater for a diverse range of interests and abilities, offering direction and support from a place of experience.
Website // Instagram // Facebook
MODERATOR
Dean Hamer
Director // Kanaka Pakipika
Dean Hamer is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker and New York Times Book of the Year author whose feature and short films combine live-action with animation to explore pressing social issues through innovative storytelling. His work has screened and won awards at film festivals around the world including Berlin, Tribeca and Toronto, been viewed by millions on PBS, Netflix and international networks, supported by Sundance, Ford and Pacific Islanders in Communications, and received widespread attention for their role in promoting social change.
Hamer’s recent animated short film Kapaemahu, which won five Oscar-qualifying awards and was shortlisted at the 93rd Academy Awards, is the basis of an upcoming children’s book and museum exhibition about Hawaii’s long tradition of gender diversity.
