Animation affords the opportunity to tackle difficult subjects in unique and unexpected ways as well as the opportunity to tell real-life stories from a unique perspective. This collection of animated documentaries does just that.

Valderez defied years of death threats. Van risks his life to mount undercover rescues. Maria escaped sexual slavery and now pursues the traffickers who profit from human misery. Three ordinary people with extraordinary stories - all on a mission to end modern-day slavery. Be it the Vietnamese lawyer who rescues women from China's sex trade or the Mexican survivor turned sleuth, these profiles explore the challenges of combating slavery. The pressure is high and the stakes are even higher for those dedicated to tackling the global trade in sex and labour that claims an estimated 25 million victims around the world. These efforts come at a cost - solitude, sorrow and stress - but their lives are seldom showcased. This animation series presents a rare glimpse into the lives of those who dare to take on the traffickers.

Taking on the Traffickers

Based on true events, Bestia explores the life of a secret police agent during the military dictatorship in Chile. Her relationship with her dog, her body, her fears and frustrations reveals a grim fracture of her mind and of the country.

Bestia

In nature, a couple is a male and a female. Well, not always! A couple is also a female and a female. Or a male and a male. You may not know it, but homosexuality isn't just a human story.

In Nature

She finds letters full of love her dad wrote her 15 years ago. Now she fights to get that love back.

Love, Dad

The Chemical Factory is a short animated documentary featuring a Chinese immigrant mother recounting her life growing up during the tumultuous 1950’s communist China to her American son during the COVID-19 pandemic. Faded memories of the Chinese Cultural Revolution are brilliantly rendered using groundbreaking technology, while drawing striking connections to the spate of violence towards the Asian community in America.

The Chemical Factory

$75,000 highlights the biological aspect of albinism, which is a genetic and hereditary abnormality that affects not only pigmentation, but also and above all the physical and moral conditions of people with albinism. These people are victims of discrimination, mutilation, and ritual crimes in Africa.

$75,000

Between two telephone calls, my grandfather recounts some of his memories from the war when he was twenty years old.

It Wasn’t Bourgogne

Kevin Hines hears voices due to auditory hallucinations that one day order him to end his life. A hand-drawn documentary about one of the few people to survive a jump from the Golden Gate Bridge.

Blessing in Disguise

Climate change seems like a problem of a far distant future. We just go on with business as usual. But climate change, just like the loss of biodiversity and the current pandemic, is a consequence of how we treat nature. Corona is a wake-up call that has disrupted all of our lives. All attention goes towards solving the current problem: controlling the SARS-CoV-2 virus. But prevention is better than cure. To do this, we have to look at how infectious diseases emerge and spread. World-renowned artist Steve Cutts created an animated film for the Nicolaas G. Pierson Foundation, in which he not only visualizes the factors that cause pandemics, but also points at the urgent measures that are needed to reduce the risk of future pandemics.

A Viral Spiral

Drawing on Autism is an investigation into the ethics of creating animated documentaries. As a non-autistic filmmaker, representing an autistic participant, I needed to be mindful of the well-rehearsed and problematic tropes about autism. These tropes seem to say more about the desires and needs of neurotypical audiences than they do about their autistic subjects. Moreover, animation presents a distinct set of ethical dilemmas. Without the mechanical indifference of a camera, the act of observation is substituted for representation. A mode of representation where the artist is responsible for how the documentary participant looks, where they are, and what they do. Through collaborative feedback I attempt to share these responsibilities with my participant, while making use of positional and textual reflexivity to equip my audiences so they can scrutinise my documentary interventions.

Drawing on Autism

A Musical Animated Memoir set in London 1968-73 A reflection and re-creation of the years that shaped who I am. A time when protest and resistance were part of everyday life. What was personal - politicized when people came together to fight for their rights. The actions of Students, the Women’s Movement, Gay Liberation, Squatters and Claimants Unions, provide a documentary framework for what are in essence personal memories, a child’s POV. The political message is traced through the means of communication; hand-drawn comics, screen- printed posters, leaflets, placards, papers, pamphlets and the underground press. They reflect the concerns of the time, relate directly to what’s going on today and feel just as relevant 50 years on. An exercise in trace memory associated with home. A sensory journey through the textures, colours and sounds of childhood, re-constructed.

The Personal is Political

An elderly woman living alone in her apartment deals with loneliness and her eventual end.

A Poem by Alba

Anywhere But Here is a metacommentary film about wanting to go places and see new faces, but being prevented from doing so by the pandemic. The narrator unravels a bittersweet resolution in the self-reflexive filmmaking process as we dive deeper into her dreamscape.

Anywhere But Here

Life Animated

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The best way to experience this year's SPARK ANIMATION 2023 is with a full access pass! Fore more details click on the Festival Site link. You can purchase individual program tickets below.

Celebrate 15 years of the world's best animation SPARK ANIMATION! British Columbia's only Oscar®-accredited festival packs world-class films and talks into one grass-roots, volunteer run festival which is now available world-wide! We know animation. Share our passion with us!

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