Faithfully Animating the Truth: Some experiences of a women’s collective

Abstract

For over four decades I have been part of a women’s film collective, Leeds Animation Workshop, set up to make films about social issues. As a founder member, I have had some level of involvement with all the Workshop’s 40 or so films. During this period we have employed a variety of techniques, including fully-painted cel, 3D, mixed media, and cut-outs; but the focus of our collective work remains, as it always has been, on using animation to raise awareness, and to provoke questions and discussion of social issues.

This paper consists of a practitioner’s reflections, on the use of animation for documentary and on our collective working practice.