how does it feel supporting fucking abusive shitstains who not only openly hate trans men & dfab enbies, but also abuse their own fucking people too, and even managed to make one of their victims fucking kill themselves? "intersectionality" means jack fucking shit if you willingly fucking support abusers who paint themselves as "feminists", fuckface
Hello! Hi. I donāt know who you are, or which situation(s) youāre referring to, but none of the bigotry youāre discussing has crossed my radar. If you want to be more specific, I encourage you to do so. We literally just held a trans and NB-inclusive event on sexual harassment in NYC a few weeks ago, I myself am bi. So Iām not sure who you think weāre āsupporting,ā but this project focuses on women, whether AFAB/DFAB or not.While I have much concern for other underrepresented minorities, particularly other LBGTQIA+ folk, I donāt know if I am the best person to address this, as itās something I have little experience with. Most of the resistance we experience involves cis vs. trans and hetero vs. LGBQ+ dynamics, although race and class often complicate these relationships.I hope you find the help and peace you need.
For many women in animation, it comes as no surprise that there are men like Chris Savino [The Loud House] and Skyler Page [Clarence] in the workplace. Breaking news suggests even executives as high as John Lasseter are not immune. What is perhaps more of a surprise, particularly to young women first entering animation, is how rarely discussed handling such situations effectively and tactfully is.
Few are aware of the rights they are entitled to or who to address for support. This lack of information coupled with the majority fearing being blacklisted for calling attention to sexual harassment in the workplace effectively creates an overwhelming and unrealistic effect of silence.
In this guide, we will outline preliminary techniques for those experiencing sexual harassment in the workplace. While many of this may also apply outside the United States, the information is predominantly geared towards our legal system. This guide will be updated with more resources as time permits.
Disclaimer: None of these points are meant to suggest, advocate, endorse, or recommend any particular or appropriate course of legal action. Please consult an attorney if you have a situation you need assistance with.
ā¢ Document every incident.Ā Particularly if you are experiencing repeated instances of harassment, consider getting a notebook to write down and document every incident. Write down who was present, what was said, when it occurred, and any other relevant details that will help you recall specifics. In some states, recording conversations on your phone is not illegal and can serve as evidence in court.
ā¢ Find co-workers you trust. This goes without saying, but try to find co-workers you can speak with to ask about their experiences with your abuser. They may be able to verify having experience with similar instances of harassment or abuse, or be willing to work with you to find other people who have. Keeping questions vague and open-ended can be a proactive way to start this discussion.
ā¢ Ask for your employee handbook. In most states, employers are legally required to provide their employees with one of these. Besides more mundane points, most have an anti-harassment section or clause. If there are instructions on what to do if an employee violates this clause, follow those instructions. In some states, there are repercussions for not filing a formal complaint with your employerāand repercussions for them if they fail to address your complaint immediately and appropriately.
ā¢ Confront your abuser safely. If you feel uncomfortable going to your HR department, you may want to consider addressing the situation directly. By blind copying yourself on an e-mail, you are able to have in writing proof of an incident that can serve as evidence. Make it clear in your e-mail that the action of your abuser was unwelcome and ask them to stop such behavior. Text messages can also often serve as evidence, provided their authenticity can be confirmed.
ā¢ File formal complaints. If you are part of a union, you should be able to file a formal complaint with them. For those at larger shops / studios, your HR department should be able to receive these as well. Filing a formal complaint is another form of providing evidence that you have tried to resolve the situation, and potentially shows the unwillingness of your employer to respond appropriately and immediately.
ā¢ Read up on local laws. In the United States, there are key pieces of legislation that protect employees (Civil Rights Act of 1964ās Title VII; The Civil Rights Act of 1991) and organizations such as the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) that you will want to familiarize yourself with. Within New York and California, you may want to pay particular attention to New York Human Rights law Ā§ 296.1 (codified as N.Y. Executive Law, Article 15) and the Fair Employment and Housing Act of 1959 (codified as Government Code Ā§Ā§12900-12996). On the local level, some states offer guides for handling sexual harassment.
ā¢ Find an employment attorney. Many attorneys will consult on particular situations pro-bono and be happy to discuss your legal options. Even if you plan not to file a case and many never make it to court, it is worth considering all available choices. Be aware that depending on what type of case you want to file, there may be time limits applicable (e.g., filing your lawsuit within 180 days of the last incident of harassment).
ā¢ Contact or visit your stateās Office of Civil Rights. Depending on the state, this title may be different. Other common titles include the Office of Human Rights, or Fair Employment Office. Most states should be able to offer consultation and resources, and should be able to help you begin filing a case if you so choose.
In an attempt to better understand the needs, current state, and goals of our community, Animation HeroineĀ is conducting a research surveyāby women, for women, all about animation. Please take a few minutes to respond, and then pass it on to your favorite gal pals. The survey will close at the end of this year. Thanks for your help and participation!Ā š
Above: Photo of Sarah Saidan, courtesy of the artist. Photo taken by Mai Nguyen.
Sarah Saidan is perhaps best-recognized for her short film, Beach Flags, which has now made the rounds through over 100 festivals and went to Sundance last year (2015). Although the film is not yet available online, Sarah was kind enough to answer some questions for us over e-mail and talk about her work, her process, and some upcoming projects. Hailing from the UK, Iran, and now France, Sarahās interview showcases her unique perspective on independent animation filmmaking.
Keep your eyes peeled for her work in upcoming festivals! In July, Sarah will be a jury member at Festival du Film Court en Plein Air in Grenoble. Come October, she will be a jury member at BIAF in Korea, and designed the festival's poster as well. Enjoy the interview:
Animation Heroine: How did you become interested in film and animation? Was your prior degree in graphic design a factor?
Sarah Saidan: I was in the last year studying graphic design when I took a course on animation, it was then when I first saw my drawings become alive and since have never preferred to do anything other than make animation films.
AH: Were there any particular films or artists that made you interested in creating your own work?
SS: Yes of course, I think it is was MichaĆ«l Dudok de Witās incredibly poetic short films that touched me the most in the first years I was studying animation. At that time the internet was not used so widely like today and the connection was super slow in Iran, so it was very hard to find short animated films. I remember collecting images of animation shorts I hadnāt even seen!
AH: If someone were interested in learning more about women animators from Iran, whose work would you point them towards?
SS: Maryam Kashkoolinia is one of the most talented Iranian animators who has mostly worked with sand. Her films have been internationally successful and personally I love them.
Above: Still image from Maryam KashkooliniaāsĀ āWhen I Was a Childā sand animation. Source [here].
AH: Is working on films in France very different from your experiences in Iran? If yes, how does the filmmaking process differ?
SS: I think producing animation films in France differs from any other country. France has a huge respect for animation and auteur films in general and a lot of financing goes into these films. So from my point of view, itās kind of a heaven for an animation filmmaker, though Iām sure my French friends wonāt agree, which is kind of natural!
On the other hand in Iran independent animation studios who produce short films are almost non-existent. All the government funding goes into one single animation studio attached to the national TV which produces mostly propaganda films and series. So you can imagine the difficult situation young animators are in. Almost every short film that comes out of the country is done on personal budgets.
We hope for better times to come!
Speaking of short films, your own, Beach Flags,Ā has been gathering attention! I loved seeing the titleĀ in English, French, and Farsi. Did you speak all three languages growing up?
SS: Oh no! I couldnāt speak one French word before coming to France! But English was always easy because I was born in London and spent the first years of my childhood there, I learned Farsi and English at the same time. Wish I knew more languages but I am yet to perfect my French!
AH: What was the process of working on Beach Flags like? How did you start research?
SS: Women athletesā situation in Iran has always concerned me. They are in a difficult situation. Especially swimmers. I did many interviews with them and they told me as they cannot be seen in bathing suits in public spaces, they are not allowed to compete in international competitions. To me this sounded outrageous.
Then one of them told me that surprisingly Iranian women lifeguards have won in some lifeguard competition. I couldnāt understand how that could be possible, then after some questions I understood that in sportive lifesaving, there are many games, and there is one that is called "beach flags,ā a 20 meter race on the sand to pick up batons. And since this game doesnāt take place in the water, the girls can participate with headscarfs and completely covered. This was good news, but at the same time I had this ironic image of swimmers running on the beach and not being allowed to participate in swimming competitions. I had to do something with this image that would not leave my mind.
Above: the poster for Beach Flags, courtesy of the artist.
AH: What challenges did you overcome on Beach Flags, and how did you find solutions?
SS: I think the challenging part of the work was making the balance in describing the situation. Providing an introduction to the lives of these girls without explaining too much. I knew I had two completely different kind of viewers, so I had to make a balance, for the foreign viewer to understand the situation rapidly and at the same time not make it too explanatory to the Iranian viewer who is familiar with it.
At first I really didnāt want to have dialogue in the film. I fought for it for a while. The producer from ARTE.tv channel who had pre-purchased the film insisted that the story is too complicated for foreign viewers without dialogue. I realised that they were seeing the story from a completely different point of view, which was true. So I added in dialogue ā in Farsi.
AH: As you mentioned, it was hard for you to see short animated films in Iran and sadly many are not online yet. Will there be a way for Beach Flags to be seen in Iran, such as the Tehran animation festival?
SS: There was no way that Beach Flags would pass the censorship of that festival. I have a private link to my film online, which I send to whoever wants to see it.
AH: If you were just getting started in animation, what advice would you give to your younger self? Is there anything you would have done differently?
SS: I used to think that I shouldāve studied cinema before animation, but today I think very differently. Animation becomes magical where it gets the farthest from cinema, at least for me. I would advice my younger self to just draw, imagine and read more poetry.
Above: A photo of La PoudriĆØre, the school in the RhĆ“ne-Alpes area of France that Sarah attended. Image source: [here].Ā To learn more about La PoudriĆØre, this short film is an excellent introduction.
AH: You did your BFA and MFA in Iran, but then decided to come study at La PoudriĆØre. What influenced your decision to come to France, and how has the education differed from your work in Iran? Was La PoudriĆØre the first time you tried stop-motion?
SS: La PoudriĆØre focuses on directing animation films and itās for people who already have experience in this field. I still have not heard of any other formation like this anywhere around the world. It is very unique in its method: there are no teachers there, animation professionals come to the school for short periods and guide us on each film project. What we do during the two years is basically we make films and learn how to pitch our projects. I could not resist applying to this school even if I didnāt speak French at the time. Those two years in La PoudriĆØre were an amazing experience, tough at times, but very productive. And yes, it was there where I used the opportunity to try stop motion, it was so much fun!
AH: Is there any medium within animation that you most enjoy working in (stop motion, 2D, digital, etc.)?
SS: I mostly draw and I think it is the technique that gives me the most freedom, but I also enjoyed stop motion a lot. Sometimes it is the story that defines its own technique, so youāve got to see what is best for the way the story should be told.
Above: Still image from Sarahās TED animation forĀ āWhat Are Human Rights?ā Source: YouTube.
AH: Your most recent TED animation and Beach Flags both have themes of civil rights, and recently you have been working on aiding Syrian refugees in Jordan with another project. Do you consider your work political or feminist in any way?
SS: Honestly, I donāt know how these projects found me, but I am happy as hell to be part of them! I am extremely excited about these new projects I am getting. I am definitely a feminist and being Iranian, politics directly effect my personal life, so it should be natural that my work reflects a little bit of that I guess.
AH: What kind of projects are you most interested in working on next or are you working on right now?
SS: Womenās issues are especially very interesting to me. I have been thinking and writing a script for my next film for a while now, but since it is a very personal topic and a feminine issue, I have to face my reservations and doubts, it is a challenge, and I love challenges!
Many thanks to Sarah for taking the time to speak with us!
Please add your comments below, send feedback to contact @ animationheroine.com, or find us on Twitter: @anim_heroine!
Nora Twomey is a renowned director from Ireland who worked on the animated films, The Secret of Kells andĀ Song of the Sea. Here we discuss these two projects and her newest upcoming work, The Breadwinner, currently looking at a release in 2017 and being co-produced by Angelina Jolie. For the first and second parts of this interview, please visit here.
Below you will find a transcript, to the best of my abilities! Please send all feedback to: [email protected]
Thanks for listening, and enjoy!
AH: Were there any particular story challenges on The Secret of Kells or Song of the Sea that stand out in your mind? Either challenges or learning experiences?
NT: Oh, huge, yeah, huge. Yeah, both of them were massive learning experiences for me. Kells because at the end of the day itās a story about a Viking invasion on a monastery which had to have real impact and which had to have real sacrifice. For that to happen in a film that looks very much like itās for children, then how to balance that and how thatās where we really started to think about layering storytelling.
Because actually, talking about From Darkness, I remember the first time getting a shock seeing that in an audience, where there were some children, and thinking āOh my God!ā and the same with CĆŗilĆn Dualach, the second film that I made, the child with a backwards headā
AH: In 2004ā
NT: Yeah, it was the same thing again, I remember getting a lot of push back from funders on that about the ending because I really wanted to end the film in the graveyard with the father kind of accepting, having accepted his son, and leaving it at that. And we had this kind of, another ending on it, and I remember thinking at the time wanting to be really purist about it, but then you have to think of your audience, and have to protect your younger minds.
In a way, or in support I guess rather than protect, and to be responsible for everybody in your audience as much as you can. To have them come with you, and to meet you half way, but you have to respect them, I guess, and thatās what both of those projects, Secret of Kells and Song of the Sea, taught me. Was how to do that, in as much of a responsible way as I can.
And the same with Song of the Sea, because itās a film thatās dealing with loss, but in a way where we didnāt want to sell out everything that came before it, we needed to end the film in a way that made emotional sense. But in a way that itāsāitās a sad filmāso is Kells, and there are sad things in everybodyās lives, and in childrenās lives, too. And itās about adults helping children deal with that rather than pretending it doesnāt exist or that everything is reversible, because things arenāt reversible.
AH: Thatās a really, really lovely thought, I like that a lot. There is a certain amount of gravity to both films in terms of conveying that to various different audiences. Secret of Kells, perhaps, a slightly older set than Song of the Sea, and how that works on a story level for youādid you feel that Song of the Sea had to be simplified story-wise so that children could understand it in a different way?
NT: Song of the Sea had to be simplified in a way thatāit was funny, because it was a film with magic in it, and magic creates so much exposition, and rules, you have to make your rules with magic before you can start doing magic stuff, basically. Thatās what was hard about Song of the Sea. Because again, and Iāve seen this with audiences coming out, youāll have dads with glassy red eyes coming out, and the kids will be like, āYeah! Ben and Saoirse are okay!ā at the end of the film. So it can have two completely different emotional impacts on different ages. So thatās great.
But what was a big story challenge on Song of the Sea was to, for us to concentrate on the family, the central family, as much as we could, and not let the magic get in the way of that, I think that was huge for us. And to not over-explain things if things werenātāyou know, if you look into the logic of itāI think if something makes emotional sense, and your characters are true characters that behave in a way that they donāt contradict themselves, people will follow that and theyāll forgive you anything else.
AH: Did you have any magic rules? Anything that you really had to follow?
AH: And thatās true for a lot of the films that youāve worked on, that they have been adaptations of existing material in some way, shape, or form.
NT: Yeah, yeah, I guess so. I mean Kells, because we donāt know a lot about how the Book of Kells was actually created, I mean it gave us a huge amount of freedom around it, but yeah, we had the book to kind of draw from I suppose, literally. With Song of the Sea, with the whole selkie tales, thereās lots of material there. But again, there were kind of specific takes on them. I suppose no story is new, yāknow?
AH: Always.
NT: Itās hard to find something. With this next one, with The Breadwinner, itās an adaptation again of a book, but itās I think something new in and of itself as well because Iām very much a firm believer that if youāre adapting a novel and that itās particularly for animation, it has to be an animated film, something that stands up for itself and justifies itself really.
AH: You were talking a little bit earlier about putting your own filter on the adaptations, that you are always sort of the lens through which youāre viewing the original material. Is that true with the Breadwinner, too?
NT: Yes. What struck me very much about The Breadwinner when I read the book was the character, the central character, Parvana, and how she is something we havenāt a lot of in film before. How a character like her is such a strong character, such an amazing arc that the character goes through, but itās a very simple story, thereās nothing super human, sheās just a normal kid. Sheās not even a normal Western kid. Sheās an Afghan young girl, yet she has traits and values that we all have just because weāre human beings. The challenge of bringing that to an audience is pretty tremendous because Iām an Irish white woman making a film about a place Iāve never been to, yāknow? [laughing] But I hope that as an artist, and as somebody who draws like I did when I first held a pencil that I have enough empathy in me to create something that makes connections, I guess.
AH: Can you tell me a little about the visual style of The Breadwinner?
NT: Yeah, so itās a less, umā¦ Well, how can I style of The Breadwinner right when weāre at the beginning of production?
AH: Itās true.
NT: Itās a strange one, yeah. What we are attempting to do is create a Kabul where there is beauty in small things. This film is about light and dark, itās about dust, itās about shafts of light, itās about characters moving through environments in a way that where you feel like you can step into it, yet itās still a 2D film. Itās a film about contrasts, so we have story-world kind of look in the film, but we have real-world look in the film, and the two interplay. And how the two interplay, I guess, is something. So, if thatās some kind of answer, I canāt give you a much broader one at this point, I think, maybe in two yearsā time come back and Iāll have another answer for you! [laughing]
AH: Sounds very fair. [laughing] And somewhat similar to other films that youāve worked on, where light has been very important. Can you talk about maybe any running themes that you see in your work? If you look back on your films are there things that stand out to you as being more or less important, either visually or story-wise?
NT: Well, I guess if youāre talking about purely things of visual interest, how 2D characters move through light is very striking, I guess, and it creates such an area of visual interest, but you can load it with lots ofā¦ So if you have this, you have a character moving out of shade into light, but theyāre 2D characters and you have all kinds of elements in the light, to do that plus tell a story on many different levels and have an actor performance into that whole thing too, you have lots of layers of storytelling going on there that keep people interested. In a way, I think that that means you can say a little bit more with a little bit less. Thatās what light does in our films, and certainly with this one, with The Breadwinner, that weāre really trying to explore.
AH: One last quick question before you go. If you were to look back on your work, and try to describe it to somebody who has never seen any of your films, is there something that you would tell them about your workāthat you would say, thatās something that I identify with and that thatās important to me, something like that?
NT: Hmm. I think me, personallyā¦
AH: As a directorā
NT: Yeah, yeah.
AH: I know itās a really hard question, Iām sorry.
NT: It is. What would I say that is the thing I identify with, or the thing that thatās me! [laughing] I donāt really know how to describe what I do because Iām kind of good at nothing and good at everything? [laughing]
AH: Thatās not true either! [laughing]
NT: Well, in a sense that Iām not a professional storyboard artist, but I can storyboard. Iām not a professional voice director, yet I can voice direct. Iām not a professional composer, yet I can talk to a composer in a way that we share a language. The same with an editor. So I know a little bit about a lot of things, I guess, is how I would describe myself! [laughing] And I know enough to hopefully get some truth across in a characterās story that can in some way make somebodyās day a little bit nicer, I guess, I dunno! [laughing]
Nora Twomey is a renowned director from Ireland who worked on the animated films,Ā The Secret of KellsĀ and Song of the Sea. Here we discuss some of her own personal work, directing, the transition from short films to long-form projects, and how to successfully bring a film together.Ā For the first segment of this interview, please visit here.
Below you will find a transcript, to the best of my abilities! Please send all feedback to: [email protected]
Thanks for listening, and enjoy!
Animation Heroine: And how did you feel that you wound up learning that? Was it really through doing those greeting cards, or what did you find most effective?
Nora Twomey: Kind of, yeah. But certainly when we started doing shorts, and started taking raw material. Like with From DarknessĀ [2002], it was the skeleton woman, the folk tale, which we were trying to interpret that in a new way, really. And the same with my second short, which was taking somebodyās short story, Jackie Mac Donncha, whoās an Irish writer. We took his short story and tried to interpret it in a way that worked for animation and could work for children and that, yāknow, so. Always taking a nugget of something, whether it be an idea or somebody elseās story or something like that and trying to interpret it in a new way, a way that suits animation and a way that can communicate something new or some different levels of thought I guess, thatās what it is for me.
AH: Were the shorts sort of testing grounds, then? Or did you feel like they were complete films?
NT: I donāt know! At the time, I very much felt āThatās it, thatās a complete filmā. And you have the same sensation as when you watch a feature that youāve been involved in afterwards, itās likeāwsssh!āthatās it, I canāt watch it anymore, itās done, yāknow? But short films are a fantastic medium, and theyāre a thing in and of themselves. And theyāre not really for me, theyāre notāwell, I mean, you do experiment a lot in shorts and you do use things in features that you use in shortsābut short film is a fantastic medium in and of itself and I think itās self-justifying.
AH: Was there anything in short films that you felt you could adapt into your feature work, now, that you learned from doing short films?
NT: I think for me personally, being able to work within a team, letās say, and make everybody feel like they own the film, and own their department, and own what theyāre doing, and can communicate with other people around them and everybody that needs to be on the film. But also for the person who is heading it up, and for me in this case, to able to take the whole thing away, and to structure it in a way that, yāknow, pulls everything together, and thatās a very personal process, I think, really, in a sense.
And then it becomes a very public process when you have a huge team of people and you have to communicate all the things you have to understand, what it is, in this film, that you want. Above all else what it is that you feel you can communicate to an audience, the story that you want to tell, yourself, above everyone else, really, and then to communicate that to as many people as possible so that you all can work on the one thing together in the one direction.
AH: Speaking of very public films, of course, The Secret of Kells was immensely public and making that leap from short films into feature films was also tremendous for you all. What was that transition like, working from short films into feature films? Were you starting to feel more established? What was the atmosphere like for you, working on The Secret of Kells?
NT: We were, yeah. Because we had set up the company with the intention of making The Secret of Kells, so we always felt like it was inevitable, like it wouldāve been a surprise to us if we hadnāt made it, you know? That was what we were for, basically, was making long-form projects. And because it was kind of incremental, it never felt likeāwell, I suppose it did, yeahāat the beginning of the production there was like a big sense of, āOh my God, this is it now! This is real, and weāve got loads of other peopleās money and we have to do it justice and we have to do them justice,ā and all of this. But because there were a lot of us, I think, and because it was Ross Stewart, who was the art director on The Secret of Kells, as well as yāknow, Tomm [Moore, co-founder of Cartoon Saloon], I donāt think it felt too lonely for any one of us. We all had something to contribute towards it. And maybe with me it was the experience on the shorts. I was able to contribute towards the film as much as I could, so it gave us all a sense of courage that no one of us was in it on their own, really.
AH: And of course you were co-directing with Tomm, so what was that relationship like? To have two directors on the film?
NT: Well, again, it was always Tommās baby. He and Aidan Harte, who had directed Skunk Fu!, the first TV series that we made, had come up with the project when they were still in high school. So it was always Tommās thing, and I came on then to help with story, fundamentally, really, because he had Ross [Stewart] with the design. Because the story had been kind of conceived by young adults, as a very dark tale for young adults, and as it developed and as we got our funding together and that, the project was pushed and pulled in a lot of different directions from lots of different forces. And so what it was and what it was supposed to be and who it was supposed to be for, and how you could sit a child next to an adult in the same cinema and watch the same film and both for them to get something out of it. We were dealing with lots of forces.
We had Fabrice [Ziolkowski], the screenwriter, came in on the project and helped us because it was very much a young manās film we could say, as well. You know, there was no Aisling in it, so there wasnāt even a female force weād say, within the storytelling. So to try and bring all those things on, I guess, thatās where I came in and worked very much on story and worked on the edit an awful lot before the film kind of went off and branched off into backgrounds and animation and all that, you know. And then once the posingāI contributed a lot to the animation and the posing and all that kind of stuff as wellābut it was more the story.
AH: So Aislingās your baby!
NT: No, Aislingās not my baby! [laughing] Aisling is Fabrice Ziolkowskiās baby, the writer, who very much looked at the script and said, āWhere are all the women? Where is there going to be a female element in the story?ā So, no, sheās not my baby at all. And very much, actually, Aisling came from Tommās son, Ben, who had a friendship with a young girl from next door and they had very much the banter between Ben and Aislingāis very much a reflection of Tommās observing his son and her, his friend. So no, but, yāknow, itās animation. The Secret of Kells I think is very much a tribute to Tommās vision, really, for the film, Rossās fantastic artwork, and then us as a team kind of pulling in everything that we had to try and support everybody and the project as much as we could really to try and get the thing done, because it was such a huge task for us to do and at the time in the company where we had gone from, as you were saying earlier, a company of whatāten or fifteen people, to 75āin a really short space of time, everything was massive for us. We were buying computers, saying, āCan we afford this?ā yāknow? [laughing] It was crazy! Iām starting to hyperventilate thinking of it.
AH: No no, it makes life really stressful!
NT: It was very, very stressful, but it was great at the same time because weāre getting to play with actors. That was my first time directing actors so that was really massive and something I learned an awful lot from, directing experienced actors versus directing small children, eight-year-olds, that kind of thing, that was a huge thing. And being familiar enough and confident enough in the story that we were telling that you could direct them. Here were people that were standing in a darkroom with a script in front of them, a microphone, and trying to create the world for them so they know how to pitch their performances.
AH: And do you think that that partially came from story, in terms of facilitating that kind of experience for the actors?
NT: Yeah, and going back to college, we had done little bits of acting workshops and thatās where that came from, you know. When I was a kid, we used toāwe had cassette tapes and we would record ourselves, myself and my sisters, and you know, all of a sudden, it directly links on. I always think of myself as somebody who still gets to play with dolls, except I am an adult and the dolls are now actors, you know?
AH: [laughs] Thatās a really interesting way of looking at it, I hadnāt thought about that one specifically. Of course, in Song of the Sea, you wound up relegating yourself to Head of Story rather than actually taking on a directorial role, was that a tremendous shift for you in terms of responsibilities? How did that feel?
NT: No, no! We donātāthere isnāt much ego here, to be honest, you know, in this studio. And really people doālike on my new film, Tomm is doing some storyboards, you know, but he could take any role he wants, really, on the filmābut he goes where heās useful and at whatever time, and me also. At the time of Song of the Sea, I had two small children, very small children, and I wanted to continue creatively as much as I could, but also to respect my reality, which was I had two small children. They would come into work with me, and be beside me and that, but also I needed to go home at five oāclock or six oāclock in the evening and that was just the reality of my situation. But this place has evolved to be such a place. And I mean, it was always the culture here because when we started up, Tomm had a very young baby. So itās always been a place where you can wheel in a buggy beside you, the baby can suddenly get really stinky, and the person beside you doesnāt really mind, they donāt care. [laughs]
AH: Itās like bringing your dog to work! Maybe the babyās a little stinkier.
NT: [laughing] Well, there are lots of dogs here, too! Although to be honest, I think the babyās a little stinkier.
Last fall, I was immensely lucky to meet with Nora Twomey in Kilkenny, Ireland. Many of you may already be familiar with her work on Cartoon Saloonās The Secret of Kells and Song of the Sea, and she is now hard at work directing the studioās third feature, The Breadwinner. Many thanks to Nora for her generosity, and stay tuned for the rest! You will find a transcription of the interview below for your reference.
Nora Twomey: Well, I can tell you my name!
Animation Heroine: Letās start with that! [laughing]
NT: My name is Nora Twomey, I work at Cartoon Saloon, Iām one of the founding members. Iāve been here for sixteen years now or so, oh goshā¦ A long time. I am a director, a storyteller I would say by trade, I canāt really call myself an animator anymore because I donāt even hit a quota of five seconds a year now. [laughing] So, yeah, storytelling is my interest, and where I think I have most to do, I guess. Iām married, I have two kids, and lots of complications.
AH: [laughing] As always, as do we all. You grew up in Cork, of course, but after you had done that sort of high school period in Cork, what made you interested in animation?
NT: Ah, yeah, I had a rough enough time in high school and I left school when I was fifteen and I worked. My first job was making dolls, actually, pre-production, antique, porcelain dolls. And then I worked in a factory for a couple of years, but I never stopped drawing. And I always drew from being the youngestāyou know, my earliest memories are of drawing and trying to make sense of the world, I guess, with a pencil. So thatās never changed, and it never changed even though I rejected the traditional education system and I couldnāt function within it, I could draw, and it was my way of communicating when my words didnāt work or when, yāknow, whatever I was going through. So for me, that was my way through things. And it was the one thing that I knew I was kind of good atā¦ and something that I was so interested in.
So, I did a foundation year in Cork which is an art college kind of preparation course, and I continued drawing in that but then I discovered what fine art was. And at the time, fine art was much more about finding an object and writing an essay about the object that you found and putting it in a white room, rather than skills. And I guess what I was really interested in was skills, and developing skills, and finding what I needed to say through that rather than being a really young adult and trying to say something profound is something that, for me, that was kind of pretentious.
Animation wasnāt pretentious to me. Animation was something where I could explore storytelling and explore drawing and explore acting and all the things that I was kind of interested in, so thatās why I went into animation. I really didnātāyāknow, animation per say itself, I hadnāt been hugely interested in growing up. I remember the Disney films very much so and loved them, but didnāt get to go to the cinema very often, hardly at all, really. So, yeah, I kind of discovered animation in my 20s, really, [laughing] and loved it.
AH: Excellent! So after you had done this preparation year in Cork, you then of course went on to college [university], where you met some pretty fundamental people in your life, I would say! [laughing] What was that experience like, going to Ballyfermot?
NT:Ā It was fantastic, it was really, really great. I look back on it with enormous affection. And I went to visit recently enough, actually, the students were graduating from there, and it was great meeting my old teachers. Ballyfermot was as much about the people I went to college with as it was the tutors [professors], I think. And so yeah, I met Tomm Moore and Paul Young, and Jeremy Purcell and Fabian ErlinghƤuser, and all these people who I still work with all the time and those relationships kind of endured, reallyāand a way of seeing things, and an enthusiasm about about animation, and about art, and about storytelling.
And honesty, I think, actually, is something that all of those people have in common. Thereās an honesty to what they do, and an honesty which overcomes everything, I think, really. So yeah, thatās why those relationships are so fundamental, really. And I think maybe it was a huge dose absolutely of naĆÆvety about what we wanted to do and all this, and you need that, you need to not look too far into the future and just see the thing that is immediately ahead and go for it.
AH: Was there any good advice you received during college?
NT:Ā Any good advice I received during collegeā¦ I could go for the old chestnut, draw, draw, draw, which is true! You know, when I look at my own kids drawing without any sense of judgment of their own work and any sense of hesitancy or anything like that, I see that they just wsssh! put something down on the page, something that expresses, and they donāt care what you think about it. That is so wonderful. And that is something that Iām trying to capture in my own work and stop beating myself up on all my lines! [laughing]
AH: Itās a very, very hard thing to do, though.
NT: Yeah, absolutely.
AH: Were there any teachers you connected with particularly, or was it mostly your peers?
NT:Ā Yāknow, mostly my peers. I did learn a lot from the teachers that we had, we had a great guy called Eddie Holloran (sp?), we had Mark Burr (sp?), andāwe had some really fantastic teachersāwe had a teacher called Thelma Chambers, who taught me a lot about visual language storytelling which I still use on a daily basis. So the teachers were fantastic, and it felt huge to me because I had such, letās say, failures in the education system to suddenly have teachers around me who understood what I was trying to do and understood what I wasnāt able to do and what I was able to do and try and encourage me, that was really, really great.
I always felt very self-conscious like I said about drawing, itās always been a huge issue for me, kind of an emotional issue with me. Which I think in one sense is a good thing, because it means that itāllāyāknow, itās never going to be something I can lie with, I guess, you know, in drawing. [laughs] For instance with the film Iām working on now, finding my way through that, through drawing, I canāt lie with my drawings because Iām so critical of my own stuff! [laughs] That for me, itās a huge, even the most basic of storyboarding, whatever, itās such a fundamental thing. So yeah, just the validation that teachers in general, whether they were people who came in for a couple of days from the industry or people who had been there for quite a time, it meant a lot.
AH: Do you remember the first film that you made?
NT: The first film that I made inā? You mean, like, the first film that I directed? [laughs]
AH: The first one that you finished at all, that you felt was your first film.
NT: Well, that would be From DarknessĀ [2002], I would say. It was my first film with a beginning, middle, and an end that I finished! [laughs] Yeah, again, I never looked too far beyond what the next thing was in terms of what I could do with it. I mean we did a really rough storyboard, my husband actually storyboarded on that film with me. And he did the backgrounds as well, he did some fantastic work with that. But I remember going to see Lord of the Rings in the cinema the Christmas we were half way through with From Darkness and thinking āWow, what wonderful sound design,ā and then going [gasp] āSound design for my short, my film! How am I going to do it? What does it entail? I donāt know anything about it!ā and all that kind of stuff. [laughs] So I never really thought more than one department ahead, which was good because, again, I can be quite fearful of everything and in one sense, itās a good thing because I plan, you know. But then it can be a bad thing as well because things can be overwhelming.
AH: Did it start to feel like you were focusing on story then, orā¦?
NT:Ā Yeah, absolutely, yeah. From Darkness, absolutely, yeah. Actually we had doneāit was around the whole time when everyone was investing in the internet, 1999, 2000, you knowāeveryone was putting billions into startup companies and all this kind of stuff. These greeting cards, flash cards, you make them in Macromedia Flash, and we would send them off to companiesāyou know, this is back when somebody would click on an e-mail from somebody you donāt know [laughs] and it would be like, āHappy birthday!ā kind of Flash card little thing that would pop upāso we made those. And for me, that was a big education because you had to get a message across really simply, something that said a little bit more, with a little bit of animation or whatever that you had in them, so that they were really cheap looking little things. But they got me into a frame of mind that started thinking about story and character, and how to be really economic about what you needed to say, really.
Director of Sonyās Open Season, Jill became the first female principal director of a big budget, computer-animated feature. A CalArts alum, she is at work on Everest at DreamWorks Animation, a film about a young girl and a Yeti. [1]
Director of SonyāsĀ Open Season, Jill becameĀ the first female principal director of a big budget, computer-animated feature. A CalArts alum, she is at work on Everest at DreamWorks Animation, a film about a young girl and a Yeti. [1]
The National Film Board of Canada will be ensuring that in future at least half of its productions will be directed by women and half of all production spending will be allocated to films directed by women. The announcement was made by NFB head Claude Joli-Coeur (below) at a panel at the Vancouver International Women in Film Festival on March 8, International Womenās Day.
These commitments will be rolled out over the next three years, during which the public will be able to track progress toward these goals through updates on the NFB website which will provide complete budget allocation transparency. A recent report from nonprofit media organization Women in View showed that women represented only 17% of directors, 22% of writers and 12% of cinematographers in the Canadian film industry (from a sample of 91 feature films produced in 2013-14).
In making this commitment, the NFB is working toward growing these numbers and building on its leadership role in womenās cinema in Canada. In the current 2015ā2016 fiscal year, production spending on films directed by women at the NFB is roughly at parity, with 43.4% of production spending on films directed by women and 43.5% of spending on films directed by men, 11.3% of spending on films directed by a mixed team, and 1.8% of spending not yet allocated. Thatās up from the previous year, 2014ā2015, when production spending on films directed by women was at 41.7% versus 47.8% on films directed by men.
The NFB also boasts high numbers of women in key creative and managerial positions: 55% of the organizationās producers and executive producers across Canada are women, as are 66% of persons holding upper management positions and 70% of Board of Trustee positions.
āThe NFB has always taken a leadership role in womenās filmmaking,ā said Claude Joli-Coeur, Government Film Commissioner and NFB Chairperson. āIn our current fiscal year, films directed by women represent half of our total spending on production. In 2016ā2017, the numbers are projected to be well above that. But numbers can fluctuate. There have been good years and lean years for womenās filmmaking at the NFB. No more. Today, Iām making a firm, ongoing commitment to full gender parity, which I hope will help to lead the way for the industry as a whole.ā
Chrissy Guest, assistant professor of media arts, sciences and studies, is producing an original documentary highlighting the achievements of women in the traditionally male-dominated field of animation.
The film, āBeyond Ink and Paint: The Women of Animation,ā is part of a larger project to create an oral archive of her interviews at the University of California, Los Angeles, with the support of the national organization Women in Animation, Guest said.
Opinion Editor Kayla Dwyer spoke with Guest about her documentary, her experience as a woman in the field and her hope for young women entering it.
Opinion Editor Kayla Dwyer spoke with Guest about her documentary, her experience as a woman in the field and her hope for young women entering it.
Kayla Dwyer: What exactly is the documentary about?
Chrissy Guest: Thereās a famous letter that Disney sent to all of the women applying to his studio. Itās a rejection letter that women would receive. ā¦ What it said is that women do not hold creative roles at Disney because they do not have the aptitude to do so, and therefore, you can apply to the ink and paint department ā thatās where girls apply. ā¦ This letter kind of summarizes why the film was called āBeyond Ink and Paint.ā ā¦ My film focuses on about five to seven historic women who contributed to the animation industry. It doesnāt matter if they were in a studio or not ā weāre looking at the firsts. From there, weāre looking at the contemporaries of today ā the women today of the industry who are winning awards, who are still making that ground way in the creative field of animation. And weāre looking at the struggles they still face.
KD: You have a lot of experience in the television industry. What inspired you to pursue this study in the animation industry?
CG: I love animation. ā¦ I was the art director at Channel 9 as well, and at CBS. So I not only directed and did the technical side, I did all their motion graphics. ā¦ When I came here to Ithaca College, I was positioned officewise next to professor Jason Harrington, who teaches animation here. I think it was fate, and we got talking. ā¦ I said it would be really interesting to do a gender studies course when you launch the [animation] minor, specifically on women in animation because we always talk about the men. ā¦ I knew if anyone could find the resources I need for the course, [communications librarian] Cathy Michael could, so you could imagine my shock when Cathy couldnāt. Because they donāt exist. So thereās no actual scholarly text on women in animation. ā¦ So I thought, āWe need to change that.ā
KD: Throughout your career in the media, have you seen attitudes toward women in media change?
CG: When I started in the industry directing in the control room, I was usually the only woman. But by 2003, there were a lot more women going into tech, so there would be two, maybe three of us at a time. ā¦ I was fortunate enough to get to interview thenāfirst lady Hillary Clinton, but I was the only woman. I remember being selected as the pool camera for that. Pool camera means no one else goes. Itās just me, and then all of the stations in the surrounding areas have to get their footage from what I shot. That was really stressful because a lot of people can be very closed-minded and very mean. ā¦ I just felt like there were a lot of hoops. And there still are hoops, but if thereās one thing that women are, itās that we persevere.
KD: Obviously there is still disparity in the numbers of female representation in the media, but how do you think we should look at those numbers? Is there a solution?
CG: At animation schools right now, 60 percent of them are made up of women, and they graduate. In the animation industry, those women only occupy 20 percent of the jobs. Where are they all going? My research over this coming summer is to address as an educator what needs to happen. Where is the support gap? Because itās from school to work that the gap happens. Itās not in them graduating. They are graduating with the same tools as their male counterparts, so what is affecting their ability to enter the industry? ā¦ What is it that we can do as educators to help close that gap? I really believe mentorship is a big thing. ā¦ We, as women, also have a responsibility to mentor each other and help each other move up, and I think that is a lot of the issue, too ā both men and women working to bridge the gap and make inequality nonexistent.
KD: What did you want students who attended the minicourse to get out of it?
CG: One of the things I deal with in advising students a lot is just preparing them to be more aware that the world is not always as wonderful as we make it here at school. ā¦ Things may not turn out the way you expect them to, that they would here. And thatās not OK, but I feel like I have to prepare students for that as well as prepare them for the challenges of being heard. ā¦ I hope a lot of the women left the class thinking, āI know what I need to do to make sure Iām including other women, and Iām not putting my own bias on them, and weāre not tearing anyone down for any choices that they make in life.ā
The dynamo Misro, a 2002 Caucus student grant award recipient, has produced extensively in India for CNBC Asia and also has shepherded several independent film projects. A tireless champion of Women in Film International, Misro has served as a guide for the American Pavilion at the Cannes Film Festival, in which she engaged with nearly 200 college students. Some of her outstanding professional credits include "Inshallah, In Search of America" (Cannes Short Film Corner, 2015) and "Sunrise" (Tribeca Film Festival, 2015).
"I like Arati's work very much and think she will greatly inspire and benefit our group," says CFAN President Karen Pyudik. "Arati wants to help with new media education. She has a passion for technology and how it can transform storytelling in any visual learning experience."
āI wish that there had been another woman on my flight. I think it would have been a lot easier.ā - Sally Ride in 1983, interviewed by Gloria Steinem.
