This week’s class started off with learning more about how we, as creators can influence or persuade audiences using tools like social media, broadcast news, events, film, animation and television. This was followed by a discussion about Animated Documentary and what it means. We saw a few animation documentaries as well.
For our blog entry, we had to talk about whether an animation documentary could actually be classified as a documentary, applying Honess Roes’ ‘Taxonomy for the documentary. We also had a discussion about what arguments presented by Nichols or Formenti might question that definition.
I felt the best way to understand if an animation documentary is classified as a documentary is to look at 25 April by Leanne Pooley.
This is a documentary that aims to tell the story of New Zealand’s experience in Gallipoli (Turkey) for a modern audience through a reimagined world. April 25 uses novel-like animation to transform the experience of World War I from the usual black-and-white, archive pictures into vibrant, dynamic colours. The film intertwines together animated “interviews” based on the diaries, letters and memoirs of six real-life people, who were actually there and told fascinating stories of war, friendship, loss and redemption using the words of those who experienced it.
Coming to the question of whether an animation documentary is classified as a documentary, I would strongly agree that yes, it is a documentary. When Honess Roe questioned “if animation is an acceptable mode of representation for the documentary”, this got me thinking about what the word ‘documentary’ exactly means, so I Googled “documentary,” and came across the following definition: “using pictures or interviews with people involved in real events to provide a factual report on a particular subject.”. A documentary should be a factual report, just adding animation to a factual report that could be an interview, diary, letters, memoir, and video or audio recording doesn’t make it less of a factual report. When you animate a documentary you add elements about what going on in the head of the character: for example when John Persson was marching townies “Chunuk Baia” the flash of the 450 soldiers and how they died before he came there, also how they depicted lice having a party.
Bill Nichols said that a “documentary is dependent on the specificity of its images for authenticity”, the movie April 25 is based on diaries, letters and memoirs from Gallipoli (Turkey) during World War I. If the director had planned to use only the images from Gallipoli it would be more of a slide show than a documentary. For a good narrative, there should be good audio-visuals for the audience to be a part of the story to understand exactly what happened.
The Solid State (2015), 25 APRIL [2015] - Official Trailer. YouTube[Online Video]. Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKtgYXHdMZw&ab_channel=TheSolidState[9th November 2022].