FEMALE FIGURES – To Boldly Go…

For the third edition of Female Figures at London International Animation Festival, our gaze has landed on women making science fiction inspired, animated shorts. In this selection, these intrepid animators from across the planet imagine brave new worlds whilst placing women at the heart of their speculative stories.

Given the tumultuous times we find ourselves in, Sci-Fi is a perfect medium to consider the anxieties of the modern age. Its popularity can be seen in the recent successes of ambitious, provocative, and aesthetically innovative media, including the Love, Death & Robots anthology, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, The Handmaid’s Tale, and Black Mirror.

Sci-Fi is still however marketed as a ‘male’ genre, with its exploration of scientific innovation and action-packed adventure. There are nonetheless many women artists who are as equally excited by the potential of technological advancement and moreover excel at using cutting-edge technology in the creation of their work. At a time when only 3% of animated features are directed by women (USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative Study 2019) seeing Sony Pictures Animation attach Asian American story artist Emily Dean to direct Sci-Fi themed feature Tao feels like a positive step – though there’s still a long way to go before parity is achieved.

In this programme, the animators take their protagonists on interstellar travel, imagine the impact of an alien presence on our world or merge parallel universes, as a way in which to reflect on how we navigate our own world. With Entropia, Flóra Anna Buda presents a fragmented self in three contrasting characters inhabiting different universes: the animalistic creature; the present consumerist; and the future worker drone. These three women are brought together through a glitch in the system, uniting in an erotic moment as the universe collapses around them. Spacedogs by Sophia Schönborn features a pack of intergalactic hounds exploring a planet, who find themselves forced to battle their combative environment. This fun film is beautifully rendered in vibrant felt tip pen, evoking the feeling of a comic strip drawn in a sketchbook brought to life. In Burn Out, Cécile Carre presents a charming time shifting story in a hand drawn style reminiscent of early Disney features. A space mechanic finds herself uncannily in conversation with her younger self, who serves as a reminder of her childhood ambitions and reignites her desire to literally reach for the stars. And in Laura Højberg Kunov’s 3D feast for the eyes, Stellar, a mundane urban world is shaken up by invasion of an alien technology. At the end we are left with the sense that the people have been somehow transformed and now view their world with fresh eyes.

Across the globe we are witnessing women’s rights being eroded, so it comes as no surprise that in several fantastical and satirical works we are presented with future scenarios where the more sinister side of authority, political ideology and surveillance are being challenged. Ursa Minor by Yearin Lee is a bold tale of fighting back against authority and accepted conventions. With a nod to Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale the young protagonist questions her role in society and uncovers an uncomfortable truth in the process. Patricia Luna’s Toxic similarly references a classic piece of speculative fiction – Don De Lilo’s White Noise. Luna’s use of framing heightens the sense that we are observing the characters as they survive a mysterious ecological disaster and the interventions of the authorities. The Law of Celly by Mariola Brillowska is a sardonic and anarchic portrayal of a didactic public service announcement by the ‘Leader of the Universe’. In this bizarre PSA the concept of profiting from the sale of your data is presented in an exaggerated and lucid form. The film was made more than 10 years ago, yet the theme resonates at a time where we are increasingly more vigilant about how our privacy and our data is treated in the digital realm. Likewise, Danna Grace (Dan G) Windsor’s Vicarious considers a scenario where the government provides suits in the prevention of skin disease that harvest human sensations and bodily data. The ethics of capitalising on our most intimate experiences is touched upon in this disquieting tale.

Anxieties around how we are controlled and the role that artificial intelligence, smart technology and synthetic biology might play in our futures, is considered in several of these perceptive and playful shorts. The Thing I Left Behind by Chiara Sgatti centres on an isolated athlete coping with a chronic illness, in considering the ways our lives are improved or augmented by advances in technology and medicine. Here Sgatti suggests that the AI might not be up to the job. The character’s choice to reject the robot and the drugs, allows her to return to her former, freer, more rebellious self. Ruini Shi considers the perils of love in the modern age with Desire Line, a wry film told from the point of view of an unemotional machine. The machine appears to assist a betrayed woman to murder her partner in the most effective way possible. With Slug Life, Sophie Koko Gate portrays a muscular woman designing her perfect partner. Cloning, AI, genetic modification, and 3D printing are all touched upon in this modern-day version of Mary Shelley’s sensational Frankenstein. Given how creepy the protagonist’s flatmate is, the idea to craft a hybrid creature lover, doesn’t seem quite so horrific. And finally, with Her Voice, a collaboration between artists Katerina Athanasopoulou and Eleni Ikoniadou, we are presented with the ghost in the machine. In a vivid 3D portrait, a ghostly female avatar reminisces. Voiced in Russian, the setting suggests a Cold War military outpost, where drones fly about the abandoned space in an uncanny and hallucinatory exploration of sentient technology and intelligent design. As with several of the works it asks us to consider our responsibility to what we craft and what we bring into being in the world.

Female Figures was devised in 2017, born from a desire to present an alternate view of women’s bodies and women’s stories to counter the misogynistic representations that persist in animation today. In recognition of the under-representation of female animators within the independent animation sector, the programme spotlights some of the incredible work crafted by contemporary animators, both in the UK and internationally.

With thanks to Katerina Athanasopoulou, Flóra Anna Buda, Chiara Sgatti, Lilly Husbands, Waltraud Grausgruber, Birgitt Wagner, Jayne Pilling, Nag Vladermersky, Gary Thomas, Kate Anderson, Elizabeth Hobbs, Samantha Moore, Ellie Land, all of the featured filmmakers, their producers and distributors, and the Balassi Institute: Hungarian Cultural Centre.

Here’s a review over on Skwigly.

Image: Entropia, Flóra Anna Buda