Before taking the course of animated documentary, I had a vague understanding of this category. Although I have been exposed to some documentaries in the form of animation, they have never been classified as a separate genre in my memory. However, through the study of this course, I began to realize that animation documentary is not only a form of creation, but also contains profound narrative intention and diverse expression styles.
Animated documentary is a form of media that fuses the art of animation with documentary narrative.
In my opinion, it can be mainly categorized into two types: macro-narrative and micro-focus. The former focuses on recreating historical events or restoring what happened, while the latter focuses on the experiences of individuals or small groups by focusing on them.
Macro-narrative type
The macro-narrative type of animated documentary centers on recreating the full picture of an event.
For example, Tower Official Trailer 1 (2016) – Documentary vividly recreates the University of Texas shooting through a combination of animation and historical footage.
The film not only relies on survivors’ narratives, but also utilizes animation to recreate the subjective feelings and tense atmosphere of the event so that viewers can more strongly vicariously experience the event.
This type of animated documentary is particularly good at conveying complex events, and can quickly attract viewers into the narrative situation through rich visual language.
However, I think animated documentaries also have certain limitations. Macro-narratives are difficult to balance between artistry and authenticity. Creators are sometimes unable to cover all perspectives and details, and certain narratives may appear one-sided due to personal choices. At the same time, grand themes sometimes sacrifice depth of detail, making it difficult to fully demonstrate the complexity of individual experiences.
Macro-narrative type
Unlike macro-narratives, micro-focused types of animated documentaries focus more on individual perspectives or the special experiences of marginalized groups.
For example, A is for Autism presents viewers with the sensory world and inner emotions of autistic people through their drawings and narratives. Based on real interviews and contributions from autistic people, the film breaks through the limitations of language and behavior through animation and deeply restores the feelings of marginalized groups.
I think this is a very great work because it deeply links the autistic community and the audience across the span of time and distance. While some other animated works may also reflect some of the issues and dilemmas faced by marginalized groups. Although this format has a high degree of authenticity, it also suffers from under-representation, I looked up the information and it seems that only 10% of autistic people in the author’s research were willing to be interviewed.
Class dicussion topic:
“There is little question that animated documentaries are animated films, whereas there is potential debate as to whether animation is a acceptable mode of representation for documentary’ (Honess-Roe, 3
Do you think that animation is an acceptable mode of representation for documentary? Why?”
In my opinion, animated documentary can be regarded as a form of documentary, the core of which lies in whether the creator respects the facts and creates with a serious attitude.
As a medium, the characteristics of animation will not naturally weaken the authenticity of documentary. As long as the creator aims to record objectively rather than deliberately distort facts, the legitimacy of animation as a documentary should not be denied due to the particularity of the medium.
Some people may think that animation documentaries lack the authenticity of direct shooting and are difficult to represent objective authenticity, but in fact, any documentary form will inevitably have a certain bias. This is because the documentary itself is not only a record of the event, but also the reflection of the perspective of the creator.
When the director chooses the object of record, material editing and narrative method, he will bring his subjective intention, which inevitably affects the content of the documentary. For example, in some Japanese teaching materials or documentaries, they tend to choose the historical narrative mode that is favorable to their country, and even deny the past crimes; In the Chinese documentary, we will interview survivors to tell more neglected historical truths. These choices themselves are not determined by the medium, but by the position and purpose of the creator.
Therefore, whether it is a live documentary or an animated documentary, the bias comes from the person, not the form. Animated documentaries express content through painting or animation, and are not more likely to deviate from the truth because of the creativity of the medium. On the contrary, it may be more helpful in some situations to restore facts or present a complex subjective experience.