Drawing attention to lack of diversity in SA animation

For an animation festival, perhaps it was fitting that the spectacle was drawn in such caricature: in a room to the left, a session on animation in virtual reality, games, and apps.

Simultaneously, in the room to the right: transformation in animation.

In the one room, you couldn't move for the hipster beards on pale skin and the millennial's version of a Dungeons and Dragons accent saying "rad" in response to all things deemed cool.

In the other room (and universe) - barely a white face to be seen.

story_article_left1

Thandeka Zwana, a manager at the National Film and Video Foundation, put the cards on the table before she even introduced herself.

"This is the blackest forum I've ever seen at this animation festival - and that's worrying," she said, noting how it echoed the Hollywood Reporter's facepalm moment of irony late last year when it got seven white guys to speak on the "diversity in animation" panel.

"My whole talk was prepared for a white audience, on how they could embrace transformation. Now I'm a bit stumped," Zwana joked.

As she pointed out, many other countries are struggling with transformation too in the world of animation and allied arts.

But in South Africa, given our extreme version of a twisted history, transformation issues have their own character entirely.

Not so our animation.

"There is a distinctive American animation. Japanese and French too. But what does South African animation look like?" Zwana asked. "How do we differentiate ourselves from the world?"

The founder of the Digital Canvas Academy, Tumelo Selamolela, works in partnership with The Animation School teaching high-school kids "how to draw for animation and find their creativity before they get too obsessed with the whole 3D craze". He says the industry in South Africa has a big advantage over other industries.

"We are fortunate to be booming now. We don't have the baggage of, for example, the mining industry. By booming now, we have an opportunity to break in a new mix of cultures."

But, he adds, "I have been on this animation journey for 17 years now, and we are still a minority."

Babalwa Baartman, founder of Sanusi Chronicles production company which portrays pre-colonial African history through animation, says she saw a gap - "especially in storytelling ... there aren't enough African stories being told but the world deserves to hear them".

She says collaboration is key to transformation, and that "the sooner we come together as a collective, the better. Lots of talent can get locked up in a bubble."

In response, Zwana calls for a more proactive stance from black animators. "It doesn't help to say animation here isn't transformed, or to complain that Animation South Africa is too white. We have to join to be represented. If we don't join, then yes, it remains too white."

full_story_image_hleft1

However, another component of transformation is how the art form can be used to change communities, rather than the other way around.

A stellar example is Draw for Life which, concurrently with the animation festival, offered a half-day workshop in Khayelitsha where 70 school children from the township, Mitchells Plain and Hout Bay were taught the fundamentals of drawing skills for animation. The outreach programme was hosted by animator Jac Hamman and others who volunteered to help.

The bigger Draw for Life course runs over 10 weeks and is offered free to at-risk youths as part of an after-school project.

"As the industry grows, so does the need for talented young animators coming up through the ranks," says Julia Smuts Louw, founder of Draw for Life and head of marketing for Animation South Africa.

"We started Draw for Life to try and address this need with the limited resources we had, at the level where the intervention can make a big difference to later choices - namely, secondary school."

And this is also where transformation can take place organically, says Smuts Louw. "The classes were so valuable that paying students from The Animation School [one of the partner organisations on the project] began attending them as well - a great point of pride for us, considering the school ranks among the top 20 worldwide."

Another example with both transformation and Pan African components is Jabu's Jungle.

This is an animated series developed by local production company Pixcomm in collaboration with residents from Masiphumelele, one of Cape Town's most under-resourced communities.

It was picked up for airing in 22 African countries, and tells the story of a young boy who interacts in his environment with a talking drum.

WATCH a trailer for Jabu's Jungle

In an ideal world, transformation will move beyond the asymmetrical power relations of outreach, but until then, it is fertile soil in which seeds can be planted.