Group’s commissioned shorts premiered at the recent TNBFC’s event showcasing Black creatives; program’s second round confirmed, with its call for submissions running April 20-July 5, 2022.
The first set of animated projects produced by artists chosen as part of Film London and Arts Council England’s FLAMIN Animations has just premiered this week’s TNB XPO. The event, which was sponsored by The New Black Film Collective (TNBFC), showcased Black creatives, practitioners and projects in Film and TV. Short clips from the commissioned works are now available to view on the Film London website.
Film London has also announced the confirmation of a second round of FLAMIN Animations program. Submissions will be accepted April 20-July 5, 2022.
FLAMIN Animations supports artist animators aged 18-30 as they take their first steps into a career working with the moving image. The program provides development support, mentoring and £2,500 to create a new 1–3-minute animation. Support has also been available to all those who applied, including animation focused Film London Masterclasses with Film London’s Equal Access Network.
“We are thrilled to see the works commissioned through FLAMIN Animations profiled at the inaugural TNB XPO,” shared Adrian Wootton, Chief Executive of Film London and the British Film Commission. “It is vital that we continue to support and champion artists exploring and challenging creative practices and perceptions and Toby, Mothy, Ezra and Zainab are shining examples of next-generation talent here in the capital, creating bold and innovative work. We can’t wait to see what the future holds for them.”
She continued, “FLAMIN Animations is a considered acknowledgement of the underrepresentation of black-identifying artists within the art, film, and animation industries and as we embark on a second edition, we hope to continue to create a network of exciting emerging artists. I would like to thank Arts Council England for their vital support in helping to deliver these commissions.”
The selected artists follow both non-traditional and traditional animation routes to making work, using, and combining techniques ranging across photography, Claymation, hand-drawn, collage and digital to explore identity and heritage, social structure and lived experience.
Here is a look at the selected artist’s work:
Toby Cato: 1 Man
- A surreal collage animation music video of the artist falling through the world. The animation deals with finding identity as a young black man and with challenging the roles that black and female characters play in film and animation. The short was a collaboration with Cato as animator and vocalist, Jazz Grant as collage artist, and Jago Sagar as music producer.
1 Man excerpt:
Mothy Muyobo: Crown
- Combining claymation and digital drawing techniques and is an open-ended investigation into feelings around Black hair. It reflects on generational trauma and the gentrification and commodification of Blackness that the artist struggles with. It is an artistic interpretation of generational abrasions which have long been woven into the socio-political fabric, offering an insight into why we wear our hair in specific ways.
Crown excerpt:
Ezra Myers: The Sounds of Jordan
- A scratched 16mm animation which voices an authentic, modern depiction of Trinidad’s chosen instrument, the steel pan. With original music from UK pan players Samuel Dubois, Kyron Akal and Marcus Cumberbatch King, the film represents the magnitude of the instrument’s contribution to a once silenced community, which allowed broken souls to express and experience freedom.
The Sounds of Jordan excerpt:
Zainab Sanyang: Small Moments
- The short explores the minutiae of life – things that are often overlook or taken for granted. The simple hand-drawn animation focuses on the elegance of nature, domestic spaces and everyday actions and the sounds they evoke, reminding the viewer of their own small moments which calm and center them.
Small Moments excerpt:
Source: Film London
Debbie Diamond Sarto is news editor at Animation World Network.
