DOK Industry Podcast 2023
Animated Docs: True, False & Floating!
Join us for this conversation and deep dive into the richness of animated documentary, the ways it can open up subjects, connect audiences to meaningful stories with empathy and imagination, and innovatively rethink how to represent a diversity of truths in resonant ways.
Filmmakers Carlos Hagerman & Jorge Villalobos discuss their animated feature documentary “Home Is Somewhere Else”, centring three stories of the U.S./Mexico border and the experiences of undocumented families through the lens of youth;
and Camrus Johnson, together with animator and co-director Pedro Piccinini, discusses his award-winning short animated documentary “Grab My Hand: A Letter to My Dad” that counters dominant narratives around race and masculinity and centres and celebrates black family ties and father/son emotional expressivity. Together, they share their thoughts on creativity, truth, intentionality, chance and the magic that happens when making a film as a gift takes on a life of its own in conversation with podcast curator and host Maria-Christina Villaseñor.
Length: 76’59’’
Recorded on 16 August 2023
This episode is brought to you in cooperation with MUBI. As a DOK Industry Podcast listener, you can now try MUBI, including MUBI GO, for 7 days free of charge at MUBI.com and MUBI.com/go until the 31st of December 2023. This offer is currently available to members in Germany, the UK, the US and India.
Maria-Christina Villaseñor strives to cross-pollinate artists and audiences and empower them as active agents exchanging meaning, inspiration and awe through curated art experiences. Key focal points of her work as a curator, film programmer and writer are Latinx cinema, animation as filmic and art-installation practice, and a commitment to expanding access to and inclusion in the arts across underrepresented communities. As the Programming Director for NYICFF (New York International Children's Film Festival), she oversees the artistic direction of the Oscar-qualifying festival, curating its film programs and Industry Forum. Her previous work includes serving as film and media arts curator at the Guggenheim Museum and posts at the Bronx Museum of the Arts and Whitney Museum of American Art.
Guests
Director and Producer Carlos Hagerman was part of the team of directors of Alejandro González Iñárritu’s production company before opening his own company La Sombra del Guayabo where he has produced and directed award-winning documentaries like “Those Who Remain” (IDA Humanitas Award2009), “Back to Life”, and “No Place Like Home”. He also co-produced “Plaza de la Soledad” (Sundance 2013) and “Rush Hour” (SXSW 2018). He is a founding partner of Brinca Animation Studio.
Filmography:
“Home is Somewhere Else”, 2022, Co-Director with Jorge Villalobos, Producer
“No Place Like Home”, 2015, Director and Producer
“Those Who Remain”, 2009, Co-Director and Producer with Juan Carlos Rulfo
Camrus Johnson recently played Trav in the 20th/Hulu’s “Quiz Lady”. Previous credits include “The Sun is also a Star” and the series “There’s Johnny”. A true multi-hyphenate, he not only starred as 'Batwing/Luke Fox' in 3 seasons of the series “Batwoman” but also directed episode 311.
Johnson directed the television feature “Real Love” after having truly made quite a name for himself in the short film space. His first short was the Twice-Academy-Award-Qualified animated short “Grab my Hand: A Letter to my Dad”, which won over 20 awards at film festivals across the globe. His follow-up NAACP Image Award-nominated animated short based on a time in Camrus’ life as a caretaker, “She Dreams at Sunrise”, was an official Tribeca Film Festival selection & world premiere that was included in their 8:46 block of films honouring the life of George Floyd.
Filmography:
“Quiz Lady”, 2023, Supporting Actor
“Real Love”, 2023, Director
“She Dreams at Sunrise”, 2021, Director and Writer
Instagram, Twitter and Spill: @CamrusJ
A graphic designer by formation, Pedro is passionate about finding different ways of telling stories. He started his career working in award-winning editorial designs and illustrations, producing on both digital and physical mediums such as paper illustration and stop motion while spending the extra hours putting together comics and zines with personal work to finally find his passion in animation. Shortly after graduating, he decided it was time to leave behind the Brazilian heat to hop around Europe for a couple of years before settling down in Brooklyn, NY.
Website
Instagram: @eolobo
Jorge Villalobos works as a writer, director, and producer of animated and live-action projects. He directed several children's series for Canal Once, Mexico’s Public TV channel. His animated and fiction short films have won over 20 international awards. He has written three illustrated books, two as a writer and one as an illustrator. Since co-founding Brinca Animation Studio in 2012, he has worked in animated communication tools for human rights organizations like UNICEF, UN and the Mexican Human Rights Commission. “Home is Somewhere Else” is his first animated documentary feature film.
Filmography:
“Home is Somewhere Else”, 2022, Director
Instagram: @elonder, @brincataller, @homeissomewhereelse
DOK Industry Podcast 2023 is realised in partnership with What’s Up With Docs Podcast and POC2 Programmers of Colour Collective, and supported by Docs-in-Orbit and MUBI.
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the MEDIA sub-programme of Creative Europe. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
