On October 13, 2020, Southern Illinois University Carbondale’s Morris Library hosted an event with Michele Leigh and Lora Mjolsness, two specialists of Russian animation. The pair of women have collaborated on a book focusing on the careers of female Russian animators, a demographic that is typically overlooked and ignored by critics and scholars. The book is titled She Animates: Soviet Female Subjectivity in Russian Animation and will be released in the later part of October 2020. As a student studying both animation and cinema, I found this event to be extremely interesting and insightful.
Three films were presented to the audience with discussions of each afterwards. The films each came from a very specific era of Russian history in the last century. The first film was Krasnaya Shapochka’s Little Red Riding Hood from 1937—the height of Joseph Stalin’s reign. The second film was Nina Shorina’s Alter Ego (1989), depicting the lack of resources and individual identities in the late twentieth century. The final film shown was Yulya Aranova’s My Mom Is an Airplane (2013), which was produced under Vladimir Putin’s presidency and showed how far Russia has come in terms of feminism and international relations. I found each film to be very powerful and interesting in its own way. Personally, my favorite one was the third because of its unique style and creative, yet meaningful, narrative.
A main component to the discussion was how animation depicted Soviet ideologies and the role of women in the industry as a result. Animation was often overlooked as being for children, meaning animators and artists were able to create work that contained imagery and messages that otherwise would have been censored. I found this to be incredibly interesting as animation was used as a secret form of communication with artists trying to show the truth of their country. Each of the films were heavily focused on the impact of Soviet ideologies on women—showing how conditions have changed over time. I found female animators producing work, despite being largely ignored, to be very powerful and inspiring. The women demanded to have their stories be heard through their work and used animation as a tool to do so.
Overall, I found this event to be a lot of fun. I enjoyed watching the different films and listening to the discussions after each one. I learned a lot about Soviet Russia in regards to the film and animation industries, something I had not learned in any of my classes. I also learned how women used animation to avoid mandated production rules and censorship to spread awareness about Soviet ideologies negatively affecting their lives and identities—a powerful message. Finally, I was reminded of the capabilities of animation. Despite it being generally dismissed as children’s entertainment, animation is capable of telling impactful stories through subtle imagery and impacting large masses of people in numerous ways.
Alex Menke 