Female Figures returns to LIAF for a second year, championing female animation talent in a programme of extraordinary works exploring female desire by contemporary animators and their predecessors. These stimulating works present a range of perspectives on the female body and female sexuality, revelling in fantasy, lust, intimacy, and self-pleasure, as well as sharing experiences of abuse and trauma.
The programme is curated by Abigail Addison at Animate Projects, who will lead a post-screening conversation with animators Kate Jessop, Jenny Jokela and Thalma Goldman Cohen (whose work is featured in the programme), and with BFI National Archive Curator (Animation) Jez Stewart.
Female Figures was devised in recognition of the under-representation of female animators in the independent animation sector, and a desire to present an alternate view of women’s bodies and stories from the sexist representations that persist.
At Barbican book tickets
Speakers
Abigail Addison
Abigail Addison is a Producer, and is a Director of animation agency Animate Projects. She has produced many experimental moving image projects, including two slates of shorts for Channel 4’s Random Acts, and Silent Signal, an ambitious touring art & science project. She also co-produced Chris Shepherd’s multi award winning short, Johnno’s Dead, and his latest film, Brexicuted. Abigail sits on the Boards of Underwire Festival and Animation Alliance UK. abigailaddison.com
Kate Jessop
Kate Jessop is an award winning animation filmmaker whose work spans across animated shorts, promos and artists’ film and video. She has exhibited extensively internationally, being selected for numerous festivals and touring programmes, including The Best of Birds Eye View, Raindance and Tricky Women. She is the founder of Animation Girl Band and creator of comedy web series ‘Tales from Pussy Willow’.
Jenny Jokela
Jenny Jokela is a Finnish-Swedish animation director with a background in fashion. Based in London since 2009, Jenny predominately animates by hand, painting with acrylics. Jenny’s film are highly visceral and emotional, often exploring themes of shame and guilt within the scope of female sexuality.
Thalma Goldman Cohen
Thalma Goldman Cohen is an award winning artist from Israel, who lives in London. She came to Britain to study art and animation, graduating from the London Film School and Central Saint Martins in animation in the 1970s. Throughout the seventies she released a series of cartoons brimming with vitality that offered unconventional and challenging perspectives on sex and gender.
Jez Stewart
Jez Stewart is a curator at the BFI National Archive, responsible for the animation collection. His research into the history of animation in Britain has produced a number of programme outcomes in 2018, in cinemas and online. He often points to such things on twitter @stewjeez.
Simbiosis Carnal (Rocio Alvarez, Belgium)
A poetic journey through the history of desire and sexuality where the female pleasure, long ignored and repressed, takes pride of place.
2017, 10min
Crying and Wanking (Alys Scott Hawkins, UK)
A woman chews over the end of a relationship: a film about sex, shame and spending too much time indoors.
2002, 6min
The Hat (Michele Cournèyer, Canada)
A young woman works as an exotic dancer in a bar. She recalls a painful incident from her childhood bringing back painful memories.
1999, 6min
How to Make a Ghost (Gabriela Escovar, USA)
The importance of remembering the things that shape us, especially painful memories we’re told we should forget.
2018, 2min
What She Wants (Ruth Lingford, UK)
A woman travelling on the underground is be-devilled with images of desire.
1994, 5min
Vanilla Whip (Bogna Kowalczyk, Poland)
Four people with different approaches to BDSM and visions of themselves. In this world anonymity meets self-awareness and safety confronts riding on the edge.
2016, 16min
Barbeque (Jenny Jokela, UK)
A visceral journey about coping with post-traumatic stress disorder, exploring notions of shame and feelings of disembodiment.
2017, 6min
Egg (Martina Scarpelli, France)
A woman is locked in her home with an egg, which she is both attracted to and scared of. She eats the egg then repents. She kills it. She lets the egg die of hunger.
2018, 11min
Green Men, Yellow Woman (Thalma Goldman Cohen, UK)
Men might not be from Mars, but the pathetic or insincere attentions of these little green men offer nothing to this yellow woman. Even Clark Gable doesn’t live up to his image.
1973, 4min
Tales from Pussy Willow: Coming Into the Station (Kate Jessop, UK)
An eventful train journey arises in Pussy Willow. A resident needs assistance to help his girlfriend – luckily his fellow train passengers are at hand to help.
2017, 3min
Intimity (Elodie Dermange, Switzerland)
As she is showering, dressing, putting on her make-up, a woman bares her soul. She speaks of her fears and the process of accepting – even loving – herself.
2017, 5min
Chromosome Sweetheart (Hanomi Yano, Japan)
An ex-couple in a café, a girl sucking on her girlfriend’s hair, a running woman, a little girl walking along the river. In this world, there are as many forms of love as there are people.
2017, 5min
