In this week’s class, we discuss about animated documentary. Whether animated documentary is a real documentary is a controversial topic. We need to find an animated documentary to discuss this topic and analyze whether this animation is a real documentary.
Israeli director Ari Folman’s animated documentary “Waltz with Bashir” is composed almost entirely of animation. This is a typical animated documentary. It is a journey of memory for Ari Folman. Folman used to be a soldier sent to the battlefield. He wanted to recover the past experience of war from the first perspective of the hero in the form of animation, and explore the relationship between people and the meaning of war. However, different from the general documentary form, animation is unique and absurd, which fully expresses the cruelty of war and the director’s reflection on the meaninglessness of war. The new form of animation challenges the traditional way of documentary production. Of course, its challenge is not only limited to the presentation, but also to challenge the real meaning contained in it.
Waltz with Bashir uses animated interviews with nine war survivors, including the director, to try to bring to life the Beirut refugee camp massacre of 1982, which is actually real. From this point of view, animated documentary is loyal to the local objective presentation of the reality content, but adopts a special means of interpreting the facts of life — animation. This means of expressing the “reality in fact” is not limited to the traditional documentary means, and broadens the artistic expression form of documentary. One of the essence of documentary is fiction, that is, the fiction of reality. The biggest characteristic of animation is to assume that it is impossible to find the characters or scenes from reality. However, animated characters and scenes are all the mappings of real life. All the virtual animated characters and scenes presented in animated documentaries are based on real people and things.