Ancestral Memories and the Space in Between

With borders shuttered and touching prohibited, storytelling has been forced to take a new form. But, the need to innovate is nothing new for these animators. In each of these films, the auteurs examine personal memories creating fresh representations that traverse cultural heritage, mental health and intimate familial relationships. In some, the space in between seems literal. At first glance, one might believe that the 2.35m gap in Andi Concha’s hypnotically colourful world is just that. Yet, it soon appears that the void between father and daughter is more than spatial. In Duncan Senkumba's Kyambogo, the animation heals. Through a candid discussion of addiction and disappointment, the film offers a remedy to this disjuncture in a grandson and grandmother’s relationship. In Wu-Ching Chang’s triumph of a film, My Grandmother is an Egg, ancestral memories allow us to wonder what cycles of oppression have broken or, indeed, continue for women. Skillfully, the piece allows us to muse upon whether gender inequalities may just mutate. Rather than ending, they spiral into new forms as adeptly as Chang moves between animation styles.
Graduating into a world plagued with two pandemics - COVID and racism - we need nuanced voices like these discussing, dissecting and empathizing with the space that exists between.

Jade Ang Jackman