Creative Challenges in the Production of Documentary Animation

In this chapter, Sheila M. Sofian examines animated documentary from a filmmaker’s perspective. This chapter explores the appropriateness of animation’s use within nonfiction film. This chapter also asks how and when animation’s use might enhance audience understanding of a given documentary topic, and how and when it might distract from the same. The chapter also examines whether animation’s use in documentary reveals the filmmaking process in a more overt fashion than witnessed within live action documentary, and what controversies arise as a result. This chapter discusses these and other issues through reflective accounts of the production and exhibition of Sofian’s own animated documentary films. In discussing these works, this chapter examines the creative process of animated documentary production and the unique challenges faced when producing non-fiction animated films. The relationship between sound and image, choice of animation technique, and the effectiveness of literal versus abstract imagery are all topics explored.