Readings on decolonization animation

Disney’s Moana, the Colonial Screenplay, and Indigenous Labor Extraction in Hollywood Fantasy Films

by Ida Yoshinaga

“Moana served as a glittery corporate distraction, an ideological pressure valve redirecting political imagination away from such momentous, defijinitive human events. “Sophisticated” US audiences in blue states, especially educated urban professionals, could feel comforting empathy with Disney’s onscreen simulacra of indigenous peoples—without having to confront the contemporary political realities of Oceania, where indigenous Pacifijic Islanders and Native Hawaiians face the threat of losing their ancestral homelands to global warming, military occupation, outmigration, and post- as well as neocolonialism.”

Design Action Collective

I’ve been super interested in the work of groups who organize their creative labor to bring power to the workers and the groups they serve! A few years old, but here’s a great talk by Sabiha Basrai from Design Action Collective here in Oakland. If anyone has more deets on other worker-owned design collectives, let me know!

Designs on Democracy: The Roles and Responsibilities of Graphic Designers in the Trump Era

10 Recommended reads from 2023

Here are my top 10 reads from the past year, in the order with which I would recommend reading them! I am sharing these because they not only extremely entertaining and thought-provoking, but each one dramatically shaped my creative thinking. The ‘themes’ are just what stood out to me upon reflecting back at the end of the year, but by no means is that a comprehensive list!

Yellowface by RF Kuang
(2023 novel, fiction)
- Funny, dark, fiction.
- themes: asian/yt racial dynamics, creative practice and fulfillment, politics of publishing and story ownership

Dragon Hoops by Gene Luen Yang
(2020 graphic novel, non-fiction/history)
- Funny, inspiring, reflective
- themes: racial dynamics amongst students and athletes, historical and contemporary sports and impact, creative fulfillment, work-life balance

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
(2022 novel, fiction)
- Emotional, sad, romantic
- themes: relationships between creative collaborators, the pursuit of creative careers, mental health, living with disability

How to Hide an Empire by Daniel Immerwahr
(2019 novel, non-fiction)
- Informative, funny, political
- themes: American colonization and imperialism, pop-culture, historiography

Babel by RF Kuang
(2022 novel, fiction)
- Emotional, dark, magical
- themes: magic as a weapon, imperialism, race in academia

There There by Tommy Orange
(2018 novel, fiction)
- Dark, sad, reflective
- themes: history of indigenous people in the east Bay Area, contemporary life through multiple indigenous POV, violence and resistance

The Revolution Has Come: Black Power, Gender, and the Black Panther Party in Oakland
(2016 novel, non-fiction)
- Informative, inspiring, political
- Themes: history of black power movements, state violence, revolution

Graphic Liberation: Image Making and Political Movements by Josh MacPhee
(2023 novel, interviews)
- Informative, inspiring, reflective
- Themes: history of social movements, art in reaction to movements vs. art that creates movements, collective power

The Land of Milk and Honey by C Pam Zhang
(2023 novel, fiction)
- Poetic, imaginative, tense
- Themes: food and cuisine culture, privilege, environmental apocalypse, hope

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K Le Guin
(1968 novel, fiction)
- Magical, tense, hopeful
- Themes: moral responsibility, hero’s journey, adventure

Graphic Liberation

Incredible book gifted to me by a dear friend. Last book I read in 2023 and will surely be referring to it for the rest of my life.

GRAPHIC LIBERATION: IMAGE MAKING AND POLITICAL MOVEMENTS

Here are the interviewees, and their linked instagrams.

Avram Finkelstein is a US designer from Silence=Death Project, Gran Fury, ACT UP.

Alison Alder is an Australia-based printmaker, member of Redback Grafix, and founder of Megalo print studio.

Emory Douglas is former revolutionary artist and designer for the Black Panther Party.

Melanie Cervantes is a Chicanx printmaker in the Bay Area, member of Dignidad Rebelde with Jesus Barraza, and a member of Justseeds Artists Cooperative.

Jesus Barraza is a Chicanx printmaker in the Bay Area, member of Dignidad Rebelde with Melanie Cervantes, and a member of Justseeds Artists Cooperative.

Daniel Drennan ElAwar is founder of Jamaa Al-Yad graphics collective in Beirut, Lebanon.

Tomie Arai is an early member of Basement Workshop, the first political cultural space in NYC Chinatown in the 1970s, and a member of Godzilla, Asian-American arts collective.

Sandy Kaltenborn is cofounder of Kotti & Co. housing initiative in Berlin and image-shift studio.

Judy Seidman is a longtime South African arts organizer, activist, and member of Medu Arts Ensemble.

A3BC Collective is an antinuclear-antimilitarist block making collective in Tokyo, Japan.

Tings Chak is based in China and is the art director of the new Tricontinental.

Readings/presentations on decolonization in animation

Linking here collections and resources I’ve recently found that interested me in regards to building a decolonized animation practice, as well as critiques of the animation industry for its capitalistic, imperialistic, and white supremacist behaviors, as well as the routine and incessant appropriation of indigenous and otherwise marginalized narratives.

Decolonizing Animation Symposium by Ecstatic Truths (video symposium)

Great presentations on how individuals and communities are approaching decolonization through the process of making work, the study of work, and the work itself.

I particularly enjoyed “Animating Memory: Creative explorations of migrant memories and postcolonial identities in the British Bangladesh Diaspora” by Dr. Biwas Bisht (at 28:09) and “Shifting towards Decoloniality: A transfronteriza nepantlera’s rasquache tactics in new media art and animation” by Liliana Conlisk Gallegos.

“Ecstatic Truth is an annual symposium on animated documentary that takes place in a different country every year. We are interested in what animators and artists have to say about the work they make…. How does that apply to animation? Our speakers will look at issues such as how to work collaboratively to tell stories of conflict or underrepresented peoples, how to counter bias in technology and whether animation can be used to express the voice and culture of indigenous peoples. There will be a range of approaches to making animation shown – from traditional drawn animation to the use of VR, AR, game engines, data and motion capture.”

Mulan and Moana: Embedded Coloniality and the Search for Authenticity in Disney Animated Film (essay)

Informative essay about Michelle Anya Anjirbag. A critical look at the concept of selling out and the fine line between adaptation and appropriation through the comparison of Mulan and Moana. In-depth critique of design as well as the processes by which the filmmakers involved marginalized cultural consultants.

“As the consciousness of coloniality, diversity, and the necessity of not only token depictions of otherness but accurate representations of diversity in literature and film has grown, there has been a shift in the processes of adaptation and appropriation used by major film production companies and how they approach representing the other… In one case, a cultural historical tale was decontextualized and reframed, while in the other, cultural actors had a degree of input in the film representation. By examining culturally specific criticisms and scenes from each film, I will explore how the legacy of coloniality can still be seen embedded in the framing of each film, despite the studio’s stated intentions towards diversity and multiculturalism.”

Whose Paradise? Encounter, Exchange and Exploitation (essay)

Another critique of Moana, as well as a in-depth look at the appropriation of Pacific Islander cultures and the Western concept of “paradise” by Kalissa Alexeyeff and Siobhan McDonnell.

“Through these countervailing forces and complex crosscurrents, Pacific paradise emerges as a potent if long-contested trope that materially generates a whole range of Western and Pacific realities, desires, and aspirations… Throughout the articles in this collection, important questions about global power and structural inequality remain: Whose interests does paradise serve? How is the discourse of paradise mobilized, commodified, and purchased? And whose “paradise” is reflected in these ideas and images?”