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Opening night: Figures in Focus - Up Yours! (18*) + ScreenTalk

London International Animation Festival 2021

,Barbican Cinema 1
An animated still from Eyes

In homage to the work Oh Bondage Up Yours! by punk pioneer Poly Styrene of X-Ray Spex, this programme sends a message to revolt against the subjugation that women face in society.

The programme features contemporary animations about issues that continue to be questioned, such as gender equality, body image, gay rights, maternity, sexual harassment, and women’s sexual agency. Works by daring animators demonstrate how animators are presenting an alternative viewpoint to the status quo through their experimental and artistic work.

Figures in Focus was devised in 2017 by Abigail, in recognition of the under-representation of female and non-binary animators and their stories within the independent animation sector. The programme spotlights some of the incredible work crafted by contemporary animators, in the UK and internationally.

After the screening, join us for a panel discussion led by animation producer and programmer Abigail Addison, with filmmakers Comfort Arthur, Stacy Bias, Birgitta Hosea and Lily Ash Sakula.

Tagged with: Cinema LIAF 2021

Event running time approximately 115 min

Please note this programme contains some scenes viewers may find disturbing. Some of the films contain scenes of violence, abuse, including implied child abuse and references to sexual violence, references to mental illness, drug use and abusive language, including misogyny, racism and homophobia.

This programme contains flashing lights and is not suitable for people with certain types of epilepsy.

Programme

Join the Freedom Force
Protesters from around the world mix with nudists, Greenpeace demonstrators and punks. 
US 2009 Dir Martha Colburn 4 min

Betti
Betti, a freedom loving punk and cab driver shares her reflections on the negative stereotypes people attribute to taxi drivers and the recent demonstrations against Uber.
Hungary 2018 Dir Zsuzsanna Ács 5 min

Erasure
Physical labour creates the world around us – constructing buildings, manufacturing goods, cooking, cleaning… yet all too often this work remains unrecognised and invisible.
UK 2017 Dir Birgitta Hosea 3 min

Anna, Cat and Mouse
About abuse, cats, and matchboxes.
Russia 2020 Dir Varya Yakovleva 5 min

Scum Mutation
Here you are SCUM, a creature in a cage. Inside the rage of our time, your individual and societal wound questions our visceral link to violence. SCUM, in your silicon hands young germs are growing and mutating.
France 2020 Dir OV 10 min

Service
A woman working in the service industry is routinely exposed to personal attacks and abusive comments. One day she gets tired of this daily routine.
South Korea 2015 Dirs Yang Yu Jung, Lee Mi Sun and Jeong Sun Ha 4 min

Hot Flash
A  journey into the funny, uncomfortable, and sometimes maddening world of an ageing professional woman navigating a culture that puts great emphasis on physical appearance.
Canada 2019 Dir Thea Hollatz 10 min

Black Barbie
The filmmaker recollects her personal journey with skin bleaching products and questions societal ideals of beauty.
UK/Ghana 2016 Dir Comfort Arthur 4 min

Happy and Gay
A revisionist history, 1930s style, cartoon musical that queers the power of representation, whilst reminding us of the early cartoon era’s acts of censorship, prejudice, and stereotype.
US 2014 Dir Lorelei Pepi 10 min

Tiger and Ox
What does divorce mean to women in Korean patriarchal society? Is a fatherless family failure? a single mother and her daughter are determined to find some answers. 
South Korea 2019 Dir Seunghee Kim 8 min

Eyes
An exploration of existence outside the gender binary, embodying the tension between being looked at and being seen. Created in conversation with LGBTQ+ youth. Music by Big Joanie.
UK 2019 Dir Lily Ash Sakula 5 min

Asmahan the Diva
Marriages, espionage, lovers, alcohol, poker, murders, scandals. Asmahan the Diva’s voice still resonates in the Middle East and her mysterious death in the waters of the Nile feeds the wildest rumours.
France 2019 Dir Chloé Mazlo 6 min

Flying While Fat
Bodies come in all sizes, but sadly physical spaces do not. A look at the financial and social exclusions that determine whose body is considered and whose body is not, in the creation of material medians.
UK 2016 Dir Stacy Bias 6 min

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