Today (Wednesday, March 30) the artist animators selected as part of Film London and Arts Council England’s FLAMIN Animations program will premiere their commissioned work at TNB XPO, with a second iteration of FLAMIN Animations confirmed. The call for applications for the new round will open April 20 – July 5, 2022.
Toby Cato, Mothy Muyobo, Ezra Myers and Zainab Sanyang were selected for the inaugural round of FLAMIN Animations, a new program of commissions for early-career Black-identifying artist animators living in the U.K. Three of the animations will premiere at the TNB XPO at Picturehouse Central London, an event by The New Black Film Collective (TNBFC) showcasing Black creatives, practitioners and projects in film and high-end TV. The fourth animation in the process of being completed. Short clips from the commissioned works are available to view on the Film London website now.
Part of FLAMIN (Film London Artists’ Moving Image Network), and as part of Film London’s increased commitment to diversity, equality and inclusion, FLAMIN Animations supports artist animators aged 18-30 as they take their first steps into a career working with the moving image. The program provides development support, bespoke mentoring and £2,500 to create a new one- to three-minute animation. Wider support has also been available to all those who applied, including animation focused Film London Masterclasses with Film London’s Equal Access Network.
“We are thrilled to see the works commissioned through FLAMIN Animations profiled at the inaugural TNB XPO. It is vital that we continue to support and champion artists exploring and challenging creative practices and perceptions and Toby, Mothy, Ezra and Zainab are shining examples of next-generation talent here in the capital, creating bold and innovative work. We can’t wait to see what the future holds for them,” said Adrian Wootton, Chief Executive of Film London and the British Film Commission.
“FLAMIN Animations is a considered acknowledgement of the underrepresentation of black-identifying artists within the art, film, and animation industries and as we embark on a second edition, we hope to continue to create a network of exciting emerging artists. I would like to thank Arts Council England for their vital support in helping to deliver these commissions.”
Chosen from a high caliber of applications, the selected artists follow both non-traditional and traditional animation routes to making work, using and combining techniques ranging across photography, Claymation, hand-drawn, collage and digital to explore identity and heritage, social structure and lived experience.
Toby Cato’s 1 Man is a surreal collage animation music video of the artist falling through the world. Cato is interested in creating dream-like realities where they can live in the world of imagination — their only nation. 1 Man deals with finding identity as a young Black man and with challenging the roles that black and female characters play in film and animation. 1 Man is made in collaboration between Cato as animator and vocalist, Jazz Grant as collage artist and Jago Sagar as music producer.
Mothy Muyobo’s Crown combines claymation and digital drawing techniques and is an open-ended investigation into feelings around Black hair. The animation reflects on generational trauma and the gentrification and commodification of Blackness that the artist struggles with. It is an artistic interpretation of generational abrasions which have long been woven into the socio-political fabric, offering an insight into why we wear our hair in specific ways.
Ezra Myers’ The Sounds of Jordan is a scratched 16mm animation which voices an authentic, modern depiction of Trinidad’s chosen instrument, the steel pan. With original music from acclaimed U.K. pan players Samuel Dubois, Kyron Akal and Marcus Cumberbatch King, the film represents the magnitude of the instrument’s contribution to a once silenced community, which allowed broken souls to express and experience freedom.
Zainab Sanyang’s Small Moments is an animation exploring the minutiae of life — things that we often overlook or take for granted. Simplicity is key to this hand-drawn animation, which focuses on the elegance of nature, domestic spaces and everyday actions and the sounds they evoke, reminding us of our own small moments which make us feel calm and centered.
To find out more about FLAMIN Animations, the 2021 artists and clips of work visit filmlondon.org.uk/flamin/flamin-animations.
