Great animations drawn from real life
Animated documentaries are relatively new to filmmaking, but have made a big impact in recent years. Here are 12 of the best from around the world
Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s animated documentary
Flee made history at this year’s Academy Awards when it achieved the unprecedented feat of being nominated for best international feature, best animated feature and best documentary feature.
The thrilling and at times harrowing story of a young gay Afghan refugee risking his life to escape his homeland and begin a new life in Europe is the latest in a recent wave of animated documentaries that have emerged since Ari Folman’s 2008 breakthrough Waltz with Bashir.
For many years, animation was simply too expensive to risk on something as financially uncertain as a documentary. But in recent years, many of those obstacles have been removed.
Digital technology has made filmmaking, and animation in particular, far more affordable.
Simultaneously, the increasing prevalence of streaming platforms has provided far more distribution options for documentary feature films.
Animation also provides a cheaper, and in some cases, safer way of telling stories set in far-flung or war-torn regions of the world and, in the case of
Flee, providing a veneer of anonymity for those unwilling to appear on camera.
As Flee finally arrives in Hong Kong cinemas this week, we look back at some of the best animated documentary feature films from around the world.
Victory Through Air Power (1943)
One of the earliest feature-length animated documentaries was this history of aviation from Walt Disney. Disney himself funded this adaptation of Alexander P. de Seversky’s book, filmed at the height of World War II, when the studio was effectively a propaganda machine to support the war effort.
This Technicolor rallying cry to fight the Nazis in the air was applauded by British prime minister Winston Churchill and US president Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Of Stars and Men (1962)
Narrated by astronomer Harlow Shapley, upon whose book it is based, Of Stars and Men charts the fascinating history of our evolving relationship with the universe, broaching everything from ancient mythology to the periodic table and our conquest of space.
The film was created by the Hubley family of animators, written and directed by husband and wife John and Faith Hubley, and featuring the voices of their children Mark and Hampy.
Drawn from Memory (1995)
A pillar of the animation community for decades, Paul Fierlinger is a Peabody Award-winning filmmaker whose work has been featured in hundreds of television commercials, as well as on Sesame Street and Nickelodeon.
In 1995 he created his masterpiece, Drawn from Memory, a haunting and powerful film about his childhood, growing up in Czechoslovakia during the communist dictatorship, and his family’s subsequent emigration to the United States.
Chicago 10 (2007)
Before Aaron Sorkin dramatised the trial of the Chicago 7, the story of these political victims of a vicious and spiteful Nixon administration was brought to the screen in Brett Morgan’s riveting documentary.
Using a combination of archival footage and animation to recreate the courtroom scenes of the infamous 1968 show trial, the film features the voice talents of Mark Ruffalo, Jeffrey Wright, Nick Nolte and more to blistering effect.
Waltz with Bashir (2008)
Nominated for the best international feature Academy Award, Ari Folman’s startling film about his own experiences fighting in the 1982 Lebanon war was a critical and commercial hit around the world.
Sometimes touted as the first animated feature-length documentary, this harrowing story of long-buried trauma proved there was a market for adult-oriented stories of this nature to be created on a modest budget in the digital age. A game changer.
Little Voices (2010)
Directed by Jairo Carrillo, Little Voices juxtaposes vibrant, colourful hand-drawn images with the horrors of the Colombian guerilla war.
Using the first-hand experiences of children who have survived the horrors of the conflict, and using their own drawings and testimonies to drive the narrative, Carrillo captures a unique perspective on violence and trauma, and yet somehow manages to find stories of hope and optimism as told by the youngest survivors.
Crulic: The Path to Beyond (2011)
Winner of best feature film at the 2012 Annecy International Animated Film Festival, Anca Damian’s film tells the story of Claudu Crulic, a Romanian citizen who died during a hunger strike after being wrongfully imprisoned in Poland in 2007.
Told from Crulic’s own perspective using a combination of hand-drawn and photographic animation styles, this tragic story exposes Poland’s corrupt legal system and decrepit penal institutions.
Is the Man Who Is Tall Happy? (2013)
Celebrated artist and filmmaker Michel Gondry embarks on a probing, meandering, mindexpanding conversation with renowned intellectual and philosopher Noam Chomsky in this film.
Over the top of this fascinating and wideranging verbal exploration of life, the universe, and everything, Gondry provides a continuous and equally eccentric kaleidoscope of hand-drawn images and witty asides that attempt to illustrate Chomsky’s profound musings.
25 April (2015)
The devastating Gallipoli campaign of World War I, which saw tremendous loss of life, particularly of Australian and New Zealand forces, is brought to life through the real-life testimonies of six eyewitnesses in Leanne Pooley’s moving film.
The title itself refers to Anzac Day, a national day of mourning in the Antipodes, which originally commemorated those who lost their lives in this fruitless battle in what is now Turkey.
Tower (2016)
At the time it was the deadliest mass shooting in US history. On August 1, 1966, Charles Whitman scaled the clock tower at the University of Texas campus and opened fire on students and pedestrians.
Keith Maitland’s visceral and immersive documentary retells the events of that day using first-hand accounts of survivors and rotoscoping technology, putting the audience in the line of fire during an event that would have an irrevocable impact on the country.
This … story of long-buried trauma proved there was a market for adult-oriented stories of this nature
Nuts! (2016)
A refreshingly lighthearted and humorous tale, Nuts! documents the implausible tale of John R. Brinkley, a self-taught surgeon and broadcasting mogul who devised an absurd cure for male impotence, and then used his own private radio station to advertise his services.
The film combines a morbid fascination for miracle cures with the macabre and lawless backwaters of America’s wild history, and director Penny Lane’s mischievous animated style only adds to the fun.
My Favorite War (2020)
Writer-director Ilze Burkovska Jacobsen delves into her own traumatic past, as she revisits her childhood growing up in Latvia, which was under Soviet rule from 1944 until 1990.
Inspired by the likes of Waltz with Bashir and Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis, the film combines animation with archival footage as Burkovska dramatises her naive memories of rationing, classroom indoctrination and untold bloodshed from her now horrified adult perspective.