by Tim Bustin, Film & TV Online Editor, 2017-18

Animation in West Africa is on the rise, and Encounters Film Festival in Harbourside last month hosted a showcase of the best works, 'Ghana Animation', alongside a later discussion about how the region can burst into the international film scene.

Few film formats combine art with technology as strongly as animation, a medium as visually diverse as the global cultures that Encounters Film Festival prides itself on annually showcasing. Through 2D and 3D CGI, sketches, cutouts, and even live action hybrids, budding filmmakers from across Africa voice their varying and unique themes in the showcase ‘Ghana Animation’.

Although celebrating diversity, the global film festival clearly shows the interplay of influences between the West and the rest of the world; superheroes save underage girls from marriage, in the Ethiopian Tibeb Girls (dir. Brutky), and a Nigerian version of Toy Story captures the universal commonality of childhood imagination in Plaything (dir. Eri Umusu & Nurdin Momodu).

Animation is an unforgiving format, both to the young filmmakers on the precipice between apprenticeship and true professionalism, and to the rapidly developing, yet still improving, African animation film departments. Most of the ‘Ghana Animation’ films are under four minutes long because of the technological restraints, but their charm, passion, and fiery drive really shine through. Here are my highlights of the 18 fascinating films shown in the 70 minute special screening.

Massa Awwo (dir. Duncan Senkumba)

This simple short captures the beautiful, mad rush of Kampala taxi park on a typical day in the Ugandan capital. Thick black sketches are set against a deep yellow background in a detailed show of craftsmanship. Hundreds of barely formed images of taxis and passengers mingle together, appearing then quickly disappearing; the shapes delicately blur and blend in and out of each other over the three minute feature like a sunlit river of smoke, noise, and life.

Vimeo / Duncan Senkumba

Chicken Core (dir. Oricha Aliyu)

Tales of warriors and gods were a recurring theme in the screening, such as the origin story of an African lightning god in Dawn of Thunder (dir. Komotion Studios), or a god decimating his enemies with fire in Shango (dir. Michael Rhima). Here, the epic struggle of an oppressed race of chickens makes for a great comedic short of epic and absurdist proportions. Can the comic book style heroes forge a weapon powerful enough to take down their zombified fellows and their magical overlord, the Crow King?

Little Monsters (dir. Poka)

If Black Panther did anything, it proved that African heritage can be stylishly blended with modern technology. An animated hip-hop music video, featuring a suited agent coolly battling off tiny green invaders, Little Monsters is Ghana’s homage to Men in Black (1997), even going as far as to bring out the gadgets, the partnership, and blowing up the mothership whilst rescuing the girl.

Youtube / JaysoVEVO

Dear Black Man (dir. Emanuel Dankyi)

‘Dear black man… I love you’ is racial spoken poetry addressed to a whole nation of people, in the context of post traumatic slave syndrome. It’s simple and bold, favouring minimalism; text and cut-out characters are its style and its one that strengthens its message, rather than trying to stand out. For all the advancements in technology animation symbolises, Dear Black Man is a reminder that, when we forget compassion in the face of pain, much of the past still holds back the future.

A Kalabanda Ate My Homework (dir. Raymond Malinga)

The classic classroom conundrum of forgotten homework is charmingly explored with delightful visual choices in A Kalabanda Ate My Homework. A well perfected 3D CGI style reminiscent of Captain Underpants (2017) allows for deliciously evil school teachers cackling in the door frame and Hitchcock-esque twisted camera zoom-ins for moments of terror, making life all the harder for our young, blocky students.