Women In Animation India

A special meet-up on Women in Animation (WIA) was conducted on Wednesday, April 23, 2008 at National College, Bandra, Mumbai- India. The programme was Sponsored by Nvidia’ “Women In Technology” and supported by Asifa India, AnimationXpress.com, Rhythm & Hues, cgTantra.com and allaboutanimation.com.

The event had a crowd of around 450 people which included students, animators, scriptwriters and teachers; majority of them being women. The format of the program was simple, Screening of films made by Indian Animators and filmmakers, followed by a panel discussion. and last but not the least was the screening of Shelley Page’s collection of films done by European women.

An interesting range of films was presented in the Indian Section with ‘Mukund and Riaz’ by Nina Sabnani, ‘In The Air’ by Simi Nallaseth, ‘Printed Rainbow’ by Geetanjali Rao, ‘Aparajita’ by Kanupriya ,’When Bugwan Got Squished’ by Nandita Jain, just to name a few.

This was followed by a short introduction to WIA by Saraswathi Balgam, President, WIA Indian Chapter.

Saraswathi Balgam

Next was the panel discussion, consisting of a number of eminent women animators in the industry such as Tehzeeb Khurana, Sherry Bharda, Simi Nallaseth, Geetanjali Rao, Shilpa Ranade, Nina Sabnani and Rekha Thorat, Moderated by Saraswathi, the panel consisted of women coming form all aspects of animation, like education, children education in animation, independent film-makers, animators to VFX Supervisors.

Panel Discussion

The discussion was focused around on the journey of these women, the challenges women face in animation, a few other general Q&A by the audience. Each one of the panelist brought in their experience and views to the table making it a diverse and informative discourse.

Rekha Thorat: WIA volunteer/Animator

Talking about the challenges they faced as women in the field of animation, the panelists shared that, “It is difficult to actually be on set in awful circumstances and constantly play second fiddle to demanding directors and film stars. They think animation is about post-production and animators can perform miracles,” said Sherry Bharda. “Being a woman can make it tougher.” One needs to gain an amount of trust to get work done well. Some of the panelists, such as Simi are “lucky” because their husbands help them with their children. Others like Shilpa have to try and balance their work and family as it is “hard on the kids.” Many even take their work home or take their kids to work.

Sherry Bharda

Shilpa Ranade

There has been a change in the last seven or eight years where the number of women in the field of animation has increased. In the question-answer session, some of the important points made were the importance of a good script and story, the need for a Writer’s Guild and research in animation, the need to learn the fundamentals of animation and of learning 2D animation before 3D, the lack of foresight in animation, the unnecessary stress on only learning to use softwares, the need for niche schools in India and the need for not only writing in animation but also about animation. Indian animators should use diverse content and not just mythological content and software companies in India should keep in touch with what students want, as is done in the west.

Geetanjali Rao

After the panel discussion, Laura Dohrmann of NVIDIA shared her experience of being one of the few women working in technical training , along with the core values of Women in Technology, NVidia’s outreach program for Women.

Laura Dohrmann from NVIDIA

The finale of the program was the screening of some of the award winning films made by European Women, compiled by Shelley Page, the European Representative of DreamWorks Animation.

Shelley Page

Shelley has a large collection of award winning films made by students all over the world. Some of the award-winning films Shelley screened in the event were Annecy Award winner City Paradise by Gaelle Denis of Passion Pictures Production, Oscar nominated Badgered directed by Sharon Coleman from National Film and Television Studio, Loop by digital film makers Supinfocom in France, UNICEF award winner No Limits by Filmakademie in Germany, Annecy Award winner Wojna and Voodoo, Blindspot and Oktapodi from Gobelins School in Paris.

Image for Shelly’s Collection

The event ended on a very positive note with the promise of more such events to come. The support and enthusiasm of both the students and the professionals was overwhelming and we hope to get the continual support to host many more such events.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 25th, 2008 at 9:00 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.