Seminar: Human rights in animated film: problematic history and confusing contemporaneity

A seminar with Olga Bobrowska

19th of June 2020

Anibar will organize one seminar with Olga Bobrowska who will share her experience on how animation has been developed as a tool to bring attention to the sensitive topics of human rights and violations. Human rights violations can happen every day to every one of us it is important to know what rights we are entitled of, thus being able to protect them. There are cases that people do have little to no information on what is a violation or what are their rights or are they violating others rights, by this being said animation and art has helped that in an alternative way to catch the attention to each of us by making us more responsible with our actions.

Animation is frequently and justly regarded as one of the most convenient tools of mass communication. As a medium it can simultaneously entertain and convey unique artistic practices. Regardless of one’s age or cultural competences – everybody can enjoy playfulness and extravaganza of drawn, computer- generated or puppet characters set into illusionary movement. These sessions of seminar will have the aim to answer two main questions how can film and animation contribute to promoting and advocating for human rights and liberties? How can Kosovar young artists and professionals learn from animators and filmmakers that have produced art to encounter human rights violations?

The seminar will consist of:

● Lecture (introduction to the history of politically engaged animation; introduction to the systemic problems of mainstream animated film: racist representation and exclusion of women);
● Watching excerpts from the films;
● Discussions about the films;

More information on this seminar you can fins on this link.

The interested applicants to participate in this seminar should fill the form in this  link:

The seminar will be conducted online through Zoom platform on 19th of June. This open call invites all the interested applicants who are specifically enrolled in Art High School and Art or Psychology University students.

Deadline for application is 18th of June at 12:00. All other relevant information will be sent via email to the selected participants right after the closing deadline.

This activity is being organized from Anibar with the support of the Swedish Agency for International Development (SIDA), through its Human Rightivism Program implemented by the Community Development Fund (CDF).

Olga Bobrowska

Born in 1987. In June 2020 she gained PhD in Film Studies at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow defending the thesis on trends and tendencies of the mainland China’s animated film in 1957-1989. She has authored several articles about Polish, Chinese and European animation. She is a festival director and co-founder of StopTrik International Film Festival (Maribor, Slovenia; Lodz, Poland), a festival dedicated to stop motion animation. She frequently collaborates with other festivals, among them Animateka (Slovenia), Etiuda&Anima (Poland), Krakow Film Festival (Poland), Supertoon (Croatia) and Anibar (Kosovo). Film programmes she curated were presented at various festivals and events in e.g. Poland, Slovenia, Croatia, The Netherlands, Finland and China. She also served as juror for festivals such as Tricky Women (Austria), Animafest Zagreb (Croatia), CyberSousa (China), Blow-Up Film Fest (USA), Animanima (Serbia), PAF Festival (Czech Republic), Animocje (Poland), Fest Anča (Slovakia). Her reviews and critiques were published film magazines such as Kino, Ekrany, Zippy Frames and ASIFA Magazine. She co-edited two monographs: “Obsession Perversion Rebellion. Twisted Dreams of Central European Animation” (2016) and “Propaganda, Ideology, Animation. Twisted Dreams of History” (2019).