I Was A Child of Holocaust Survivors. Dir. Ann Marie Fleming. DVD. National Film Board of Canada, 2010. Courtesy of the artist. — I Was A Child of Holocaust Survivors. Dir. Ann Marie Fleming. DVD. National Film Board of Canada, 2010. Courtesy of the artist.

"Memory Migrations: Bringing the Past to Life in Contemporary Animated Film." Department of the History of Art, University College London, 2016.

My doctoral dissertation, "Memory Migrations," explored recent trends in animated documentary film. In addition to conducting research at various film studios and festivals, I spoke with several scholars, artists, and filmmakers, all of whom significantly aided in the completion of this work. I am enormously grateful to everyone who assisted me with this project, including my dissertation examiners, Dr. Liz Watkins and Dr. Jann Matlock, and my research supervisors, Dr. Mechthild Fend and Dr. Rose Marie San Juan.

Included here is my dissertation abstract.

ABSTRACT

Memory Migrations: Bringing the Past to Life in Contemporary Animated Film

Animation plays with time and space. The image can be moved forward or backward. It can be built upon. It can be erased. Cinema scholar Alan Cholodenko posits that the act of animating – of endowing the inanimate with motion and life – “cannot be thought without thinking loss, disappearance, and death.” This study focuses on four animated shorts produced between 1992 and 2010 that have capitalized on the medium's potential, each returning to the outmoded form of hand-drawn animation to revive the past: Michael Fukushima's Minoru: Memory of Exile (1992); Mark Middlewick, Samantha Nell, and Anna-Sofia Nylund's A Kosovo Fairytale (2009); Ann Marie Fleming's I Was a Child of Holocaust Survivors (2010); and Marie-Margaux Tsakiri-Scanatovits' My Mother's Coat (2010). Beyond their visual ties, the films connect thematically. Each unfolds as a familial narrative in which one generation passes its experience onto the next. Each chronicles geographical movements and cultural dislocations, often the result of war and exile. Heavily personalized, each film was crafted by the children of the main protagonists, becoming an autobiographical exploration of heritage.

In this collection of essays, I contend that these cinematic productions signal a larger trend within filmic representations of the past, which – rather than attempting to reconstruct sweeping historical narratives – employ animation to personalize the past. This project considers the intricate connections between art and life, exploring how the works produced are corporeally bonded to their modes of making, to history, and to family. It is an examination of the ways these films negotiate history from generation to generation and an inquiry into how personal stories can become collectively shared.