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Women in animation

14 September 2005

The work of Australia's women animators was celebrated at a symposium at Monash's Berwick campus last week.

Australia's first female animator Ms Anne Jolliffe spoke of her work at a symposium at the Berwick campus last week.

The symposium featured prominent animators Ms Anne Jolliffe and Ms Antoinette Starkiewicz and highlighted the latest research in animation techniques.

Australia's first female animator, Ms Jolliffe began working in the field in the 1950s. At the time there were no tertiary courses dedicated to animation or filmmaking and a strong opposition to women animators, but Ms Jolliffe persisted with her childhood dream and continues to work in the area to this day.

Her work includes the 1975 Academy Award winning film Great! The story of Isambard Kingdom Brunel. In 1980 Ms Jolliffe established her own studio, Jollification, in Sydney.

Ms Starkiewicz has worked as an independent animator since 1974 after training as a painter at the National Gallery School of Art in Melbourne. In 1973 she completed a Diploma of Animation at the London Film School. Her works include the 2D animated films Puttin' on the Ritz, High Fidelity, Koko Pops: A history of music in 10 minutes and Pianoforte.

The symposium explored anime (Japanese animation) music videos and their role in popular culture and the ability of digital animation to recreate traditional towns such as Angkor in Cambodia and present it as a living city.

Symposium co-convenor and lecturer in the Berwick School of Information Technology at Monash Dr Marian Quigley said the symposium aimed to recognise the work of female animators who have traditionally played subservient roles and who, because they generally make short films, rarely get the recognition awarded to feature length film-makers.

"It can take as long as six months to make a three-minute film and many of the women working in the industry earn barely enough to keep them off the poverty line," she said. "But they persevere because of an absolute love of the industry."

Dr Quigley's book Women Do Animate: Interviews with Ten Australian Women Animators was launched at the symposium.