RETROSPECTIVE SATIRE, BLASPHEMY, CARNIVAL III: CAN FEMINISM BE FUNNY?
RETROSPEKTIVA SATIRA, BLASFEMIJA, KARNEVAL I: DVA MOŽAKARJA SREDNJIH LET NA BALKONU RAZGLABLJATA O SMISLU BIVANJA
Friday, 26. 9. 2025 at 21.00 / Vetrinj mansion, big hall
Petek, 26. 9. 2025 ob 21.00 / Vetrinjski dvor, velika dvorana
Curated and introduced by Olga Bobrowska (StopTrik IFF, Slovenia) and Kate Jessop (BIAF Brighton International Animation Festival, UK).
Kurirata in predstavljata Olga Bobrowska (StopTrik IFF, Slovenia) in Kate Jessop (BIAF Brighton International Animation Festival, UK).
Vsebinske opombe
Kulturno zatiranje / Diskriminacija / Eksplicitna spolna vsebina / Spolno nadlegovanje, spolno nasilje in posilstvo
Content notes
Cultural oppression / Discrimination / Explicit sexual content / Sexual harassment, sexual violence and rape
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OB: Feminism is a paradoxical way of life, a philosophy, and a form of activism. It is born from the recognition of how absurd patriarchal strategies of dominance are, and how petty the methods used to silence and erase the visibility of women, LGBTQ+ people, the working class, people with disabilities, children, non-human beings... okay, the variables of intersectionality are countless! But we know that already - there’s no need to repeat it. Feminism thrives in protest that embraces mockery and exaggeration, and in this spirit, it boldly spits truth in the face of patriarchy. And that’s precisely why being a feminist is exciting and fun. But the stories we tell during protests are deeply serious, because at its core, feminism is a method of affirming solidarity in the face of despair, injustice, hostility, discrimination, and physical violence. We speak of serious matters - and so we laugh through gritted teeth. The animations we present use humour to approach, artistically, the themes of harassment and the exploration of one's autonomous self within the continuum of sexual pleasure and desire. We also highlight the grand trio of women animators – Michaela Pavlátová, Joanna Quinn, and Signe Baumane – who were among the first to depict sexuality in animation as a deeply creative, immensely pleasurable, and joyful act of self-expression, regardless of gender identity. We have to be honest, this programme lacks cultural diversity (as it focuses primarily on animated works from Anglo-Saxon cultural spheres), I see it as a first step in exploring this paradoxical intersection of feminism and humour in animation.
KJ: Animation has the power to hold a mirror up to society in the way that live action can’t. What is it about being told a story through anthropomorphism, or an alternate animated world that makes the feminist struggle easier to digest? I would argue that satire and the art of making people laugh are a key tool to bringing out social awareness. If you can make someone laugh you are subconsciously making them think about a key issue through having an initial visceral reaction to it. This is where humour holds its power to spreading truth about the female experience.
Olga Bobrowska, Kate Jessop
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Olga Bobrowska, PhD, is an animated film scholar, Assistant Professor at the Institute of Journalism and International Relations (IDSM) of the UKEN University in Kraków (Uniwersytet Komisji Edukacji Narodowej) (Poland), co-founder and festival director of StopTrik International Film Festival (Maribor, Slovenia), film culture activist and curator. She authored two monographs published by the CRC Press (Chinese Animated Film and Ideology, 1940s-1970s. Fighting Puppets, 2023; Chinese Animated Film and Ideology. Tradition, Innovation, and Interculturality, 2024). She co-edited books Obsession, Perversion, Rebellion. Twisted Dreams of Central European Animation (2016), and Propaganda, Ideology, Animation. Twisted Dreams of History (2019). She is a permanent contributor to Zippy Frames.
Kate Jessop is the director of the BIAF Festival and a multi-award-winning writer/director whose work has been featured in hundreds of international exhibitions and distributed through platforms like Shorts International and Amazon Prime. She has represented the United Kingdom at the Best of Women in Film and TV competition and was selected to participate in the Berlinale Talent Lab with both her directing portfolio and a comedy series developed as part of the Project Lab. Her creative work spans narrative film, comedy, illustration, live visual content, music videos, and motion design. Jessop has participated in artistic residencies in Berlin, Istanbul, and Reykjavik. She has had retrospectives at the Gilbert Baker Film Festival in the USA and the Czech Anifilm. Her contributions to the field of queer animation have been documented in the pioneering book On LGBTQ2S Animation, published by Quickdraw in Canada in 2021.
1.
Carnival of Animals / Karneval zvirat / Živalski karneval
Michaela Pavlátová (NEGATIV FILM PRODUCTIONS)
2006, Czech Republic, 10'40''
2.
Girls Night Out / Ženski večer
Joanna Quinn (Beryl Productions International)
1987, UK, 06'04''
3.
Teat Beat of Sex ep.1-3 / Drobci iz seksualnega življenja neke ženske ep. 1-3
Signe Baumane (Signe Baumane, Pierre Poire)
2007, USA, 04'00''
7.
Holladio She Said / Hollado hods gsogt / Holladio, je rekla
Sarah Braid
2022/2023, Austria, 05'11''
9.
Hi, It's Your Mother! / Zdravo, mama tukaj!
Daniel Sterlin-Altman (Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema Concordia University)
2016, Canada, 04'25''
10.
Birth Controlled / Reproduktivno nadzorovana
Isa Fraga-Abaza (Digital Arts and Animation Pratt Institute)
2024, USA, 05'00''
11.
The Astronaut / Astronavtka
Isa Fraga-Abaza (Digital Arts and Animation Pratt Institute)
2024, USA, 05'00''
Olga Bobrowska (StopTrik IFF, Slovenia) and Kate Jessop (BIAF Brighton International Animation Festival, UK).
