Here is something that should inspire those who care about Indian animation and spur them into action.
The Animation Archive is a project of ASIFA-Hollywood, with support from The Walter Lantz Foundation. In operation for two years now, they have put together a wealth of information. It is an ambitious project to expand the offerings of the current ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Center in Burbank to include a virtual archive, museum, library and research facility for the benefit of the animation community, students and general public.
ASIFA-Hollywood Archive has been in operation now for two years. In their own words,
“To date, we have digitized well over 15,000 images and 2,500 animated films. There are nearly 450 articles available here on the Archive blog covering a wide range of subjects. The blog is followed by readers all over the world. We recently had our 1 millionth unique visitor; and in the past two years, we have served 2.5 million articles. We’ve mounted several exhibits in the archive space, which has been visited by artists from all corners of the globe. The animation database has now completed its proof of concept phase, and volunteers are working nearly every day to build it out as quickly as possible.”
I think it is high time we have an archive for Indian animation as well. The history of Indian animation doesn’t go back as far as perhaps the history of World animation does. All the same, we have had some brilliant work done, especially in the black and white era of television. How do today’s Indian animators and audiences get access to these?
Perhaps some of us born in the 60s and 70s might remember seeing “Swimmy”, “Tree of Life” and “Ek Titli, Anek Titliyan” in the days of Doordarshan. I would love to see those again and also learn more about the makers, but there is no information available readily.
Those were times when most of the Indian animation was original. The animators back then tried to develop their own style, experiment with the medium. It was new to them. They revelled in the art. Today, much of our animation is Disney/Pixar ‘wannabe’. If we could view and study the work that was done by our predecessors, it would inspire the current generation of Indian animators to create their own animation style instead of limiting themselves to pre-established styles.
Sadly, all we ever do is lament what is missing. There is an urgent need to start archiving our own animation and recording the history of animation in India. With a little bit of help from the government and active participation of those in the know, it won’t take too long to build this kind of archive. Preservation and presentation are both equally critical. Else we will keep churning out poor imitations of Hollywood animation and feel proud for doing it well!
what a wonderful idea with the sense of truth. We the people of animation have the resposibility for the future of animation in india,havent we ? if not us then who!?
“ek titli,anek titliyaan ” , “tree of life” are still in our hearts ,we grew up on them as kids, talking abt them automatically as if takes us on a journey dated back to chilhood .It will be really sad if we loose that history, and we dont want to.if we think abt those ppl who at that time by their sheer will n passion prepared the platform for indian animation,it was quite a risk,there were no animation industry then ! compared to what we have today , not that money even. so what was that glue? some answers are within us ,some are with those people.it will be great if we could see the research that went behind, the character development……for is more xciting than originality,isnt it?
we the younger generation on india, we have alot of hope for the future,that indian animation will be INDIAN animation ,in style,in storytelling,in music, a brand identity! otherwise we may one day find ourselves like the philipines,who served hollywood so well that they forgot themselves:(
and just for a last line thought ,have u guysever wondered abt the WARLI PAINTINGS ?those anicient ppl had animation in their minds ,they painted it on walls,evrywhr they could,if only they had what we have today!!