Notes on the film
This film’s raw ink animation explores the lasting effects of childhood trauma, as an exotic dancer experiences flashbacks of her past perpetrator, triggered by the hat of a club patron. The film’s unfolding straight-ahead animation allows figures and objects to morph seamlessly into each other, suggesting a flood of experiences that blur the boundary between people and objects, or past and present. Cournoyer’s loose and expressive painting style enables an erratic metamorphosis of body and object to create a sense of distortion and confusion caused by triggers and flashbacks of traumatic encounters. The linework boils with wiggling and shaking brush strokes, and erratic ink blots enhance a sense of instability of images.
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loose brush strokes continually morph into different angles and compositions
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loose brush strokes continually morph into different angles and compositions
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loose brush strokes continually morph into different angles and compositions
The unsettled nude body of the exotic dancer continually contorts into objects and symbols tied to her assault, most prominently in the recurring motif of a hat. The hat serves as a visual trigger and layered symbol of female objectification throughout the film. One sequence transforms the hat into the outline of lips smoking a cigarette; the cigarette, in turn, becomes the woman’s body burning away in a predatory pyre. Simple ink strokes shift between forms without clear indication of when the body has turned into an object, or the object has become a body. As such, the woman’s body is entangled with her surroundings and flashback memories, alternatively objectified and humanised.
seamless metamorphosis between figures and objects
Each frame in the film functions somewhat independently from its sequence, differentiated by ink splashes, scratchier linework, or defined emphases. This hand-drawn stylisation works in parallel with unstable boiling to create a cohesive portrait of objectification and destruction of bodily autonomy. Displayed on the white of an otherwise blank page, the exotic dancer’s body is always exposed and exhibited. This visual exposé is elevated through the limited use of sound, capturing only overheard conversations and background noises of certain settings. Restraining the prominence of the soundtrack alerts the viewer to their own voyeuristic position. This voyeurism becomes increasingly uncomfortable as the scenes become more sinister, eventually arriving at the point of assault. The discomfort is amplified by more aggressive and thicker brush strokes, suggesting the recollection of memories through a disfigured lens.
the dancer’s body is detached and dispersed, becoming an object of voyeurism
Interview with Michèle Cournoyer
To see more about Cournoyer’s process and on her art
Q&A with Michèle Cournoyer
“Dots, Lines, Washes: Animating Ink”
This film is featured in a curatorial essay written by Dr. Alla Gadassik and published in the OIAF 2023 festival book.
Read Essay
