Emma Emily
they/she
Emma Emily (they/she) is an animator and animation filmmaker. Common themes in their work are alienation, late capitalism, mental health, psychoanalysis and the failure of language. The failure of language is not only a theme in their work, it is what drives them to create a visual story. Animation is ideal for this since dialogues are expensive/time consuming so the maker is forced to find visual queues in order to communicate. Next to animation, she explores many different media such as illustrations, lino, live action, video installations and sculptures. Currently they are mostly exploring lino which has the same slow pace, a process focused intensity as animation.
Upcoming projects/events:
‘So Sick’
Is a film by directed by Emma that focuses on alienation under late capitalism. An alien moves themselves through a world of language and stares in a desperate attempt to find meaning - an impossible task in a meaningless world.
Spill The Tea, may 6th at Bronx Theatre
The film will be screened at ‘Bronx Theatre’ as part of an exhibition on power on the 6th of may at 18h (there will also be an after party). The event is called Spill The Tea.
What inspired you to get into your discipline?
“Animation has many restraints, mostly time, yet anything is possible. If you can make it or draw it you can use it. It allows to tell stories in a different way, a more intuitive and less cerebral way. Something that is felt, through the textures and materials of the world you created. There is something magical about seeing your world slowly come to life. I like the fact that it takes a long time (5-10 seconds of animation per day) but to me this is what is so rewarding to it. It requires so much of a person, you need to feel your body, think about the acting, and then calculate the timing and spacing, see how the body is connected to itself and what the laws of physics are so that everything feels real. I picked stopmotion because in a world that is continuously digitalized I had a desire to be as far away from computers as possible. Also Stopmotion might look less realistic but it feels more real, while 3D animation (to me) looks more realistic and yet feels less real.”
Did you have any influential role models?
“My biggest inspirations are probably Louise Bourgeois and Berlinde de Bruyckere. I love how they can capture a certain feeling of disintegrated bodies, the textures and materials tell their own story, even in a sculpture. As for animation, my favorite short is Egg by Martina Scarpelli - the way she uses the medium to tell a very simple story in such a visceral way is genius to me. She manages to let go of narrative structure and focus on that which is relevant.”
What is your creative process and what are the most important things you keep in mind when beginning a new project?
“I tend to start from theory, from a book or a theoretical framework. For So Sick, this book was Capitalist Realism by Mark Fisher. I then try and add other theories to this framework and create a complicated abstract idea that I want to express for which language will always fail. I then look for materials and visuals that support or stem from this theory. Once I am in the creation process I use the theoretical framework to make quick decisions. As for So Sick, I went with red-yellow-blue colors as a reference to the Bauhaus. The gate in the beginning of the film is modeled after the brutalist, Lina Bo Bardi’s windows. In this case, I used Marxist architecture to create a visual que and association. I intend for this decisions to give the whole film a cohesive potential even if they ideas are scattered and I’m trying to tell too much in 1 min.”
