Alex Widdowson

Music and Clowns directed by Alex Widdowson © 2018

Awards: British Animation Awards, 2018-2020, UK - Best Post Graduate Animation Royal Television Society Student Television Awards 2019, UK - Jury Prize for Best British Student Film Royal Television Society Student Television Awards 2019, UK - Best Postgraduate Animation Spark Animation 2018, Canada - winner of the Women In Animation's diversity award San Francisco Independent Film Festival 2019, USA - Audience Award for Best Animation British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies Awards, 2020, UK: Runner -Up Essay/Experimental (Best Practice Research Portfolio) NAHEMI Eat Our Shorts Awards, 2019, UK winner ARRI best film NAHEMI Eat Our Shorts Awards, 2019, UK winner Audience Award. Papaya Rocks International Film Festival, 2019, UK - winner best director

The music video for Possibility by Autoheart (2016)

Taken from the second album, I Can Build A Fire.

Animated and directed by Alex Widdowson

Steam or download from lnk.to/__FireID

Official website - weareautoheart.com/

Like on Facebook - facebook.com/Autoheart

Follow on Twitter - twitter.com/Autoheart

Director’s statement: Drawing on Autism is an investigation into the ethics of representation in animated documentaries. Although I am neurodivergent, I’m not autistic, so when working with my anonymous participant, an autistic friend, I needed to be mindful of well-rehearsed and problematic autism tropes. These tropes seem to say more about the desires and needs of neurotypical audiences or filmmakers than they do about the autistic subjects. Moreover, animation presents a distinct set of ethical dilemmas. Without the mechanical indifference of a camera, the act of observation is substituted for expressive or symbolic representation. A mode of representation where the artist is responsible for how the documentary participant looks, where they appear, and what they do. Through collaborative feedback I attempt to share these responsibilities with my participant, while making use of positional and textual reflexivity to equip my audiences with the information they need to scrutinise my documentary interventions. - Alex Widdowson

Awards and Accolades: Winner - UK Research & Innovation: Research in Film Awards 2021 - Best Doctoral and Early Career Film Winner - Rising of Lucitania AnimaDoc Film Festival 2022 - Best AnimaDoc Blue Ribend Award (Student Jury) Nominated - Edinburgh International Film Festival 2022 - Norman McLaren Award for Best British Animation Nominated - UK Research & Innovation: Research in Film Awards 2021 - Best Animated Film

Official Selection: Rhode Island International Film Festival 2021 (Premier) Raindance 2021 Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival 2021 New Orleans Film Festival 2021 Berlin Festival of Animation 2021 Spark Animation 2021 Factual Animation Film Festival 2021 Montreal International Animation Festival 2021 Big Cartoon Festival 2021 London Short Film Festival 2022 Fargo Film Festival 2022 Cinemagic ON THE PULSE Short Film Festival 2022 Edinburgh International Film Festival 2022

In November 2021 I won a Research in Film Award from the UKRI for Best Doctoral or Early Career Film. 

My brother, Jamie, has a profound learning disability. Despite being close to nonverbal, he demonstrates charisma, a sharp sense of humour, and emotional sensitivity. I team up with my parents to discuss what it is like caring for someone with Down syndrome. We piece together fragments of insight to gain a sense of his inner life, but our differing perspectives reveal as much about our own subjectivity as they do Jamie’s.

We rarely see portrayals of the diverse, ordinary lives of people who have Down syndrome (unless we are connected to someone who has it). Much of what we hear instead is based off a medical narrative. As prenatal screening tests improve, the birth rate of people with Downs has fallen. I believe people should be able to base life-changing decisions on accurate information. But I also feel that a diagnosis does not reflect my brother’s human worth. This film attempts to complement the medical narrative with first-hand stories of what it is like to have someone with Down syndrome in your family. Jamie has enriched our lives and I believe a society can be measured by its capacity to nurture those who are most vulnerable.

Awards: 

British Animation Awards, 2018-2020, UK - Best Post Graduate Animation Royal Television Society Student Television Awards 2019, UK - Jury Prize for Best British Student Film Royal Television Society Student Television Awards 2019, UK - Best Postgraduate Animation Spark Animation 2018, Canada - winner of the Women In Animation's diversity award San Francisco Independent Film Festival 2019, USA - Audience Award for Best Animation British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies Awards, 2020, UK: Runner -Up Essay/Experimental (Best Practice Research Portfolio) NAHEMI Eat Our Shorts Awards, 2019, UK winner ARRI best film NAHEMI Eat Our Shorts Awards, 2019, UK winner Audience Award. Papaya Rocks International Film Festival, 2019, UK - winner best director Vimeo Staff Pick 2020 Short of the Week 2020 London International Animation Festival 2018, UK - Jury: Highly Commended Cinanima 2018, Portugal - special mention for Best Student Film Gaston Roch Award

My brother, Jamie, has a profound learning disability. Despite being close to nonverbal he demonstrates charisma, a sharp sense of humour and incredible emotional sensitivity. I team up with my parents to discuss what it’s like caring for someone with Down syndrome. We piece together fragments of insight to gain a sense of his inner life but our differing perspectives reveal as much about our own subjectivity as they do Jamie’s.

The UK has a critical under representation of the ordinary and diverse lives of people with Down syndrome. As prenatal screening tests improve I feel an urgency to create rich and thoughtful portraits of the Down syndrome community, so people have more than a diagnosis to inform their decision of whether or not to terminate a pregnancy.

Alex Widdowson © 2018 London based animation director/producer specialising in documentary

Email - [email protected] Website - alexwiddowson.com Tumblr - alexwiddowson.tumblr.com Vimeo - vimeo.com/alexwiddowson Instagram - @alex_widdowson Blog - DocumentaryAnimationDiscourse.com

Skills: Directing, 2D traditional/digital animation, film editing, dialogue editing, sound recording, replacement stop-motion, 2.5D/puppet animation, storyboard, sound design, producing, motion graphics, graphic design, illustration, critical writing

Software: TVPaint, After Effects CC, Premier CC, Photoshop CC, Audition CC, Flash/Animate CC, Illustrator CC, CelAction

Films that I’ve directed, produced, animated/filmed and edited: Music & Clowns [animated documentary] (2018), Critical Living [animated documentary] (2017), Escapology: The Art of Addiction [animated documentary] (2017), Performance [experimental documentary] (2016), Very Angry [fiction animation] (2016), Spectrum Humour [live-action documentary] (2017), Possibility for AutoHeart [animated music video] (2015), EXP for Too Much Love [animated music video] (2015), PIGS [teaser for an commissioned animated documentary], Animated Attempts at Depicting Mental Illness [animated documentary] (2015), Hours and Hours of Footage of two Giraffes… for Venetian Snares [animated music video], Pear Skins for Hoxton Heroes [animated comedy vignette] (2014), Ultraviolent Jungalist for Venetian Snares [animated music video] (2013), Patients [animated documentary] (2012), Escalator 2 [live-action video art] (2009), Static Body Drifting Mind [live action fiction] (2007), and Amputation [animated fiction] (2007).

Nick Mercer, a psychotherapist with the Philadelphia Association and former heroin addict, reflects on his experiences and the nature of addiction. His journey is depicted through a simple set of metaphors rather than the gritty realism we associate with documentary images of drug abuse.

Official Selection - Factual Animation Film Fuss 2016 - London Official Selection -  Au Contraire mental health film festival 2016 - Montreal

Made with support from Vice and the Philadelphia Association

Score and sound design by Vicky Freund