#animateddocumentary

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

Critical Living (2017) 

Directed, produced and animated by Alex Widdowson

Testimony from a former P.A. house resident, a current P.A. house therapist & Mike Jay, the author of This Way Madness Lies 

Sound design and recording engineer Vicky Freund

Cello score written and performed by Derck Littel 

Made in partnership with the Royal College of Art, the Wellcome Library & the Philadelphia Association

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