Iraqi Kurdistan

Today’s post about the pixilated shorts of Chuck Menville and Len Janson makes me want to point out a more recent short in a similar technique, Iraqi Kurdistan by photojournalist Ed Kashi. It’s arguable whether the film qualifies as pixilation since it’s documenting existing action instead of designing original movement with live subjects, but the technique has its roots in pixilation and the striking results have a distinctly animated sensibility.

More about the film from its website:

Iraqi Kurdistan is an expansive look into the lives of the Kurdish people of northern Iraq. These images provide an alternative perspective on a changing culture, one different from the discord that dominates so much media coverage of the region. Documented by photojournalist Ed Kashi during a seven-week stay in 2005, the photographs of Iraqi Kurdistan are presented in flipbook-style animation; gradual changes between still images simulate motion.

Perhaps what I find most compelling about the project is how Kashi has employed animation techniques to give traditional documentary/journalistic photography a compelling narrative structure. The film, which has also been licensed by MSNBC.com, offers intriguing potential for further experiments combining hard news with animation, an area that is ripe for exploration.

Watch the film here

Amid Amidi

Amid Amidi is Cartoon Brew's Publisher and Editor-at-large.

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