African Animation In UK - TAASE

African Animation is growing bigger and bigger... it has always been in existence but not really got to the limelight as it should, however we can NOT overlook the efforts of those who pioneers the art and those who have in one way or the other continued to sustain the culture and genre.

These people some of who are big and huge and we have seen their impacts or output while some others are operating at smaller levels but making the impact, building footmen and soldiers who are becoming generals, one of such people is myself within the Nigerian animation industry when I set up Animation West Africa foundation, a brain child of my conversation with Stuart Forrest of Triggerfish studio in Cape Town, South Africa at the time and now also in Ireland, the same studio who has worked with Disney to produce the Kizazi Moto - Generation Fire African animation anthology series and I have been fortunate to work at this studio, starting as an intern in 2007 at a time the studio itself was trying to gain a footing in the industry, as a result of this I became a member of Animation South Africa attending Animation Exchange events in Capetown.

I had that conversation with Stuart, and it birthed in me the founding of AWA Foundation incorporated in Nigeria. I would later move to work in other studios like Charactermatters and set up Ethereal Animation with a friend before having to leave Capetown to the UK where I am now and have been for several years.

Last year in the UK, I finally found my voice and will again, and began the pursuit to have The African Animated Short Experience, a screening of animated shorts from the African continent and by African creators and studios. This would not be the first time trying to do this, some years back I had tried to work with a cinema however the usual challenge was there, you could not really get the audience you require and if you did, it was to tell you that sorry your idea is not the type to work and this challenge has not waned one bit, if anything it has got even more visible and present however I suppose maturity, knowledge, relationship, diplomacy has also grown in knowing how to navigate such terrain... I mean, after so many years in the UK I should know a bit better than years ago, on how to manage these rejections and use them to find a way out or how to appease these bottlenecks somewhat.

As mentioned above, last year it came through after an uphill battle to appease my local council to support the vision, I ordinarily would have walked away but I was dogged and became a stump so to speak, responded to all emails with details, asked for meetings and attended, followed all the suggestions I would have normally discarded as pointless because they are indeed but these were only to help me gain the attention needed, and it worked, we had the first edition of TAASE in Dartford UK and in my estimate it was a success, the fact that it held at all despite all odds was a success, this was a screening of up to 17 animated shorts from Ghana, Nigeria, Egypt, Uganda, Kenya, South Africa and some additional ones sent in by Disney from their Kizazi Moto series and in addition, the day was also a comic day where comics from Epoch comics, Four Seven Comics, Architect Chike, ComicsDI, Wahala Comics and PEDA Comics were all represented in their books and magazines

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We had a great venue, food was served, we had a demo session with hosts who came round from Birmingham, Derby, Sheffield and London, they all had a great time dissecting the topic of animation and comics to an audience.

Great was the support of CGAfrica in the build-up to this event, we worked together in collaboration and also with Martin Okonkwo of Epoch comics to deliver the content and activity for the day.

The highest point of the evening was the Audience Award category going to the audience chosen short of the evening, an animation studio from Ethiopia, Behargerlij, I have never heard of them before their entries Endegena and Zarem Abegna came in and everyone who watched agreed that they were the worthy winners...

Now what next?

We are gearing up for a second edition penned down for August this year 2024, we are not going back to the council for support as they have none further to offer and so we have to look around, look at you and your friends, look at those companies around who want to have truly diverse content in the mix, and who knows we might have a double event this year... that is, one in Dartford and maybe one in London central where there is more diversity and certain hurdles are naturally broken down by virtue of London being a melting pot and not a stranger to these activities.

This is an opportunity to make this events come to stay and get better year after year till we can truly say 'we came, we saw, we told our story'.

African Animators around, you do have the opportunity to submit your entries, visit here https://t.ly/dE08y

Thank you for reading and hope to hear from you to make bigger things happen.

Sen