Mizuko (Water Child) and Egg: From the Politics to the Poetics of Corporal Trauma through Eisenstein’s Plasmacity

Authors

  • Laura Pop Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, United States Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.37130/j21we164

Keywords:

Eisenstein, plasmacity, trauma, body, animation

Abstract

Soviet avant-garde filmmaker and film theorist Sergei Eisenstein introduced the term “plasmacity” almost one hundred years ago. He used it to describe Disney’s ability to play with his characters’ bodies by elongating them, making them bigger or smaller, or even by transforming them into other characters altogether. In his notes, Eisenstein mentioned that plasmacity is able to create a certain freedom for spectators and hinted at its ability to address traumata. However, he didn’t go into any details, focusing instead on spectators rather than creators. In this paper,1 I am exploring two animated shorts, Mizuko (Water Child) and Egg, using the interviews I have conducted with co-directors Kira Dane and Katelyn Rebelo and director Martina Scarpelli. I am looking at the two films from the perspective of plasmacity in order to talk about the politics and the poetics of corporal trauma.

Author Biography

  • Laura Pop, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, United States

    Laura Pop is an award-winning animation filmmaker. She graduated from UNATC where she directed her first film, Monster, a coming-of-age story about a girl who sees her family as a monster. She then worked with Belgian studio Camera-etc, where she directed her second short, Miroir, depicting the voice in our head that constantly disagrees with us. In the following years, she created Death, an artistic documentary about how we see death; Atriums, ventricles, a microfilm about the 2020 quarantine; and Fish (If you live in the way of the ocean, you have to eat the ocean), an experimental documentary about Taiwanese fishers. Her films have travelled across the world at festivals such as Ji.hlava, Anifilm, Sedicicorto, or Animation Nights New York, and got numerous prizes including Best Romanian Short at Animest and the Grand Prix at TIFF’s local competition. She has designed and has been implementing Animest’s Animation Incubator program since its launch in 2020, and she has been invited to organize workshops and talks by various festivals and animation programs. Her interest in animation films as trauma narratives led her to her current PhD for which she received a Fulbright Scholarship at Arizona State University.

References

Bulgakova, Oksana and Hochmuth, Dietmar (eds.) (2011) Disney, Berlin: PotemkinPress.

Duma, Dana (2020) “The Animated Documentary as Narrative on Traumas”, Close Up: Film and Media Studies, 4(2), pp. 21-28.

Honess Roe, Annabelle (2013) Animated Documentary, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Strings, Sabrina (2019) Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia, New York: New York University Press.

Young, Susan (2021) “Autoethnographic animation and the metabolism of trauma”, International Journal of Film and Media Arts, 6(3), pp. 96-113.

Bacon, Linda and Severson, Amee (2019) Fat Is Not the Problem—Fat Stigma Is [Online]. Available at: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/fat-is-not-the-problem- fat-stigma-is/ (Accessed: 30 March 2023).

FTW Staff (2020) Painting the Truth: The Artists behind “Mizuko” on Making an Animated Documentary [Online]. Available at: https://resources.freethework.com/mizuko-sxsw-kira- dane-katelyn-rebelo-animation-documentary-interview/ (Accessed: 29 March 2023).

Mosley, Tonia and Raphelson, Samantha (2022), How Racism Plays a Role in Body Standards [Online]. Available at: https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2022/06/02/ racism-body-standards (Accessed: 31 March 2023).

Ong, Jyni (2019), Martina Scarpelli Egg animation [Online]. Available at: https://www. itsnicethat.com/articles/martina-scarpelli-egg-animation-121219 (Accessed: 30 March 2023).

Mizuko (Water Child) (2019) Directed and produced by Kira Dane and Katelyn Rebelo. [Short Documentary Film]. One Eyed Productions.

Egg (2018) Directed by Martina Scarpelli. [Short Documentary Film]. Miyu Productions and Latelove Productions.

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Published

2022-12-12

Issue

Vol. 25 No. 2 (2022): I AM ANOTHER YOU. Mediating Intimacy and Body Politics / MOLIÈRE: 400th Anniversary of his Birth

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Pop, L. (2022). Mizuko (Water Child) and Egg: From the Politics to the Poetics of Corporal Trauma through Eisenstein’s Plasmacity. CONCEPT, 25(2), 81-90. https://doi.org/10.37130/j21we164