Old Lesbians Animation Reel (2023)


Client: Compostudio
Role: Art director and lead animator

Inspired by the warmth and tactility of scrapbooks and the contained, layered qualities of Joseph Cornell's shadow boxes, we used stop-motion and digital collage techniques to animate objects and stories from a vast archival trove maintained by the Old Lesbian Oral Herstory Project (OLOHP). The visual language follows the narrative’s three acts: “Inklings,” about childhood; “Ah-Ha,” about young queer adulthood; and “Herstory,” about maturity and retrospection. Each act is punctuated by a stop-motion-animated shadow box: these represent the collective identity of the women cataloged by OLOHP at each stage of life. The animation visualizes narration from individual women’s perspectives, using visual metaphor and historical artifacts (like vintage buttons) to give context and tangibility to their voices.

We animated around fifteen minutes of animation in just under two months.

Watch the full film here.



ABOUT THE FILM


“For the last quarter century, retired schoolteacher Arden Eversmeyer journeyed from Houston across the country to record hundreds of oral "herstories" with a mostly invisible population that is rapidly disappearing. Old Lesbians honors Arden's legacy by animating the resilient, joyful voices she preserved in the Old Lesbian Oral Herstory Project, from first crush to first love, from the closet to coming out, and finally from loss to connection.”

MOOD BOARD



COLOR PALETTE



ADDITIONAL STILLS



CREDITS


Director and Editor: Meghan McDonough
Cinematographer and Creative Director: Rengim Mutevellioglu
Art Director and Lead Animator: Marcie LaCerte
Producer: Stevie Borrello
Cinematographer: Cassie Coker
Animator: Dani Nunes
Sound Designer and Composer: Tori Abreu dos Santos
Production Counselor: Matthew Rogers
Research Assistants: Cassidy Duncan, Helena Ravix, Sheridan Cole
Digital Intermediate Services: Sodalite Color
Re-recording Mixer: Sam Beneitone, Tori Abreu dos Santos
Colorist: Tam Le
DI Coordinator: John Daniels-Riveros

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