ANIMAFEST PRO | ANIMAFEST SCANNER XII | PANEL 4: NASILJE U ANIMIRANOM FILMU

I Raise My Voice: Representation of Institutionalized Violence in Ibero-American Animation CAROLINA LÓPEZ CABALLERO

PANEL 4 - NASILJE U ANIMIRANOM FILMU
04/06 SRI 15:55-16:25 KIC

When La casa lobo (The Wolf House, 2018) entered the festival circuit, it stood out for its unique aesthetic and thematic approach. Chile, a country with little tradition in animated filmmaking, produced an experimental feature that not only expanded the artistic boundaries of the medium but also exposed the existence of a sect led by German fanatics. Inspired by the Colonia Dignidad case, La casa lobo presents itself as a fairy tale designed to indoctrinate its followers, using unsettling stop-motion techniques to reflect psychological manipulation. Later, Bestia (2021) by Hugo Covarrubias, an Academy Award nominee, further explored institutionalized violence under Pinochet’s regime. The protagonist, portrayed in stop-motion with a porcelain-like texture, is based on Ingrid Olderock, a former Nazi and secret police agent who tortured and persecuted political dissidents with the aid of her German Shepherds. Animation has proven capable of addressing highly sensitive subjects, engaging the audience on a fundamental level without relying on the distressing impact of certain live-action images that sometimes distract us from the true horror. Is Chile the only country where institutionalized violence has been represented through animation, given the prevalence of authoritarian regimes across Ibero-America? Does animation provide a space of its own to innovate in the ways it denounces such violence? How does animation visualize trauma and repression in ways that live-action cinema may struggle to achieve? With the rise of animation in the region, has this medium effectively addressed these collective traumas? Does Ibero-American animation have distinctive narrative, aesthetic, and technical characteristics in its representation of violence in animation? This presentation examines how 21st-century animated works address these questions on the representation of institutionalized violence in Ibero-America, exploring their artistic, social, and historical impact on the construction of collective memory.

Carolina López Caballero holds a Licentiate in Fine Arts from the University of Barcelona and a Degree in Animation from WSCAD/UCA (Farnham, England). She is a professor at CITM-UPC and a Ph.D. candidate at UPF, focusing on animation studies. Her writings appear in books, newspapers, and magazines, and she frequently lectures at universities, museums, and festivals. As Artistic Director of Animac Lleida and curator at Animario Madrid, she plays a key role in promoting animation. Her curatorial projects include Metamorphosis (CCCB, La Casa Encendida) and From Doodles to Pixels (MoMA, 35+ venues). She has served on juries for Annecy and Ottawa and is a consultant-curator for ICEX’s Animation from Spain.