Animate Her : Animating our very own heroines

The Animate Her series is a collection of animated interviews told through stop-motion and experimental animation which features a group of exceptional women living and working in Sri Lanka. This exhibition will showcase the first three short films from the series as well as the puppets, sets, and process photographs from the making of the films. These three films feature the animated stories of marine biologist Asha de Vos, author-illustrator Sybil Wettasinghe, and architect Amila de Mel.

The creator of the series, Irushi Tennekoon, is an illustrator and experimental animator based in Colombo. She was inspired to create this animated series because growing up she was not exposed to animated stories which featured women from Sri Lanka and South Asia. Through this exhibition she hopes to show that in this part of the world too we have our own heroines, with brown skin and dark hair, going to great lengths to excel at what they do.  The creative team also includes cinematographer Yoshitha Perera, prop and set fabricators Shahdia Jamaldeen, Shenuka Corea, S. Surendran, Gayathri Perera, Venuranga Manage, and editors Sankha Malwaththa and Dileepa Jayakody.

This project is funded by a grant by the British Council’s Creating Heroines programme.