Reflective Encounters

“Jessica Ashman opens her sublime hybrid-animation film Dawta with a quote from Octavia Butler: ‘Stay alive, at least while there is a chance to be free.’ First, we see two eyes in a black circle, like a drawing of Musidora. But Ashman’s film is uninhibited by any past, either cinematic or historical. Leah Arscott voices ‘The Grandmother’ with a tenor which will keep you rapt, telling a suggestive tale of trans-racial adoption. 

Skilfully the narration weaves in newspaper quotes giving a factual grounding to what follow. Vibrant use of colour gives the film the tactility of felt-tip pens, as depictions of people and natural objects swirl and move, liberated from the bounds of any physical rules. 

Ripped from your ancestral home and from your roots, Dawta asks what comes next, by pulling the viewer through a gesture to a glorious science fiction future. A driving, raucous soundtrack puts the already accomplished animation on a new plane of impact. The future remains uncertain, but by breaking from the bounds of the past, Dawta forges a path forward for both people, and the animation form.”

— Ben Flanagan