Animation gives storytellers the liberty to dream and mythologize without restriction, to turn fanciful reveries into alternative realities of experience, human or otherwise. The medium indulges the imagination in ways that others, such as live action, cannot — for example, we don’t protest when a cartoon mouse lifts a cast iron pan four times its size to bludgeon an anthropomorphic cat standing on its hind legs. Obedience to the laws that govern the real world – laws of physics, mortality, nature, temporality — is optional in the animated realm. Thanks to such creative freedom, animators, the architects of infinite possibilities, can help us make sense of and re-interpret our own lives in new, multidimensional ways. This month’s crowdfunding projects do just that.
Based on Karleen Pendleton Jiménez’s lived experience, “How to Get a Girl Pregnant” is a web series about Alex, an aspiring mother, and her attempt to get pregnant as a lesbian. Another LGBTQ2S+ narrative, “Brewberry Spell” follows Olivia, a young witch who struggles to muster up the courage to confess her feelings to her favorite barista and decides to take drastic measures to get what she wants.
Celia Tewey’s short film “Bear” cushions the prickly topic of mental illness for its young viewers, telling the story of a young girl whose depression is symbolized by a big blue bear.
All three films consider how animation informs meaning, experimenting with the medium to tell stories about queer, BIPOC folks seldom told through animation.
Here are Women and Hollywood’s latest crowdfunding picks.
“What combination of characteristics do I want for my child’s father?” Alex (Alex Castillo), a butch/trans Chicana lesbian searching for a sperm donor, asks herself in a trailer for “How to Get a Girl Pregnant.” The web series ruptures conventional definitions of motherhood — especially who qualifies as a “legitimate” mother — and foregrounds the systemic barriers that LGBTQ2S+ folks face in their journey to parenthood. The story is based on writer, filmmaker, and scholar Karleen Pendleton Jiménez’s memoir of the same name, a humorous, honest, uncensored account of her own experience trying to get pregnant as a butch lesbian.
Like Jiménez, Alex’s mixed heritage is a key pillar of her identity and she hopes to find a father who is also Latinx: “I know how to raise a child who is Mexican and white — the Mexican part is very important to me,” she explains. According to the project’s Seed&Spark page, “How to Get a Girl Pregnant” is Jiménez’s retaliation against the anti-Mexican sentiment she has witnessed throughout her life, especially in recent years. By telling Alex’s story, and effectively telling her own, she hopes to deflate popular misconceptions of her community and instead showcase “the beauty and value of queer Latinx lives.”
Co-director Janet Romero Leiva says that the animation medium is especially crucial to this end, “because there isn’t enough art out there about queer Latinx parenting and fertility and love and grief; and we don’t often get to see — in animation or any other form — the many challenges, pain, time and tears that come before a person is a parent.” The hand-painted characters reminiscent of a picture book give the web series its homespun, human touch, resulting in a visually arresting world that reflects the lived experiences of queer parents-to-be.
The personal and confessional narrative of “How to Get a Girl Pregnant” is enriched with themes that will resonate with all audiences, no matter their sexual or gender identity: “It is also a universal story about how we see ourselves, how our bodies are politicized, how love helps us to dream, and how heritage can provide us with both a foundation and a yearning for a better world,” according to its crowdfunding page.
Learn more about “How to Get a Girl Pregnant” and donate on Seed&Spark.
“Brewberry Spell” (Short) – Written and Directed by Annika Nimz
Created by artist and animator Annika Nimz, “Brewberry Spell” is an animated short about Olivia, a timid woman who frequents Brewberry Café, where the main attraction isn’t the delicious coffee but the barista Connie. The caveat is that Connie is a human while Olivia is a witch, living in a world where her kind is reviled, often subjected to ridicule and exclusion for being different.
Bruised by a lifetime of rejection, Olivia is loath to profess her love for Connie, despite how strongly she feels for her. As the Kickstarter page puts it, “How could a very human looking and really cute barista ever return her feelings?” Olivia decides to forgo romantic overtures altogether and instead resort to what she, a witch, knows best: dark magic. Her plan is high risk and high reward, but what if there’s another option? “Will Olivia endure the dangerous spell, or will she learn to overcome her self-doubt, be her true self and confess her feelings to Connie?” the crowdfunding page teases.
Members of Crewberry, the project’s all-women creative team, have labored over the film during their free time for over a year and a half. This “Animator’s Coven” will continue working no matter the outcome of the crowdfunding campaign. They hope to publish the finished product on YouTube, “so it can be seen and shared by as many people as possible who would love to see a cute WLW romance story,” they write on the crowdfunding page. Transcending language barriers, “Brewberry Spell” will be told solely through gestures, expressions, and music so it can be enjoyed by international audiences.
Learn more about “Brewberry Spell” and donate on Kickstarter.
“Bear” (Short) – Written and Directed by Celia Tewey
“Bear”
Emily Elizabeth has Clifford, Mei and Satsuki have Totoro, and now, Mila has Bear — but Bear is less of a furry sidekick than it is an unbidden guest who shows up one night, quite unceremoniously, and then overstays its welcome.
“Bear” is an animated short by photographer, artist, and filmmaker Celia Tewey about a young girl battling depression, a silent and solitary struggle embodied by a large blue bear that no one but Mila can see. Despite its cuddly exterior and endearing clumsiness, Bear is a taciturn troublemaker that throws Mila’s daily rhythm into disarray. It is a big, ungainly obstacle that prevents her from completing her day-to-day activities and maintaining social connections like she used to. At the same time, Mila hesitates to reach out for help because, as the Kickstarter page puts it, “It would sound crazy to tell someone that you live with a bear, right?”
Unable to evict this intruder from her life, Mila begins to accept Bear and peacefully coexist with it. She soon learns that she’s not alone in her plight: her ostensibly perfect best friend Mae also has an unwelcome animal companion of her own — a pink rabbit — that she has been hiding from others.
“Mental health is so often portrayed in the media as scary, clinical, daunting, or something to be afraid to talk about, and it can be a difficult topic for children to understand,” the crowdfunding page reads. The visual aesthetic of “Bear” overcomes this barrier with its the cute character design and soft color palette. According to Tewey, the animation style facilitates a gentle, soothing portrayal of mental illness for the target audience of teen and young adult girls and boys.
“People may have an easier time relating to and explaining their feelings after seeing ‘Bear,’” the short’s official website emphasizes. “And the film may help them understand a struggling friend, family member, or even themselves.”
Learn more about “Bear” and donate on Kickstarter.
To be considered for Women and Hollywood’s biweekly crowdfunding feature, please write to wandhcrowdfunding@gmail.com. All formats (features, shorts, web series, etc.) welcome. Projects must be by and/or about women.
