An Animation Workshop is currently taking place at the Centurion University in Bhubaneshwar, Orissa and it is organised and coordinated by the Adivasi Arts Trust (UK). The objective of the project is to complete the final chapter of the "Tales of the Tribes" series of short animated films. In fact, the five short films, stories from Nagaland, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Madhya Pradesh are complete; it has been a five year long project. What remains for this workshop are the linking sequences in which the character of Dr Verrier Elwin is brought to life - animated - to introduce the five films.
Why Verrier Elwin? Well he was a storyteller par excellence. In fact, Dr Elwin spent decades documenting the oral tribal storytelling traditions from Central and North East India, and he published several weighty books of the same. Besides, Elwin was unusual; he actually lived with the tribes back in those days before Indian Independence, and he recognised that they had unique and valuable cultures that contrasted the dominant image of primitive backwardness.
Today, the voice for the Verrier Elwin presenter character was provided by a professional voice over artist, Ravi Manie. This marks a milestone - now that the character has a voice, we can hear his opinions and learn from his knowledge. The visual design for the character has also been decided, and the young artist Arak is busy creating the angles and poses required for the animated sequences.
The team did not know much about Elwin when they started; hardly anyone knows of the great contribution made by Elwin to the tribal cultures, and this project aims to resolve that by bringing the anthropologist, writer and visionary in an accessible form to young audiences in India and worldwide.
Resource for research on Dr Verrier Elwin:
Interview with Cristoph von Furer-Haimendorf, Part 2 of 3 (see 29 minutes into the interview)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jQHNjSWAg4
Why Verrier Elwin? Well he was a storyteller par excellence. In fact, Dr Elwin spent decades documenting the oral tribal storytelling traditions from Central and North East India, and he published several weighty books of the same. Besides, Elwin was unusual; he actually lived with the tribes back in those days before Indian Independence, and he recognised that they had unique and valuable cultures that contrasted the dominant image of primitive backwardness.
Today, the voice for the Verrier Elwin presenter character was provided by a professional voice over artist, Ravi Manie. This marks a milestone - now that the character has a voice, we can hear his opinions and learn from his knowledge. The visual design for the character has also been decided, and the young artist Arak is busy creating the angles and poses required for the animated sequences.
The team did not know much about Elwin when they started; hardly anyone knows of the great contribution made by Elwin to the tribal cultures, and this project aims to resolve that by bringing the anthropologist, writer and visionary in an accessible form to young audiences in India and worldwide.
Resource for research on Dr Verrier Elwin:
Its tough to do animation. Anyone will tell you that. On the one had, lots of enthusiasm at the beginning; sometimes its hard to get started, faced with the 'blank canvas' and all...then in the middle part it is easy to loose steam as the workload is heavy. And at the end too, even then there is the chance that it will not get done, i.e. finished. With this project we are determined to keep going.
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