I’ve always had a soft spot for animation. More years than not, at least a couple of animated features find their way onto my top 10 list. So, I’m setting out to shine a light on some films that may have passed you by. The idea with Animation Celebration is to take a look at some underseen gems — so no Toy Story or Frozen here.
Let’s get started.
Sadly, I’m not sure if there would be a time in the U.S. when this wouldn’t be pertinent. However, given the seemingly constant barrage of recent shootings and another school shooting in Nashville, Tennessee, this seemed as relevant a time as any to take a look at the documentary Tower.
This is the second feature-length directed project for director Keith Maitland. His first, The Eyes of Me, appears to play with animation for periods, too. Here, he combines animation, recreated testimonies, and archival footage and pictures to retell the events of August 1, 1966, when a gunman opened fire from the University of Texas clock tower, killing 16 people.
The use of animation really works effectively here. It serves essentially as a type of reenactment technique. However, reenactments in documentaries can often feel cheap or off-putting (and it likely would have here), but the use of animation allows for the use of the technique without it taking away from the important story the it’s telling. When paired against archive footage or photos, the animation really pops. Maitland also knows when black and white is the palette needed, and when to inject things with color.
The use of animation to help tell the story allows for the use of voice actors in the retelling to give you a sense of place, and makes the interviews with the various subjects feel more immediate. The focus on the people on the ground helps paint a picture of the human stories of those involved, never really focusing on the perpetrator of the event. The restraint to simply have the clock tower present and keeping him faceless made it even more terrifying. I don’t think his name is even spoken until its final minutes. With the focus on those who survived the event, it makes the moment when the footage morphs to people as their modern selves more impactful. Those shifts are when the documentary is at its most effective.
Even more striking than the animation itself, the accounts of those on the ground paint a picture that’s almost unbelievable to those of us whose memories of school shootings seem too numerous to recount in a post-Columbine world. There’s a lax, uncoordinated response, and a surprising lack of urgency showed by people who have not been conditioned to automatically assume the worst. The refrain that they thought it was firecrackers was an all too common one, and some people not only didn’t stay clear of the scene, but were running toward the scene, or converged on windows to look at what was happening. It’s jarring.
Appearing as part of the series Independent Lens, and therefore categorized technically as a TV documentary, Tower won an Emmy for Outstanding Historical Documentary. To me, the most meaningful awards came from smaller bodies. It not only won Best Documentary at the Austin Film Critics Association, where the University of Texas is based, but it earned a special honorary award for “revisiting a tragic event in Austin, Texas, history in a sensitive and unique manner.” Along with awards from critic groups/festivals in Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston, Texas, those are the biggest endorsements of its quality and the way the topic was handled with care, as it clearly hit a chord to those closest to the event.
This is a documentary that is unique in how it tells what has become an all-too-familiar story these days, and shows how the medium can be used to elevate that storytelling.
If curious about more stories like this told in an animated fashion, the Oscar-winning animated short If Anything Happens I Love You is also supremely affecting.
I’m excited to continue to geek out on some great animated work you may not have had a chance to catch. I’m still trying to decide what next month’s entry will be, but I’m leaning toward something either telling an international story, or diving back into weird early fantasy storytelling.
You can read more from Jake Bourgeois, and follow him on Twitter and Letterboxd