A group of animators in Mozambique's capital Maputo hold workshops for children and young adults interested in animation, in the hope that the art form will spark social dialog. They tackle big topics — like the dangers of capitalism and corporate greed.
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00:00We've all seen a ball bounce, but would you be able to draw that movement if asked to?
00:09These children are faced with that exact challenge.
00:14They're participating in a workshop in Mozambique's capital, Maputo, aimed at getting children
00:19interested in animation.
00:24It takes multiple images to make the ball move.
00:29The animators digitize the single frames and bring them to life.
00:36The children and parents are excited to see the final product.
00:44I think that this animation program is very interesting, especially for children, because
00:50it can create a space for them to become interested in filmmaking at an early age.
01:01And filmmaking is exactly what local animators are building towards.
01:06Creators from one of the country's leading animation studios, AnimaMoz, want to see local
01:13stories told on the international stage.
01:16The country has a large population under the age of 35, and these animators believe
01:22this art form could offer them a voice.
01:27Their latest project addresses the issue of corporate greed by telling the story of Mozambique
01:33in the year 2084.
01:36In that distant future, a group of street vendors battle a ruthless businessman who
01:42wants to sacrifice culture for cash.
01:46And it's called The Informals because we focus specifically on a group of informal
01:52market workers that become vigilantes and that fight this opposition in a way.
02:00They want to preserve tradition and they want to remember the ancestors.
02:06The story not only critiques capitalism, but also looks at the social conditions in the
02:11country.
02:13You know, Maputo is a city of contrasts, you know, during colonial times and even after,
02:21it's hyper-segregated in a sense that you have what we call the cement city, but you
02:27also have the straw, wood and sand part of the city.
02:33And so we kind of looked at this in a way of trying to think of how will Maputo look
02:41like in 2084 and what kind of contrasts and segregation would exist in that sense.
02:51The future imagined by the AnimaMoz studio is the future these children may inherit.
02:59And the animators hope that when their time comes, these youngsters will be able to express
03:04themselves through this moving art form.