(preconstituted panel: ‘Urbanimation’: representations of the city in animation)
Abstract: This p
aper explores the representation of a futuristic dystopian Europe in the sci-fi animated thriller Metropia (Tarik Saleh, 2009). The film’s intriguing animation style, which is based on photographic images, will be used as a basis for examining questions of indexicality and realism in animation by drawing a connection between the corrupted index and Metropia’s themes regarding the alienation of the body from the urban environment. Biographical statement: Bella Honess Roe is a lecturer in Film Studies at the University of Surrey. She recently completed her PhD on animated documentaries at the University of Southern California. The topic of this paper extends ideas from her doctoral thesis regarding indexicality and the relationship between animation and reality. She has presented her work at many conferences in the US and UK (including SAS 2008 and 2009, Visible Evidence 2008 and 2009, SCMS 2005/2007/2008 and Screen 2006/2007). She contributes book and DVD reviews to Film International and animation: an interdisciplinary journal and has had essays published in the Journal of British Cinema and Television and Falling in Love Again, an edited collection published by I.B. Tauris. She has a chapter forthcoming on Disney’s wartime documentaries in an edited collection on that topic and a journal article on the animated interviews made by Bob Sabiston.