Abstract: My pa
per considers the way documentary animation is used to produce a new form of knowledge about the actual world by recording and exposing elements of reality whilst partially visually disguising the material represented. Animation combined with live-action footage that depicts historical events in a novel manner has the ability to expose information and perspectives otherwise unknown that become part of the collective memory, a vital component of political and historical consciousness that constructs and transforms national identity. My paper features several works of contemporary artists and film-makers and draws upon concepts of animation theory, contemporary art, masking and masquerade, Brechtian theory, film philosophy, spectatorship and psychoanalysis. Biographical statement: Nea Ehrlich is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Art History at the University of Edinburgh. She is currently researching animation as a multi-faceted language of a fictitious-interpretive character to present reality, which is part of her PhD thesis about animation as masked representation of cultural identities. Nea was head of the Education Department at the Ashdod Museum of Contemporary Art in Israel and has taught widely about visual culture. Her primary research interests are animation theory, the animated documentary and animated representations of conflict, contemporary art and multi-cultural curatorial issues.