Anansi the Spider / Gerald McDermott

Was having a chat with Mum and told her about my folklore idea (shes a primary school teacher) and she's currently learning about African folk tales with the kids in her class. She sent me a link to this super 70s animated video of Anansi the Spider which uses Ashanti language rhythms and traditional patterns.

Gerald McDermott (maker of this video) was an American filmmaker/author/illustrator and expert in mythology - made videos and books about folk tales from around the world.




The Magic Tree: A Tale from the Congo - 1973



Arrow to the Sun: a Pueblo Indian tale - 1973



The Stone-cutter: a Japanese tale - 1975


These books are from the late 70s/early 80s but (especially last picture) feel really contemporary - block shapes and subtle texture - reminds me of some of Nous Vous' work? His work is really effectively translated into animation which resembles a traditional shadow puppet show animation??
He uses design elements from the culture whos tale he is retelling - so I love his African / Indian work - bold & interesting image making, but his books about Irish folklore just don't cut the mustard for me stylistically, I think his shape based simplified imagery is much more engaging



Anansi The Spider (1972) from waanaki on Vimeo.

-- This particular Anansi story describes the origins of the moon. If I'm going to write my own I'm going to choose a phenomenom of nature as the base of what my story/ies will focus on. Common thread of folklore is that the stories are used as a vehicle to explain happenings within life and nature eg why is that hill there oh because a giant got angry and threw a lump of Wales.

Anansi is the trickster type character within African folklore but a lovable rogue. He's the god of all knowledge of stories.
Theres lots of  common character tropes across all cultures - eg "the trickster"- Anansi in African folklore, imp in European folklore.




Notes from the opening of the Anansi the Spider video above talking about the beauty and importance of folk tales

The Stonecutter




" he made his first commercial film, Stonecutter, at the age of 19, an extremely complex animation short featuring 6000 animation cels presented in six minutes. Influenced by Klee and Matisse, McDermott used silk-screen and traditional painting techniques in crafting ethnographic folk tale animation shorts." - http://www.afana.org/mcdermott.htm


"An animated film of the Japanese folk tale, "The Stonecutter". The core of the story is how a stonecutter is content in his work, until he wishes to become ever grander things-- a prince, the sun, clouds, a mountain-- with the help of a mountain spirit. But in the end, it is the stonecutter that causes the mountain to tremble. The moral being is to be happy with your place in life."


i LOVE this one - you can really see the influence of Matisse , aesthetically it also reminds me of Jacob Lawrence's Migration Series with the colour palette.

These 60s/70s animated films make me feel a really strange type of nostalgia - when I used to watch the Clangers and Bagpuss when I was a kid and it was all a bit creepy but I couldn't stop watching (the Soup Dragon was terrifying). I think its something about the raw movement and the tingly music that sounds like its in space which makes these films stick in your head.  I can remember specific episodes of these old series so so vividly theyre creepily dreamlike.



(-----anyway!! maybe I could try animating my stories??) (if I have time)