[INTERVIEW] ‘Inkwo for When the Starving Return’ Director, Amanda Strong (Sundance Animator Spotlight Series #3)

Next up in our series interviewing the Sundance animatorsm we have a conversation with Amanda Strong director of the short ‘Inkwo for When the Starving Return’. 

So tell us a little bit about how you got started in film.

…I went to school for photography and illustration at the Sheridan College. And so a lot of my training came from, I was fortunate enough to have analog camera training as well as digital as like when the switch to digital was happening. So I’ve always had that fascination with capturing and frame by frame capture and then studying illustration gave me more hands-on tools with like painting and just more foundation based in the arts. And once I went through those school systems, I didn’t really wanna be a photographer or illustrator. And that’s how I found my way into moving image and in particular stop motion animation.

Did you have like a whole team that you worked with as far as the animation or how did that happen?

For this film? Yeah, we had a pretty large team actually. Well, for an independent short. This is the first time we had synced dialogue in a piece with puppets. And so it was tricky because a lot of that’s a limitation if you don’t have access to a lot of funding or even just the knowledge of how to create certain technology around head mechanisms and synced speaking and animation, especially like when you’re not dealing with the computer-based stuff.

So we’re very fortunate to that just the story and what our studio had been already doing drew attention of some of the puppet-makers who work on the the feature films in Portland at LAIKA and Data Machine… It was probably about around 30 to 50 people.

Wow. Yeah, that’s cool that you got to work with that whole team. They’re incredible up there.

What do you think that stop motion has to offer that the other animation forms don’t quite have?

It’s crazy because… stop motion can mean so many things. And in our case it’s like honoring the handmade physical aspect of the art. I think that when you’re solely in a computer, it doesn’t mean that there’s something wrong with that, but there’s a spirit or essence of all the hands involved and that physical touch that comes through. Like in some ways it’s like imperfect and you see flaws in that too, but that’s part of it.

And I just feel like there’s just an endless ability of what and how you can create. And it’s this amazing space to bring so many different types of art together to create a story and unify a world.

Do you have any advice for animators that are hoping to submit their shorts to Sundance? 

Make sure it’s a story you believe in, ’cause animation can take a long time. Not always eight years, but, it’s a long process. And I think what I learned is that if you really believe in what you’re doing and you have an amazing team with you that can keep bringing in other good things around you… And always asking for help. All someone can do is say no.

And you never know, someone might just really love what you’re doing and believe in it. And some people, it’s not about money. They just wanna help or if they believe in your story or believe in the art form. I really learned how generous people can be. But I think sometimes we can be afraid to reach out. Sometimes if you just ask or put yourself out there that can bring really amazing people towards you. I truly believe animation is a huge collaborative team effort.

For more of our conversation with Amanda check out the full interview below. If you get a chance to see ‘Ikwo for When the Starving Return’ at the Sundance Film Festival, let us know what you think.