Click to View Show 11
PEN UP THE PIGS; (2014); Kelly Gallagher; TRT: 12.00
This animated film draws explicit parallels between slavery and modern day institutionalized racism and mass incarceration. Histories of radical resistance against white supremacy are explored and celebrated.
Through cut-out animation, the natural world and human world confront each other through kinetic and violent motion, frame by frame. Animals clash, tearing each other apart, mirroring the human world where a historical look at the connections between the violence of slavery and modern day mass incarceration are explored. In moments of struggle, as people fight back against racism and oppression, the natural world responds as animated cut-out flowers grow frantically, pollinated by the imperative resistance of the oppressed. Nature celebrates militant resistance with flowering life, gesturing towards the life that is possible when those who are oppressed fight back radically for their survival and against white supremacy.
What was your creative process with Pen Up The Pigs?
I spent an extensive length of pre-production time immersing myself in the research work required of the film, which involved studying important revolutionaries who radically and imperatively resisted and struggled against white supremacy (ie: Assata Shakur, Fred Hampton, Nat Turner, etc). Ever since I learned about the historically racist beginnings of the Philadelphia Police Department (the first PPD came about from recruiting done at white supremacist youth gangs), I had been wanting to make a film connecting historical slavery to the reality of modern day slavery and the systemic racism of mass incarceration and policing. The pre-production research work did not only involve studying histories of resistance to racism, but also involved thorough image research. To acquire the paper cut-outs I used in the film, I utilized both the internet and images from books I found at local used bookstores.
Do you consider yourself more at home as an “animator” rather than any other type of filmmaker?
I consider myself as a filmmaker that straddles a few worlds – animation, experimental film, and documentary. I would say though that also being called an “animator” definitely makes sense, as all of my films include some form of animation. If anything, I suppose you could say I’m interested in handcrafted cinema – a cinema that employs tactical techniques involving handmade aspects. Pen Up the Pigs was animated entirely by hand, utilizing predominantly cut-outs and stop motion.
I’ve always found political work to engage in, among the various communities and cities I have lived in thus far. Being originally from the Philadelphia area, a lot of the political work I was engaged in growing up was anti-police brutality work. To be involved in anti-police brutality work is to learn and understand the institutionalized racism of modern day policing (and incarceration). But it is not enough to know that modern day policing is systemically racist– it is also imperative to understand the very real historical connections between slave patrols and the first police departments as we know them today. For example, in Philadelphia, modern day policing literally sprang from racist, white supremacist youth gangs that would patrol neighborhoods of color, to keep people “in check.” To make this film, I spent an extensive length of pre-production time immersing myself in the research work required of the film, which involved studying important revolutionaries who radically and imperatively resisted and struggled against white supremacy and racist policing (ie: Assata Shakur, Fred Hampton, Nat Turner, etc). The pre-production research work did not only involve studying histories of resistance to racism, but also involved thorough image research. To acquire the paper cut-outs I used in the film, I utilized both the internet and images from books I found at local used bookstores. Making this film wasn’t an option – it was imperative.
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