Materiality and representation in stop-motion animation
the construction of perpetrator figures in the short films «Padre» and «Bestia»
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25145/j.latente.2026.24.11Keywords:
LATIN AMERICAN ANIMATION, STOP MOTION, MATERIALITY, POSDICTATORSHIP, PERPETRATOR, HOMEAbstract
A distinctive stylistic feature of the stop-motion short films Father (Santiago Bou Grasso, 2014) and Bestia (Hugo Covarrubias, 2021) is the value assigned to the materiality presented on screen through the design and construction of sets, figures, and three-dimensional objects. These operations function as constructions of a collective postmemory that seeks to assign faces, bodies, gestures, and movements to veiled representations of the perpetrators. In their narratives, the focus is placed on the critical (re)construction of two women who participated in the state repressive apparatus during the last military dictatorships in Argentina and Chile, respectively.
The construction of space, including the recurring image of the house as a refuge of intimacy, highlights the material qualities inherent to stop-motion animation, enabling the films to narrate, metaphorize, and adopt a critical stance toward controversial figures that have rarely been addressed in contemporary Latin American animated fiction dealing with Recent History.
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