We’re mid-way through a sensationally diverse and intensely bold Manipulate Festival 2024, and while we’ve covered some in-person events with movement, dancing robots, and murder-filled houses, we figured it was about time to shine the light on some of the festival’s exceptional screenings of feature-length animations and short films.

A massive thanks to Manipulate Arts Associate Programmer Natasha Ruwona, a writer, artist and researcher based between London and Scotland, who was kind enough to give us some insight into the programming process of Manipulate and their specific programmes of Shorts for the theme of ‘Resistance Through Storytelling’.

Though in-person screenings of selected Short programmes have concluded, all three of will be available to stream through Maipulate for 48-hours between February 10th – 11th.

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If you wouldn’t mind offering just a quick introduction, your role within Manipulate, and your time with the festival/what brought you to the festival?

I am Natasha Ruwona, a Scottish–Zimbabwean filmmaker and arts programmer between Scotland and London. As an Associate Programmer with Manipulate, my role has involved curating an animation programme and contributing to the animation part of the festival more generally. I am interested in the work Manipulate does in bringing multiple artforms together, and saw this as an opportunity to learn more about animation as a medium.

From some spectacular screenings of feature pieces to the online Shorts, and even the One-Bum cinema – it’s safe to say Manipulate means more to audiences and those involved than a festival which focuses on the physical form of theatre, puppetry, and movement? Would you mind giving us a brief history of your experience with cinema?

I have programmed film strands for various festivals including Glasgow Film Festival, Glasgow Short Film Festival and Africa in Motion which are all very different festivals with varied audiences. What excites me about Manipulate is the approach to access for film and arts, as you mentioned, by reaching various audiences through the online programme and One-Bum cinema. Showing film outside of just the cinema is important for bringing in new audiences for the festival, whilst broadening arts and culture in Edinburgh and beyond.

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Manipulate Arts has always had a place for animation through its past as Animation Scotland, particularly short films, but this festival certainly seems to be leaning hard into being open and accessible for audiences to catch some truly amazing pieces of short-form cinema. Was this always the plan, and what was the thinking behind it?

The films selected for the Manipulate Festival are really strong at conveying the talent of animators across the world. I find that animation is not represented as widely in film programming, and as mentioned, it is a new medium for me to curate. I am looking forward to seeing how the animation programme develops for future iterations of the Manipulate Festival.

Would you mind offering readers an insight into the process of your curation of films? Is it a case of structuring a theme and then finding films which fit, the other way around, or a combination?

We agreed on an initial theme of ‘Social Justice and Protest’ early on which was broad but specific enough to begin a clear process of research to find relevant films. Through watching films, I realised I wanted to showcase films which told stories of resistance through personal and collective power. I was aware that this could be quite a heavy programme which discusses various social and cultural issues, so I tried to strike the balance between films which told these hard-hitting stories, with more surreal and abstract representations of the world which can offer new ways of seeing or thinking about things.

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Shorts, particularly animated, potentially get the proverbial ‘short’ end of the stick in their screenings, promotion, and access. Outside of the Festival are there any follow-up shorts or animated features you think audiences would enjoy?

Persepolis is one of my favourite animated films. It is adapted by the author Marjane Satrapi from the book with the same title, and tells the autobiographical story as she comes of age during the Iranian Revolution and her life in Europe.

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