Liberating a Vengeful Spirit: Autoethnographic Animation as a Grief Ritual

The process of animation is designed to bring static images or objects to life, yet animators across the world have used the artform to tell stories about grief. This practice-based research explores the paradoxical relationship between animation and grief stories by proposing that the animation process can be used as a mourning ritual. There are characteristics of animation that can be considered ritualistic such as the series of repetitive motions performed in a sequence to create a film frame by frame. An autoethnographic animation approach will be used to perform the ‘ritual’ and develop a short, animated film. The film, which is currently in production, is a creative response to the Indonesian horror folklore story of the Kuntilanak. This vengeful vampiric spirit is widely believed to have been pregnant when she died, either from a stillbirth or from a violent attack. Her story has been interpreted through numerous horror films across South East Asia, often depicting her with the dual persona of an evil temptress and terrifying monster. The grief she experienced from losing both her child and her own life, is overlooked by most filmmakers, who instead focus on her bloodthirsty quest for vengeance. Throughout the archipelago of Indonesia, there are various rituals to ensure that, when a person dies, any negative emotions attached are released. Failure to do so may result in the spirit becoming vengeful. The ‘ritual’ process of creating this animation may be what is needed to free this spirit from its vengeful past and give her and this researcher a space to share their collective grief. In doing so, this research attempts to provide a cognitive understanding of why so many animators choose to tell stories of grief, and why these stories resonate with audiences worldwide.