Podcast: Elizabeth Hobbs (“I’m OK”)
In the latest episode of our podcast we meet UK-based director/animator Elizabeth Hobbs, whose 2018 short film I’m OK, produced with the National Film Board of Canada and Animate Projects, explores the passionate and tempestuous love affair between Austrian artist Oskar Kokoschka and his lover Alma Mahler. Taking cues from the real life events of his enlistment to fight in the First World War following their breakup, I’m OK depicts a feverish onslaught of visions, yearnings and memories of their time together as he awaits medical aid when near-fatally shot in the head (Kokoschka would survive the wound and go on to live until 1980).
Known for experimental approaches and an enthusiasm for analogue processes when creating her work, Elizabeth’s filmography includes 2007’s The Old, Old, Very Old Man made with blue ink on bathroom tile, 2013’s Imperial Provisor Frombald created using hand-carved rubber stamps and 2016’s G-AAAH animated with a typewriter. For I’m OK Elizabeth has drawn on Oscar Kokoschka’s writing, paintings and prints as a stylistic influence, capturing the images directly under a rostrum camera using ink and paint on paper while still wet. and ultimately forming the narrative of the overall film during the editing phase of production.
I’m OK, Elizabeth Hobbs, provided by the National Film Board of Canada
On top of a BAFTA nomination in 2019, the film has screened at such major festivals as Clermont Ferrand, Annecy, OIAF, LIAF and EIFF and is presently in contention for the British Animation Awards Public Choice alongside her more recent work The Flounder, created for The Happiness Machine project commissioned by Klangforum Wien and Tricky Women/Tricky Realities.
Also discussed in this episode: Alternative approaches to animation education, Oscar contenders and love-themed films to look out for during both the British Animation Awards Public Choice screenings and the upcoming Anima Festival in Brussels.
Direct download here or stream below:
Presented by Ben Mitchell and Laura-Beth Cowley
Interview conducted by Laura-Beth Cowley
Produced and edited by Ben Mitchell