TGIFAF
Ladies Make Do
Lili Boisrond
Lili Boisrond is a French animator based in New York City. Ladies Make Do is a Mixed Media official selection from the 2017 Florida Animation Festival.
FAF: All of the fonts in your film are very striking and unique from one another. What is your lettering design process?
LB: I was always extremely attracted to the art of calligraphy and looking for interesting fonts. I think that seeing something written in a film brings a lot to the story, and even more so when animated and as part of a particular universe. That was one of my goals in Ladies Make Do, to create a specific ambiance and environment revolving around each story and character - the font introducing the next segment's title is almost like a little window to what will happen in the story if you look for it!
FAF: What are your favorite objects to animate?
LB: People have always been the most interesting thing to draw for me, although they can be extremely hard to animate, it is a wonder how many expressions the human face can carry! One of my favorite things in life was to draw people in the subway during my very long commute to school. It's definitely speed drawing and the very best training. I've had to most various type of reactions when I got caught drawing someone, some people hate to be observed…
FAF: As a documentarian, how do you get your subject to share their stigmatized stories with confidence?
LB: The subject of Ladies Make Do had been an ongoing idea for a while, just talking with friends and hearing other women's sexual experiences. It really started as a comical endeavour, with the desire to animate embarrassing sexual situations and show that this constant excess of dramatisations we girls tend to have actually strengthen those sexual taboos we have to deal with instead of making them obsolete. But as I was progressing in the making of the film, it became more intricate than that and also started to be about being cautious and protective of your own sexuality. I think that is also the way I got to gain the trust of the women I interviewed, always starting by laughing about random embarrassing sexual situations but that in the end were hiding deeper trauma that they were carrying unwillingly.
