Entertainment
Dhaneesh James’s well knit story
Sewing together pieces of a long-lost childhood, Dhaneesh Jameson reflects on family, love and tragedy in his award-winning short film, The Blue Sweater
Sewing together pieces of a long-lost childhood, Dhaneesh Jameson reflects on family, love and tragedy in his award-winning short film, The Blue Sweater
Neela Kuppayam, or The Blue Sweater, is a short animated film by Dhaneesh Jameson on the loving bond between a sister and brother, and the gripping pain of loss.
The film starts with a promise a loving sister gives her little brother – to knit him a blue sweater by the next full moon. During play in the morning, the child runs into the forbidden jungle, lined with frayed leaves and nuances of Dhaneesh’s childhood. Tragedy strikes as he gets consumed by the dark wilderness, while his sister awaits for him back home. The film ends by leaving us to retrospect on the personification of death and a thin ray of hope. The story also cherishes rakshabandhan – a day that celebrates the bond between a brother and sister, is dedicated to the Dhaneesh’s brother, and his childhood memories.
Conceived, directed and animated by Dhaneesh, the film has made waves across geographies, from India to Hungary to Brazil. The Blue Sweater has won four awards including the Best Animated Short at the 2015 Chicago South Asian Film festival and Bengaluru International Short Film Festival. Dhaneesh was also selected for the Innovative Art Award at the DigiCon6 ASIA in Hong Kong, an annual competition that recognises talent throughout Asia.
Incidentally, this FulBright Scholar and storyteller has not been much of a reader. “When I started my career, many people read books and I thought I was unfortunate, but what was funny is that it turned out being fortunate for me. I ended up working without influences.” In 2012, he was awarded the Fulbright Nehru Scholarship and spent three years pursuing a Masters of Fine Arts (MFA) degree in Computer Animation from the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) School of Film and Animation, New York, US. Dhaneesh is also a graduate from the prestigious National Institute of Design (NID) in Ahmedabad and has completed a Young India Fellowship (YIF) offered by Ashoka University in collaboration with UPenn, USA.
My efforts took me to the National Film Board of Canada and an opportunity to work with Ron Diamond, the founder of Animation World Network (AWN). I worked with him in creating a book on the business of animation storytelling of the Hollywood industry.
With a cap full of accolades and awards, and having rubbed shoulders with experts in the animation and design business, Dhaneesh still remains grounded as we learned while catching up with him for a chat.
Just like the horse rocker and the wisp of timely wind in your film, what is another mystery that we might have missed in your story?
I have a tendency to romanticise childhood. I have a habit of telling stories, sometimes cooked up – things that happen when you are homesick (laughs)! I started so many and then I eventually tricked my own memory. Thus, some ‘realistic fictional’ elements have made its way into the film.
Blurring the lines between truth and imagination, do you prefer subjective interpretations to your film?
Previously, I liked to keep my movies open-ended. I may have to break away from that. I guess I want an audience to appreciate it more when they can interact. I don’t want a movie that is a one timer. I would like to make it a riddle that they would like to solve.
You once mentioned that the frames in your films are made blue ‘subconsciously.’ What has been a conscious move?
With a design background, I consciously put a lot of constraints in the movie. In The Blue Sweater, I wanted to talk about two kids who were different and that was achieved by differentiation in gender and age difference. Though it had a touch of a graphic novel, something not in my style, I knew I had to add sound to it.
The croaks of the ominous frogs, rustle of the leaves, fatigued pants are all vivid in your film. How important is sound to you?
I cannot imagine anything without sound. Ten percent goes for our effort and the rest to the sound engineer. You can even get away with bad animation if you have great sound (laughs).
You have used several instances of split screens. What inspired you?
There are three people I have always wanted to meet in my lifetime – Tim Burton, Paul Dressen, Kōji Yamamura. Incidentally, I once bumped into Paul Dressen, Dutch film director, and animator. He is the man worked on The Beatles’s video, ‘Yellow Submarine’. He incorporated the use of split screens in movies, which turned out to be super sophisticated. In the short film, I wanted to give an overall look at the cashew trees, the blades of the grass and get the hint of the place.
You mentioned earlier that sometimes it was great to work on a clean slate, although but some artists have framed your work. What do you feel about it?
In art, there’s a lot of influence. I would not say that I have a style. It is always a new mix.
What do you hope to achieve next?
I would like to design at a bigger level, that caters to all five senses. Animation is just another outcome of design and it’s more of audio/ vision. I would like to create a design that caters to a complete experience and help build business, brand or entertainment that gives creative satisfaction.
Do you intend to implement that?
Maggi has become a character and Nike has made customers purchase it for the experience rather than its functionality. I would like to stay away from marketing but be on a higher level where we are the decision makers to shape a concept. I would like design to be implemented into interior and learning spaces; it’s a great platform to engage within themselves.
Like the child in your short film wanted a blue sweater, what would you like to gift children with your concept?
Design is not a fancy term but a part of our life and you don’t need a fancy degree to appreciate it. I think Kerala is blessed with a 99.9 percent education rate. If design is well-implemented, like having physics lessons by Carl Sagan (was an American astronomer, cosmologist, astrophysicist, astrobiologist, author), you would not need much art appreciation. Good design is naturally imbibed.
Checklist
Favourite soundtrack from a recent animation movie:
‘Eden’ By Shin O
A Tim Burton (of Edward Scissorhands fame) movie you love:
Vincent
A designer you revere:
Jacque Fresco
A place whose design aspect has bewildered you:
Spain for its amazing architecture, but also Japan for its modern modernistic approach
Words by Atheena Wilson Photographs by FWD Media
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