The world of animated shorts is a vibrant tapestry of creativity, offering unique perspectives and innovative techniques. Cartoon Brew’s spotlight series on 2024 Oscar-qualifying animated shorts brings us to a particularly compelling piece: Our Uniform. This film, directed and self-produced by Iranian filmmaker Yegane Moghaddam, has garnered significant attention, earning its Oscar qualification by winning the grand jury prize at Spain’s prestigious Animayo festival. Our Uniform stands out not only for its powerful narrative but also for its groundbreaking visual approach, using the very fabric of school uniforms as its canvas.
Moghaddam’s film is a deeply personal reflection, told through the eyes of an Iranian girl revisiting her school memories. What makes Our Uniform truly exceptional is its literal interpretation of “Our Uniforms” as a storytelling medium. Instead of traditional animation surfaces, Moghaddam chose to paint directly onto school uniform fabric. This unconventional choice is not merely aesthetic; it’s integral to the film’s thematic exploration of identity, memory, and the symbolic weight of clothing in our lives.
The Unique Visual Language of Fabric in Animation
One of the most immediately striking aspects of Our Uniform is its visual presentation. Moghaddam’s decision to use fabric as the primary background for her animation is both innovative and conceptually resonant. In an interview with Cartoon Brew, she discussed the challenges and artistic intentions behind this choice.
Yegane Moghaddam discussing the animation techniques used in her film Our Uniform
“Fabric serves as the main background of the film on which everything is projected,” Moghaddam explained. “That’s how the image and the topic of the film are supposed to work, hand-in-hand with each other.” This intimate connection between the visual medium and the subject matter is central to the film’s impact. However, this approach also presented unique constraints. The static nature of fabric limited camera movement, resulting in a deliberate stillness throughout the film. While Moghaddam initially found this rigidity creatively challenging, she acknowledges that it ultimately enhances the film’s underlying themes and atmosphere, contributing to a sense of introspection and confinement that mirrors the experience of wearing a uniform.
“Our Uniform” as a Manifest: Decoding the Garment
The concept for Our Uniform stemmed from Moghaddam’s profound understanding of the role uniforms play in our lives. She elaborates on the personal connection that drove her to create this film:
“We spend a big sum of our lives inside our uniforms, and they’re an important part of our daily lives. It’s like we grow up inside our uniforms.” For Moghaddam, the school uniform transcends its function as mere clothing. It becomes a “canvas” reflecting daily experiences, a “text to be decoded,” and even “a manifest against women,” in certain cultural contexts. Animation, she realized, was the ideal medium to explore these layers of meaning. It allowed her to dissect “our uniform” as a symbolic object and translate its complexities into a visual narrative. The film, therefore, becomes a powerful commentary on societal norms and the silent stories woven into the fabric of our everyday attire.
Embracing Improvisation and Creative Restraint in Filmmaking
Our Uniform‘s production journey was as unique as its visual style. Moghaddam describes the project as an “amateur experience” that began without rigid expectations. This experimental approach fostered a spirit of improvisation and discovery.
“Filmmaking-wise, I learned how to improvise,” she reflects. Without a fixed timeline or a detailed storyboard, Moghaddam allowed the creative process to unfold organically, guided by “a series of lines and ideas” and the physical presence of the fabric itself. This freedom from strict structure extended to her creative choices. Moghaddam discovered the power of limitation, realizing that “too much material usually spoils the work.” By consciously restricting her assets, she honed in on the essential visual elements, enhancing the film’s focused and impactful message.
The Fusion of Illustration and Object Animation
Moghaddam’s visual approach in Our Uniform is deeply rooted in her background as an illustrator. She sought to bridge her illustrative style with object animation, creating a distinctive aesthetic that blends childlike innocence with tactile materiality.
The animation process involved layering stop-motion and 2D animation techniques. Short stop-motion sequences, deliberately simple and without elaborate puppets, were combined with 2D animated layers. This fusion proved remarkably successful, seamlessly merging the textures of the fabric with the delicate details of colored pencil drawings and childlike strokes. This visual synergy is crucial to the film’s overall impact, reinforcing the themes of memory, personal expression, and the way “our uniforms” become imbued with our lived experiences.
Our Uniform is more than just an animated short; it’s a testament to the power of innovative storytelling and the profound meanings embedded within the clothes we wear. Through its unique fabric animation and insightful narrative, Yegane Moghaddam’s film invites viewers to reconsider the significance of “our uniforms” and the silent stories they hold. As it continues its journey through the awards circuit, culminating in its Oscar qualification, Our Uniform is sure to leave a lasting impression on audiences worldwide, prompting reflection on the often-overlooked narratives woven into the fabric of our daily lives.
