Messages that Strike the Emotions

I found myself rather uncomfortable while watching the short films in class today.  Which of course means that the animators did their job.  I certainly have lots of respect for these animated shorts because they deal with issues that most people would shy away from.  The Stain probably had the biggest impact on me.  It casts a very dark gloom on a particular family that continues to live under all kinds of unspoken suffering.  To me, the purpose of the film was to cause the viewer (depending on their own family background), to either  1. be thankful for the family they do have, or 2. to make amends with family members they don't get along with too well before it's too late.  Of course, morals aside, I think it also just (sadly) accurately portrays the lives of some families.  From a medium perspective, I loved the amount of detail in the film and how towards the second half it transitioned between hand-drawn and stop-motion animation.  It was a nice choice because I think it helped us to gain insight into what the characters were thinking/feeling.  As talked about before, I think this is something women animators do very well - they're able to display a great deal of emotion, which is essential if you're ever going to captivate your audience.  These women animators in particular weren't afraid to project ideas to their audience about how they really felt about certain issues.