Chado
A coming of age story, set in an enchanted Russian wilderness, by Dominica Harrison.
Premiered in competition at the 18th International Animation Festival in Japan – HIROSHIMA 2020.
Won second prize at the 9th International Kansk Video Festival, nominated for the McLaren Award for Best British Animation at Edinburgh International Film Festival 2020, longlisted for the BAFTA for British Short Form Animation 2021, nominated for the British Animation Awards Audience Award 2022 and received a Vimeo Staff Pick in 2022.
Exhibited at Leicester Print Workshop, 12 September to 7 November 2020, and at Bath Artists’ Studios, 6 August to 5 September 2021, as part of Dominica Harrison’s solo show, Chado: Dreaming in Texture, supported by Arts Council England.
During a long hot summer in the forest, Child is forced to grow up. First her Dog becomes ill, then out of the blue her Mother returns to their dacha with a new lover. Child’s world is turned upside down. With each unsettling event, her visions become stronger to the point where she decides on a dangerous decision. Chado combines digital animation and risograph printing to transform a coming of age tale into an enchanting short film.
Produced by Animate Projects, co-produced with Blind Pig, and supported by the BFI Network with National Lottery funding.
Dominica Harrison is an independent visual artist, who exercises play as the main approach to creating work. Her work helps her to remain curious and open towards the world and its turbulences. Dominica is interested in storytelling as a mechanism of learning and social change. She draws back from the old forms of storytelling – the myths, the legends, the songs, and the cosmogonies.
Dominica has been working across the mediums of animation, printmaking, and performance since 2016. Her previous films have explored themes of connectivity and the subconscious, often through a poetic, abstract approach to storytelling; allowing the films to be accessible to a wider audience.
Rather than looking at animation solely as a form of cinema, Dominica is interested in presenting her films in the art and design spaces, working in the middle between animation, art and installation.
