Pakistan is all prepared to jump ahead by a large degree in its culture with the new, one-of-a-kind hand-drawn animated short film, “Under the Blaze.” Directed by 20-year-old visual artist Awais Shaukat, who is studying fine arts at the National College of Arts in Lahore, this film marks one of his attempts to illuminate the realities of child labor in Pakistan’s brick kiln industry.
The short film’s story is fashioned after the real-life experiences of the children who are working in brick kilns, where most are forced to endure dangerous working environments and very long hours. Awais and his team collected the stories while they were making field visits to different kilns, and by doing so, they managed to shed light on the children’s daunting plight. “The children were always avoiding us seeing we were there and they would hide from us,” Awais commented, revealing the fear these young laborers experience.
“Under the Blaze” will use traditional 2D animation methods that will remind people of the ones implemented at the beginning of the 21st century. Every single frame is drawn by hand with the backgrounds painted individually, which is a job that takes a lot of time, for example, it takes 24 frames just for one second of animation.
The film is drawn and built inspired by the works of Japanese creators such as Makoto Shinkai and Hayao Miyazaki of Studio Ghibli, who cease to exist for some period. The project will attempt at a modern approach by mixing traditional techniques with contemporary storytelling and narrative.
In the meantime, the team is working on storyboards and character designs in pre-production. The production is managed by Rafhan Shaukat of Awartsy Animations. Awais, the fun creator, thinks that his chic invention would not only entertain but also lead to a lively debate and action to eliminate child labor in Pakistan.
The movie symbolizes a good seal for the animation industry of Pakistani art, which is traditionally installed behind other genres. Awais said his idea of carving a space for hand-drawn animation in the local creative landscape is strong, he said; “Pakistan has a rich culture in the art, but hand-drawn animation is not one of them.”
“Under the Blaze” will probably be on the big screen at the next international film festivals, so this will surely affect the general situation of child labor and human rights violations in Pakistan. With the continuing incidence of child labor and human rights issues, this animated short film would be a very potent means through which change and advocacy can be achieved.