Animation is a fascinating medium

Says Fauzia Minallah, Chairperson of the Jury, International Animation

Fauzia Minallah, a resident of Islamabad, Pakistan, has been an ardent and passionate ‘activist’ of peace, tolerance and preservation of culture and heritage. Interestingly she strives to do all this through different art forms. An artist by training, she is also a writer and illustrator of children’s books, filmmaker who uses animation to convey these ideals. Chairperson of the Jury, International Animation, in the International Children’s Film Festival of India, Fauzia lets us know about her work in Pakistan particularly with children.

“I have been painting since the age of 12,” she says. Fauzia subsequently did an MS in Communication Design from Pratt Institute New York and later held many exhibitions of her works. Fauzia also took to writing and illustrating books on peace and tolerance for children. She also took up the cause of heritage conservation. She set up a NGO Funkor Child Art Center through which she carries out these various activities of enlightening and educating children about these important causes. Fauzia inspires children about art in this centre and art is used as a medium to voice views against violence. Besides, books, art Fauzia has also taken to animation to put forth her point of view. “Animation is a fascinating medium. I use low cost animation for my work with children as well as satire on politics.” Incidentally Fauzia was also a political cartoonist with a newspaper called Muslim during Zia ul haq’s time. “I even won the Best Cartoonist award.”

She conducted peace workshops in Islamabad and Delhi where murals relating to ‘history’ and ‘literature’ of India and Pakistan were made by children from both countries. Fauzia’s relentless efforts’ for peace and tolerance continues through books she writes which are translated in different languages too.