When Honess Roe tells people she works on animated documentaries, she is often met with blank stare.

“The first thing I’m often asked is ‘Does such a thing exist?'” Roe, a visiting professor from the University of Surrey, said. Roe spoke to students Monday, March 14, about the history and importance of the animated documentary format.

Though many may be surprised by the notion of the animated documentary as its own genre, there exists a long history of productions that can be classified as such.

The first commercially released example is 1918’s The Sinking of the Lusitania. The short film featured an animated recreation of real life events that hadn’t been caught on film, and, at the time, were incapable of adequately being recreated in live-action.

Earlier examples that mixed animation with the documentary include educational and military training films. Animation made it easy to simulate battle strategies and, when America entered World War II, drum up anti-German sentiments.

Many of the films made for the war effort were produced by the Walt Disney Company, which was commissioned by the U.S. government to produce training shorts, as well as propaganda films.

As time has passed by, the animated documentary has developed further, with one of its biggest evolutions coming from the work of John and Faith Hubley. Animators had long ago realized they could express through animation things that couldn’t be represented through live action.

The Hubleys took this process a step further. They used animation in combination with the playtime antics of their children. However, instead of just animating the live-action events verbatim, the couple illustrated the imagined adventures their children were pretending to have.

The work of the Hubleys represents one of three general types of animated documentary, one of non-mimetic substitution. In this style, the animation is used to further develop and interpret the meaning of a film. The choices of animated content and style evoke certain reactions from the audience.

Melissa Pitaccio, a junior in biological sciences, found the non-mimetic style of animated documentary particularly unique.

“The way non-mimetic films use imagery to interpret information was interesting,” Pitaccio said. “I learned a lot about documentary film making.”

A more standard style is mimetic substitution, where the animation is used simply as a way to make up for live-action footage that doesn’t exist.

2007’s Chicago Ten uses the transcripts of an actual court case to recreate what went on behind the closed doors of the courthouse. The filmmakers sought to preserve the utmost level of detail and realism, by using both vocal mimics and the actual clothes of the men on trial to stay true to the events of the trial.

Roe described the importance of accuracy and realism as crucial to the animated documentary process, whether they are mimetic or not. The work needs to be able to stand as an authentic piece of non-fiction work, even if certain embellishments and assumptions have to be made.

The last type of animated documentary discussed was one of evocation. Films of this nature deal with numerous internal experiences, with topics ranging from people dealing with mental illness to the simple thoughts of a man going about his daily life.

What separates these films is that much of the animation is used not to recreate real events, but to instead create a representation of what a person in these situations feels, and how they interpret the world.

Grayson Halstead, a senior in media communication, said the lecture was an informative experience.

“We’ve all experienced these methods of animation,” Halstead said, “but I’d never considered the topic and how much more to it there actually is.”

Overall, Roe pointed out that animation — whether it is traditional or computer generated — has become more and more common in films of all varieties. Further, she stressed how animation in documentaries allows for unique and interesting methods of presenting information.

“Animation techniques allow for new life to be breathed into documentaries,” Roe said.

The animated documentary may continue to be a genre overlooked by the general public, but there is no doubt that it will remain a medium for the creative and unique presentation of information.