For Cécile Cuny, magic has all the time lived within the neglected. The best way a personified object instantly positive aspects persona is intriguing. The sense of independence radiates from a woman discovering her personal energy. The consolation present in one thing that consoles quite than calls for is invaluable.
These are the constructing blocks of her visible world, they usually’re additionally the muse of her animation venture: Shut the Hole, a brief movie launched to mark Worldwide Day of the Lady earlier this month.
Co-produced with the Evoca Basis, which focuses on schooling, local weather motion and supporting ladies and women, and Giga, an initiative to attach each college to the web, the movie addresses the gender digital divide. At this time, 122 million women are out of college globally, and 9 in 10 adolescent women in low-income nations lack web entry, while their male friends are twice as prone to be related.
Shut the Hole reframes this disparity not as an unlucky actuality however as a name to motion, positioning secure, reasonably priced web entry as a elementary proper quite than a privilege.
Cécile’s involvement started with a serendipitous connection. “I used to be contacted by Pandora Haydon from the Evoca Basis,” she explains. “That they had seen my work featured on It is Good That, and I believe each the identify of my universe [Girlsandparks] and the world I’ve constructed resonated with them. We talked in regards to the venture, and we clicked!”
The alignment felt pure as a result of for Cécile, inserting women on the coronary heart of narratives is itself a political act. “For me, specializing in them is already a technique to give them house, to indicate that they exist and should be seen,” she explains. “By telling their tales, I wish to present one thing totally different from the views that historically maintain energy.”
Dream logic
The visible language of Shut the Hole attracts closely from Cécile’s lifelong fascination with retro anime. “I’ve all the time liked the concept of the magical lady: that sense of independence and radiance younger women have after they uncover their powers,” she says. “With this video, I used to be aiming for one thing pop, dreamy and magical, with visuals that really feel recent and intriguing. I needed to carry a way of surprise and softness.”
Equally essential is Cécile’s signature use of personified objects; a way which may appear whimsical however carries shocking emotional weight. “I like seeing a type of soul in objects,” she observes. “And giving life to them permits for extra emotional storytelling and playful staging. I am a collector of cute, personified objects myself, and I particularly adore it when one thing that is not meant to have eyes instantly does. It immediately turns into extra endearing, permitting us to venture emotions onto inanimate issues and spot and care about what may in any other case appear insignificant. It opens an area for double interpretation.”
Balancing these playful parts with the gravity of her message, in fact, requires deliberate craft. “My artistic course of is kind of instinctive, like a small recipe,” Cécile says. “I attempt to alter the stability between playfulness and cuteness, relying on the message I wish to share. Typically I embrace extra impartial or severe expressions, or extra detailed, painterly scenes to distinction with lighter, extra naïve moments.”
Cécile selected animation particularly for its capability to create emotional resonance. “To me, it is a technique to categorical feelings that I generally battle to convey via nonetheless illustration,” she displays. “We stay in a digital world the place shifting photos have such a robust impression. Motion creates magic: it is immersive and emotionally highly effective from my very own perspective.”
This immersive high quality proves useful when speaking summary ideas like digital fairness. Animation would not merely present the issue; it permits viewers to really feel it, drawing them into the world Cécile has created.
Complicated actuality
For all of the surprise in Shut the Hole, Cécile stays clear-eyed in regards to the complexities surrounding digital entry. “The web will be each great and dangerous,” she says. “I am very conscious of how addictive it may be, and the way simply younger individuals will be uncovered to harmful or unhealthy content material. It is a advanced house.”
But this consciousness deepens quite than diminishes her dedication to the trigger. “I nonetheless imagine that everybody ought to have the precise to attach,” she causes. “As a result of past the dangers, the web additionally gives unimaginable prospects: to be taught, to see new views, to find different cultures, and to seek out inspiration past one’s quick surroundings. It permits individuals to construct their very own id, to seek out communities and emotional connection, particularly for many who may really feel remoted in actual life.”
The message Cécile hopes the movie conveys is rooted in her core creative philosophy. “I wish to give women a way of surprise, empowerment, and inspiration,” she explains. “In my very own small manner, I hope to carry them a little bit of magic, to allow them to see photos and symbols they won’t often have entry to. I would like the movie to really feel like slightly story they will merely get pleasure from, even past its marketing campaign goal. As a result of generally, the only tales carry the most important goals.”
Past Shut the Hole, Cécile is channelling this momentum into new initiatives that stretch her storytelling universe. “I am at the moment ending my first illustrated youngsters’s guide, which will likely be launched in September 2026,” she reveals. “Like Shut the Hole, it follows a younger lady surrounded by her personified imaginary associates. Alongside that, I am growing my work in animation, and hold constructing my artistic world, Girlsandparks, and Shut the Hole matches completely inside it; it appears like actual encouragement for what’s to return.”
