For Cécile Cuny, magic has all the time lived within the ignored. The best way a personified object immediately positive factors persona is intriguing. The sense of independence radiates from a lady discovering her personal energy. The consolation present in one thing that consoles relatively than calls for is invaluable.
These are the constructing blocks of her visible world, they usually’re additionally the inspiration of her animation mission: 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 training, local weather motion and supporting ladies and women, and Giga, an initiative to attach each faculty to the web, the movie addresses the gender digital divide. As we speak, 122 million women are out of college globally, and 9 in 10 adolescent women in low-income international locations lack web entry, while their male friends are twice as more likely to be linked.
Shut the Hole reframes this disparity not as an unlucky actuality however as a name to motion, positioning protected, inexpensive web entry as a basic proper relatively 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. “They’d seen my work featured on It is Good That, and I feel each the identify of my universe [Girlsandparks] and the world I’ve constructed resonated with them. We talked concerning the mission, 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 strategy to give them house, to indicate that they exist and need to be seen,” she explains. “By telling their tales, I need 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 beloved the thought of the magical woman: 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 marvel and softness.”
Equally vital is Cécile’s signature use of personified objects; a method which may appear whimsical however carries stunning emotional weight. “I like seeing a form 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 immediately does. It immediately turns into extra endearing, permitting us to mission emotions onto inanimate issues and see and care about what would possibly in any other case appear insignificant. It opens an area for double interpretation.”
Balancing these playful components with the gravity of her message, in fact, requires deliberate craft. “My artistic course of is sort of instinctive, like a small recipe,” Cécile says. “I attempt to regulate the stability between playfulness and cuteness, relying on the message I need to share. Typically I embody extra impartial or critical 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 strategy to specific feelings that I generally battle to convey by nonetheless illustration,” she displays. “We reside in a digital world the place shifting photos have such a robust influence. 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 does 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 marvel in Shut the Hole, Cécile stays clear-eyed concerning the complexities surrounding digital entry. “The web may be each great and dangerous,” she says. “I am very conscious of how addictive it may be, and the way simply younger folks may be uncovered to harmful or unhealthy content material. It is a complicated house.”
But this consciousness deepens relatively than diminishes her dedication to the trigger. “I nonetheless consider that everybody ought to have the appropriate to attach,” she causes. “As a result of past the dangers, the web additionally affords unbelievable prospects: to be taught, to see new views, to find different cultures, and to search out inspiration past one’s instant atmosphere. It permits folks to construct their very own id, to search out communities and emotional connection, particularly for many who would possibly really feel remoted in actual life.”
The message Cécile hopes the movie conveys is rooted in her core inventive philosophy. “I need to give women a way of marvel, empowerment, and inspiration,” she explains. “In my very own small approach, I hope to carry them a little bit of magic, to allow them to see photos and symbols they won’t normally have entry to. I would like the movie to really feel like somewhat story they will merely get pleasure from, even past its marketing campaign objective. As a result of generally, the best tales carry the most important desires.”
Past Shut the Hole, Cécile is channelling this momentum into new tasks that stretch her storytelling universe. “I am at present ending my first illustrated youngsters’s e-book, which will probably be launched in September 2026,” she reveals. “Like Shut the Hole, it follows a younger woman surrounded by her personified imaginary pals. Alongside that, I am growing my work in animation, and maintain constructing my artistic world, Girlsandparks, and Shut the Hole suits completely inside it; it seems like actual encouragement for what’s to return.”
