The use of animation to create documentary film raises epistemological issues about the status of non-photographic and non-indexical forms of moving image to represent ‘reality’. This paper examines Bill Nichol’s concept of ‘modes of documentary’ in conjunction with examples of non-fiction animated films drawn from the RCA archive that draw upon actuality and lived experience to form their subject matter in order to analyse a range of strategies for the construction of truth claims through animation.

This presentation was given at Chengdu University as part of the first ever national Animation Studies conference in China and published in the conference proceedings. The author was subsequently awarded a visiting professorship by the University’s animation research unit – the Sichuan Province Animation and Comics Research Centre – in recognition of her contribution to Animation Studies.