Shadow Procession

In his animation, “Shadow Procession” (1999), William Kentridge employs the techniques of shadow theater: instead of working with drawings, he creates dark cut-out forms that parade across the screen from left to right.

“Shadow Procession” begins with an emotive display—figures choreographed to move in time with the haunting hymnody of a Johannesburg street musician. Among rows of displaced people, laden with burdens and stacks, are a miner dangling from a gallows and workers carrying entire neighborhoods and cityscapes. We do not know where they are coming from, whether they are fleeing, or where they are headed, but in their movement, it is clear they are determined to reach their destination.

The second part opens with echoes of the militant toyi-toyi chants from South Africa’s insurrection, punctuated by combative, militarized slogans. The Ubu figure appears—an actor’s shadow with an oversized belly, wearing Jarry’s signature ‘hood’ and exaggerated, larger-than-life hands—dancing in total satisfaction and self-absorption to the rhythm of the drums.

A self-confident cat follows, dancing to the beat, its limbs and motion in sync with the call-and-response slogans. The sequence then erupts into the frenetic rhythms and brass of a marching band, ushering in a new parade of cut-out figures—now entirely anarchic.

Year Created: 1999
Country: South Africa
Medium: Animated film using torn black paper figures, three-dimensional objects, shadows, and fragments from the film “Ubu Tells the Truth”
35mm film transferred to video and DVD
Duration: 7 min