In 1955, Jolliffe traveled to the U.Okay., the place she sought a job with Halas and Batchelor, then the nation’s preeminent animation studio, however was turned down; she was instructed that “ladies don’t animate,” as she later recalled.
Undeterred, Jolliffe returned to her homeland and located work with the CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Analysis Group) Movie Unit, the place she made academic and scientific animated movies for the Australian authorities. Geared up with a grounding in animation manufacturing, she utilized to the animation studio launched in Melbourne by John Wilson GTV9 community.
She acquired a job — within the ink and paint division, the place ladies had been thought to belong, though Jolliffe was one of many solely candidates with prior animation expertise. Solely after interesting (and passing a take a look at no male workers got) did she get to hitch the animation crew. “I noticed then,” Jolliffe mentioned in a 2005 interview, “that though ladies do animate, they should work about six occasions tougher than males, and should battle during.”
She is mostly claimed to be the primary girl animator working professionally in Australia.
Returning to London, Jolliffe was taken on by Halas and Batchelor on the second time of asking, however left when she realized her much less skilled male colleagues had been being paid greater than her. She moved to TVC, the place she labored on the sequence The Beatles and subsequent characteristic Yellow Submarine. For some time, she was the best-paid animator within the metropolis, according to The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia.
After giving delivery to her son, Jolliffe encountered discrimination within the trade as a younger mom. In stepped Godfrey, her idol, who supplied her a job and a welcoming ambiance at his studio. She served as an animation director on Nice, his half-hour movie about legendary civil engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, which went on to win an Oscar.
Jolliffe moved again to Melbourne in 1979. She animated on Grendel Grendel Grendel, a reimagining of the Beowulf legend, which was solely Australia’s second animated characteristic. Relocating to Sydney, and later Blackheath, she opened her personal studio, Jollification, hoping to discover a measure of inventive freedom by the endeavor.
The Maitland & Morpeth String Quartet, a movie that Jolliffe directed and produced in 1989.
Jollification was profitable for a time to find commissioned work. Jolliffe directed two main initiatives for the Australian Broadcasting Company, the children’ sequence Bunyip and half-hour movie The Maitland and Morpeth String Quartet. She developed quite a few initiatives with feminine protagonists, together with her alter ego, the spacefaring housewife Mrs. Cosmos.
In later years, funding for these initiatives turned more and more elusive. The appearance of pc animation reworked the trade, and Jolliffe was reluctant to undertake the brand new know-how. A stroke in 2011 left her unable to attract, successfully ending her profession, which stays a beacon of feat towards the chances for feminine animators in all places.
Jolliffe is survived by her son Ned Jolliffe; her grandchildren, Noah and Maya; and her associate of the previous 20 years, Janet Ramsay.
Photograph credit score: Cam Ford.
