Danielle Mendoza

Our Aotearoa

HomeCreative Media ProductionDanielle Mendoza

Our Aotearoa project poster.
Rotoscope Animation by Danielle Mendoza in Our Aotearoa, Episode One.
Black lines animated by Helena Halliday and colours by Danielle Mendoza in Our Aotearoa, Episode One.

Bachelor of Creative Media Production

What first drew me to Our Aotearoa were the messages at its heart, the team involved, and our collective desire to make something meaningful for our final project. As an immigrant, I am grateful to have been a part of telling these stories.

I was largely involved in our frame-by-frame drawn episode as Lead 2D Animator. Experimenting with its style, textures and overall visual flow has been a wonderful experience.

Our Aotearoa is an animated documentary series that speaks to immigrants' personal experiences of living in Aotearoa. These episodes explore themes of racism, discrimination, loss, loneliness, and maintaining cultural ties while living in another country. We feel there is little multicultural representation in mainstream media in Aotearoa. This project's purpose is to help open a dialogue for a more diverse representation of Aotearoa – the one we know, Our Aotearoa.