Channel 33 has premiered a magnificent documentary series that should not be missed, especially if you lament the scarcity of cultural offerings on television. Draw for change (Draw for changeIt airs Monday nights, but the complete series is available on the 3Cat platform. Each episode is dedicated to a female cartoonist, comic artist, puppeteer, or illustrator from different parts of the world where power has stifled freedom of expression. You'll discover Doaa el-Adl in episode 3, the first woman to win one of Egypt's most prestigious cartooning awards. A courageous cartoonist, highly critical of the political and social context, she uses markers to combat the oppression suffered by women in her country. She has such talent for condensing the most heartbreaking ideas into a single panel that she'll compel you to watch the entire series and meet the other artists. You'll meet Amany al-Ali from Syria, threatened and denigrated for the content of her work; and Mar Maremoto, who uses her drawings to combat gender violence in Mexico and give a voice to the LGBTQ+ community. Also featured are Rachita Taneja, creator of a sharply satirical comic strip that has become very famous in India for its combative spirit; and Victoria Lomasko, a Russian exile, who portrays Putin's state violence through mural art.
The series is unfairly hidden on television and on the 3Cat platform, but it's a marvel because it starts with a very simple idea to explain international sociopolitical circumstances. The realities are diverse, but the protagonists have much in common. They work in a context of censorship, structural violence, and ideological pressure. The series doesn't aim to discuss comics as an industry, but rather drawing as a tool of resistance. These are professionals who, in their daily work, express their point of view through comics, illustrations, and murals. Drawing requires a great capacity for synthesis to convey a powerful message with a single image, and this is its great power. They can transmit political ideas with such immediacy, making them so accessible and popular, that their work is considered dangerous. Throughout the series, there is reflection on threats, coercion, self-censorship, exile, and both symbolic and real violence. We see Amany al-Ali drawing under bombs and witnessing the devastation that war has wrought on her own family. Pencils and markers become therapeutic tools for expressing fears and horror, but they also serve to talk about emotions and what is happening around them.
The series also incorporates the artists' illustrations through animation, so they themselves become part of the story. Reality and drawing blend with a sensitivity and precision that make it a beautiful sight. In a media ecosystem saturated with images and noise, politically engaged and socially conscious cartoons become nourishing and revealing. If they complain that they don't do anything good on television, now they have no excuse.
