Senior Project Advisor

Kristen French

Document Type

Project

Publication Date

Fall 2024

Keywords

soldier, child soldier, First Russo-Chechen War, guard duty, concentration camp, detention camp, animation, animated, Synfig, Audacity, Synfig, OpenShot, Papaguyo, story, fence, perimeter, barbed wire, wire, escape, story, short story

Abstract

This project is a piece animated to the audio recording of a former child soldier of the First Russo-Chechen War, speaking of an experience he had while serving on guard duty, walking the perimeter around a concentration camp of civilians captured on enemy territory.

He had obtained guard duty for four days from his commander as a "reward" for him and his men successfully planting bombs in another area. This was two of four days total on guard duty. He was seventeen years old when this story took place.

While strolling the perimeter, he noticed a woman with a little kid, screaming and crying at the fence that she had to get out as she had another child and was uncertain of where they were. He ignored her the first time he walked by, but she was still there almost an hour later when he again passed that spot. The perimeters were of metal fence a few meters tall, topped with barbed wires.

He acknowledged her and quietly stated that with the loose gaps under the fence/pole, she could slip under, that it would take around five minutes for him to walk and turn around the corner of the perimeter, out of sight, he would not be turning around, and that it would take him around between forty-five minutes to an hour for him to go around the perimeter and be back again.

He shouted at her to get away from the fence, walked away around the corner, and never saw her again. He did, however, see dirt and scuff marks underneath and around the bottom of the fence later, was aware that her and her child had made a run for it, and kicked away some of the scuff marks to hide their escape. Then continued his patrol.

He realized after telling me that he had seen no kitchens, supplies, food, water, nothing ever given in any way to any of the innocents in the caged area in the four days that he was there, and that the people were likely kept until they had “expired” of starvation, similar to the standard processes of many concentration camps in World War II. That makes this story that much more sobering, as it means that that woman and her child may have been the only ones in there with any chance of survival, specifically because of a guard who was willing to look the other way.

All software used for this project is free and open-source. I utilized Audacity to cut and smooth the audio clip, Papaguyo for the lip-syncing, Synfig Studios for the animation, and OpenShot to combine the animations and audio into one full video.

The purpose of this project was to expand my knowledge of video and animation/lip-syncing software for future use and to honor my friend. It is one of many memories from the experience of a soldier.

Department

Elementary Education

Type

Text

Rights

Copying of this document in whole or in part is allowable only for scholarly purposes. It is understood, however, that any copying or publication of this document for commercial purposes, or for financial gain, shall not be allowed without the author’s written permission.

Language

English

Format

application/pdf

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