Prashanti Aswani

Prashanti Aswani is an illustrator and animator currently based in London. Born in Indonesia, growing up in Estonia and having lived in different parts of the world she has grown up very uncertain about her identity – an uncertainty that is strongly reflected in her work.

After graduating from RISD with a BA in Illustration, Prashanti’s career began at The Mill in Chicago as a junior designer where she worked alongside incredible animators. She then continued her career as a motion designer in a production studio in Singapore before diving into freelance. She has had the wonderful opportunity to work for clients such as ICRC, Facebook, Marvel and Google. Having worked in the advertising industry for three years, she decided to come to the RCA to explore some storytelling!

Awards (Machi) - Best Animation Short Student at London Independent Film Awards 2020, Jury Best Student Short Animation at ICONA Animation Festival 2020, Best New Director Awards at Shiny Awards 2020, Best Animation Student Award at NEZ International Film Festival 2020, Semi-Finalist for Lisbon Film Rendezvous 2020

Screenings (Machi) - 28th Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film - Young Animation 2021, The RiverRun International Film Festival, British Shorts Film Festival, MONSTRA Lisbon Animation Festival 2021, Carmarthen Bay Film Festival, Animation Dingle 2021, Sunday Shorts Film Festival 2020

Having a somewhat confused sense of what ‘home’ means, Prashanti’s second film Her Birthmark explores themes of immigration, race and identity. It tells the story of a woman who lives in her apartment where the walls periodically shift around her. She struggles to create harmony within her space as she is in constant battle with her own physical self. In this film, Prashanti includes personal accounts of the challenges she faced accepting her skin as a brown kid growing up in a predominantly white country.

Through her film she hopes to speak to the many brown girls who have grown up feeling ashamed of their differences. She strives to represent the underrepresented and to voice those that never belonged.

Her Birthmark - TRAILER 2021

From Her Birthmark — A snippet from a present scene

From Her Birthmark — A snippet of a memory scene

The Process

Her Birthmark (2021)

An animated film about a woman who lives in her apartment where the walls shift around her. She struggles to create harmony within her space as she is in constant battle with her own physical self.