Juan Faundez
The animated story “A Change in the Route, Violeta,” for which Juan Faundez was given a grant from CAF, will portray the empathy of an ordinary person toward living beings exploited by humans, in contrast to the social indifference that sees them merely as products for consumption. Violeta, the protagonist, understands that the little pig she comes across has no chance of escaping his cruel fate, so she chooses to hide and protect him from those who seek to harm him. The loneliness of this elderly woman, forgotten by society, parallels the helplessness of the piglet, thrown from a truck by his mother in a desperate attempt to save him. For the piglet, Violeta becomes his only salvation. The aim is to evoke empathy: to put yourself in the place of this helpless being (the pig), who came into this world only to be exploited, just like so many others of his kind.
Juan Faundez is a cartoonist and comic book writer, 2D and 3D animator, who has also worked in advertising, special effects for films and TV series, and recently as a producer of animated music videos for several Chilean bands, including 9 Círculos, Nof Baby, Cheo, and Baby Cohete. He has also been the author of the comics Quiltro del Futuro and Liberación Terrícola. His role in the short film “Violeta” is as director, scriptwriter, director, 3D generalist, editor, and FX.
Juan joins an expanding group of grantees using animation and comic book techniques to evoke empathy towards animals such as stop-motion animator, Shervin Hess, Ukrainian cartoonist, Tamara Ryzhenko, and graphic journalist and cartoonist, Nhatt Nicols. Juan also shares an interest in using visual storytelling for the protection and welfare of pigs with filmmaker, Jusep Moreno, whose documentary film, When Pigs Escape, was awarded a 2022 CAF grant, as well as Shannon Johnstone and Jane Casteline whose photography project, “Picturing Pigs,” aims to shift the paradigm regarding pigs being sentient beings. Furthermore, Juan joins fellow 2025 grantee, Javiera Farga in representing animal advocates from Chile.