From Eeyore to Shrek, donkeys on the big screen have traditionally been characterised as stubborn or comedic. But a new university film course run in partnership with a donkey sanctuary is hoping to rehabilitate the animal’s reputation.
The film studies module at the University of Exeter, which began this term, explores how the portrayal of donkeys in films has affected public attitudes towards them.
The course leaders contend that the way in which the donkey’s traits have been hijacked by contemporary media to represent human symbols or meanings – the stubborn, the stupid, the indolent – is unfair.
“This is problematic,” said Dr Benedict Morrison, senior lecturer and co-lead of the module in Exeter’s department of communications, drama and film, which also explores how donkeys have been portrayed in fables and fairytales, religious narratives, and documentaries. “What we lose is the donkeyness of the donkeys, and indeed the specific personality of the individual donkey.”
In an attempt to redress this, students will create video essays based on their interactions with and observations of the animals at the Donkey Sanctuary in Sidmouth, Devon, which has partnered with the university to run the course.
Dr Faith Burden, deputy chief executive of the sanctuary, said negative portrayals of donkeys dated back to Aesop’s Fables, in which the animal is usually a figure of mockery, and were further popularised by Shakespeare, such as with the character of Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
“I think they have absolutely set people’s perceptions that donkeys are melancholic, stubborn and not very intelligent, which is anything but the truth,” said Burden.
More recent depictions, such as the melancholic Eeyore in the Winnie-the-Pooh books, might be true for some individual animals, but do not “depict the joy and fun and enjoyment and happiness that a donkey can also experience”, she added.
Dr Fiona Handyside, fellow co-lead of the module, said it was inspired by recent more realistic depictions of donkeys in films such EO, which won the jury prize at the 2022 Cannes festivals, and The Banshees of Inisherin.
She had also questioned why Colin Farrell’s tribute to Jenny the donkey, his character Pádraic’s closest companion, during his acceptance speech for the best actor award at the 2023 Gold Globes was largely greeted as a joke.
“I thought, why would Farrell not be grateful to his co-star with whom he has delivered the performance of his career? The meaning and the emotional weight of that film is carried partly through [their] relationship.”
Handyside said the module was similarly a serious attempt to “embark on some kind of inter-species collaborative project to think differently about the entangled relationships, not just between humans and donkeys, but between humans and the environment”.
The students’ visits to the donkey sanctuary brought them “literally face-to-face with the reality of donkeys as individual, thinking, living, sentient beings”, she added.
This helped them to explore the dynamics of companionship with animals, and whether it is possible to make films and undertake research that is not solely centred on the human perspective.
“It’s just so incredible when you walk into a barn and Jake, who’s a very confident donkey, trots happily up to you and nudges you because he really wants his bottom scratched,” said Handyside.
“We were so privileged with the way the sanctuary framed the visit for us in this incredibly enabling way that really allowed the students to grapple with, actually, what does it mean ethically, sensually, to engage with donkeys?”
Benedict added that they were aware the module might attract ridicule and insisted that it was rooted in rigorous engagements with philosophy, theory, and behavioural training at the sanctuary. “The students have not been having an easy ride of it.”
