Abigail Klein Leichman
November 6, 2016

Pablo Arcuschin, 31, will not be voting in this week’s US presidential elections because he can’t — he is an Argentinean-born Israeli citizen.

Yet the young CEO of the Tel Aviv video production house Silueta and its whiteboard animation studio, White Animation, was so disturbed by the tone of the campaign that he produced a video on his own time and dime seeking to inspire Americans to vote despite the mudslinging electioneering.

“We wanted to send a message reminding people of the important values that have gotten lost in all the fighting between candidates,” Arcuschin tells ISRAEL21c.

The two-minute video puts a contemporary visual spin on the immortal words of US President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address (delivered on November 19, 1863) to encourage Americans of all political persuasions to get involved and make their voices heard on Election Day.

“We looked at different speeches and someone recommended the Gettysburg Address,” Arcuschin says. “When I read it, I saw some of it was very familiar, especially the last line about how “the government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

Two directors, an illustrator, an animator, a sound designer and a narrator hammered out the finished product within a month.

“We worked fast because we had the election deadline. Usually a project like that would take two or three months,” says Arcuschin.

The video was released on November 2, less than a week before US Election Day.

Image courtesy of White Animation
Image courtesy of White Animation

White Animation, established two and a half years ago at Silueta, normally works for paying clients.

One of its most successful productions is “Why I am a Jew,” narrated by former UK Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks. The animated video has gotten half a million views since its debut in September 2015.

White Animation also works with companies such as Kaltura, a leading Israeli video technology provider.

The next White Animation release, due out this week, features the voice of Israeli-American behavioral economist Dan Ariely speaking about online dating.

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