Lotte Reiniger

Lino portrait by Carine

Not Disney, but Lotte Reiniger (1899-1981) made the first feature-length animated film. Using scissors to hand-cut intricate shapes out of paper, weighing them with lead and adding hinges, she brought her characters to life. Lotte lit scenes from behind and used a multiplane camera (her invention), moving each scene frame by frame to put whole films together. First in black and white, later in colour. She also made shadow puppet shows, costume designs, storyboards, and advertising films.

Lotte got her first break in pre-war Berlin. With her husband as a cameraman, she also lived in Italy, Canada and the UK. To study shadow puppetry traditions, she also visited Greece and Egypt. These travels influenced her work, featuring fairytales, myths and fables for adults. Not all of her work survived and got scattered across different countries while she moved and WWII raged. You can, however, still watch her films online – like “The Adventures of Prince Achmed” online, the trailer shown in the frame above.

Also Look up:

Alice Guy-Blaché. She was a late 19th century French pioneer filmmaker who was one of the first to make a narrative fiction film. She was the first woman to direct a film. From 1896 to 1906, she was probably the only female filmmaker in the world. The contemporary artist Kara Walker uses several techniques, but her silhouettes definitely seem to have a similarity to Lotte’s work. Kara uses her silhouettes to make prints, installations and films, exploring themes of race, gender, sexuality, violence, and identity. The Ukrainian-born American filmmaker Maya Deren was active within the avant-garde in the 1940s and 1950s. With her experimental film projects she viewed film as a way to create an experience.

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