CHOOSE ARTIST
Robert Breer, Paul Chan, Martha Colburn, Thomas Demand, Edison Manufacturing Company, Fleischer Studios, Brent Green, George Griffin, Ezra Johnson, Bill T. Jones and OpenEnded Group, William Kentridge, Avish Khebrehzadeh, Laleh Khorramian, Maria Lassnig, Jennifer and Kevin McCoy, Joshua Mosley, Oscar Muñoz, Jacco Olivier, Raymond Pettibon, Robert Pruitt, Christine Rebet, Mary Reid Kelley, Lotte Reiniger, Robin Rhode, Hiraki Sawa, Berni Searle, Cindy Sherman, Federico Solmi, Dziga Vertov, Kara Walker- Lotte Reiniger
- The Adventures of Prince Achmed, 1926
- 35mm film, black and white/tinted, transferred to DVD; 65 minutes
Courtesy of Milestone Films, Harrington Park, NJ
ABOUT THIS WORK
Lotte Reiniger’s The Adventures of Prince Achmed is widely believed to be the oldest surviving feature-length animated film. The film’s narrative is based on episodes from The Arabian Nights, and Reiniger took advantage of animation’s ability to represent the imaginary by focusing on some of the more fantastical elements of these stories, such as Achmed’s flying horse. Reiniger used shadow puppets, which she meticulously crafted by hand, in concert with stop-motion techniques, to create a film of technical complexity and haunting beauty.
ABOUT LOTTE REINIGER
Lotte Reiniger was born in 1899 in Berlin, Germany and was among the first women to achieve a successful career in animation and film direction. In her youth, Reiniger was captivated by silhouette puppetry and adapted the laborious technique for use in her full-length films. Her most notable film, The Adventures of Prince Achmed, 1926, is the oldest surviving animated feature and is based on the tales of The Arabian Nights. After producing nearly seventy films throughout her career, Reiniger passed away in 1981.