Celestial Patience and Running with Scissors: Weimar animator Lotte Reiniger and …

… The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926).

Friday, January 25, 8:00 p.m., Northwest Film Forum

Her friend Jean Renoir claimed that premiere German animator Lotte Reiniger was "… born with magic hands."
From childhood, Reiniger possessed an unusual talent for fashioning detailed shapes with paper and scissors. As a young woman, she worked with Paul Wegener, Fritz Lang and legendary stage director Max Reinhardt. Animation was, as Reiniger described, "… still walking in its infant shoes." With a small group of dedicated artists and technicians, Reinger began producing short stop action films in 1919, followed by three years devoted to her masterpiece, considered the oldest surviving animated feature, The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926).

Reiniger’s delicate and magical telling of The Arabian Nights was considered by the German theater establishment as wholly unworthy of exhibition. After nine months in Paris and a successful world tour, Berlin relented. Reiniger endured, and went on to delight audiences with her beautiful and unique artform for half a century.

Additional shows,
Sunday, January 26, 1:00 p.m.
Thursday, January 31, 8:00 p.m. and
Sunday, February 3, 1:00 p.m.
and …
Sunday, April 20, The Vashon Theater, Vashon Island