Directed by Lotte Reiniger • 1935 • Germany
An example of Lotte Reiniger’s animated music films based on opera, PAPAGENO is filled with impeccable attention to detail. Papageno, a bird catcher from Mozart’s “The Magic Flute,” idles away the time with his avian companions, fights an undulating snake, and finds love and family happiness through delicate and delightful visuals that parallel the rhythm and expressivity of the music.
Up Next in Early Women Filmmakers: An International Anthology
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Day of Freedom
Directed by Leni Riefenstahl • 1935 • Germany
Taking its title from the Nuremberg Rally of 1935, this short documentary presents the armed forces of the Third Reich as an efficient system of bodies and machines in motion. The film is a dangerous celebration—through dynamic visuals and careful ed...
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Parabola
Directed by Mary Ellen Bute and Ted Nemeth • 1937 • United States
Produced by Mary Ellen Bute’s company, Expanding Cinema, and made in collaboration with Ted Nemeth and sculptor Rutherford Boyd, PARABOLA is a celebration of film’s ability to create new ways of seeing the forms around us. Creatin...
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Spook Sport
Directed by Mary Ellen Bute, Norman McLaren, Ted Nemeth • 1940 • United States
SPOOK SPORT announces itself as a new kind of film ballet comprised of “color, music, and movement” and is a lively interpretation of a night at a graveyard, where colored shapes representing bats, ghosts, and spooks ...
