Lotte Reiniger

"For three years during the 1920s, in an attic in Potsdam, a young woman crafted what is today the oldest surviving animated feature film. Equipped with scissors, cardboard, sheets of lead, glass panes and a camera, animation pioneer Lotte Reiniger filmed Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed (or, The Adventures of Prince Achmed) using a technique of frame-by-frame silhouette animation she developed, inspired by Chinese shadow puppetry. As the result of a number of factors-her gender, her German ethnicity, World War II, a lack of funding-Reiniger became a footnote to animation history. Yet her more than 60 films plainly show her dedication to her craft and her skill. This detailed account of her life and work describes her significant contributions to animation, puppetry, Weimar cinema and modern filmmaking."--