Lotte Reiniger

Lotte Reiniger was a German animator and film director who pioneered silhouette animation. Her 1926 feature The Adventures of Prince Achmed is widely regarded as the oldest surviving feature-length animated film.

Silhouette animation: An animation technique that creates images by moving flat, dark shapes against a contrasting background. This is the distinctive technique Reiniger developed into a cinematic art.
The Adventures of Prince Achmed: A 1926 German animated feature by Lotte Reiniger, made with articulated silhouettes and adapted from tales in One Thousand and One Nights. This is Reiniger's best-known feature and her landmark demonstration of silhouette animation.
Carl Koch: A German film director, producer, and cinematographer who collaborated with Lotte Reiniger and became her husband. Koch helped produce and photograph many films made with Reiniger.
Max Reinhardt: An Austrian theater director and producer who shaped modern stagecraft in German-speaking theater. Reiniger trained as an actress in Reinhardt's theatrical milieu before turning to film.
Animation: The creation of moving images by presenting a sequence of still images or objects. Reiniger's work expanded animation beyond drawn figures into articulated silhouettes.
Shadow play: A performance form in which figures cast shadows onto a screen, often using light behind the figures. Reiniger adapted its visual language of figures and shadows for animated film.
The Ornament of the Loving Heart: A 1919 German animated short by Lotte Reiniger, often cited as her earliest surviving film. This early work shows her silhouette technique in a brief narrative before her features.
Paul Wegener: A German actor and film director associated with early expressionist cinema and fantasy films. Wegener encouraged Reiniger's early entry into film work and silhouette animation.
German Expressionism: An early twentieth-century German art movement that emphasized subjective emotion and distorted forms. Reiniger's early film work developed amid the experimental culture of German cinema.
Shadow puppetry in Indonesia: A traditional Indonesian form of shadow-puppet theater, especially associated with leather puppets and gamelan music. Reiniger's silhouette films are often compared with shadow-puppet traditions, though her work arose in Europe.

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