A Star from the Start (1945-51). Courtesy of Czech National Film Archive.
(Jiri Trnka, Czechoslovakia 1945–51, 74 min., DCP)
Animation of Jiri Trnka. This program of six witty, offbeat short animations, culled from the early part of Trnka’s career, demonstrates his mastery of multiple forms of animation, such as hand-drawn images, collage effects, and stop-motion puppets. The program includes: Grandpa Planted a Beet (1945), Trnka’s first film; The Animals and the Brigands (1946), a Cannes prize-winning folktale; Springman and the SS (1946), a Max Fleischer–like anti-Nazi lampoon; The Gift (1946), a surrealist mini-masterwork; Romance with Double Bass (1949), an adaptation of a Chekov short story; and The Golden Fish (1951), a wryly humorous fairy tale.