In this animated short, a film poster advertises 100 years of cinema in 1995. When cracks open in the wall, typical characteristics of Charlie Chaplin spring out and combine themselves to make a portrait of the famous film artist.
Starting in 1975, Lutz Dammbeck worked as a freelance artist for the state-owned East German DEFA Studios. By 1986, when he left the GDR for West Germany, he had directed a total of six shorts for DEFA.
Funny things happen at night at the puppet theater – especially today, since there were jelly donuts for Grandma’s birthday!
Ali, a poor farmer's son, goes out into the world and meets a sorcerer, who takes him on as an apprentice.
Animation Before Unification: 16 Shorts from East Germany - DEFA Animation Nr. 1 / Ohne Worte (1975)
By the time the DEFA Studio for Animation Film closed in 1992, it had produced more than 800 shorts in a wide variety of styles and techniques.
The opera singer Luitpold Löwenhaupt buys a goose to roast for Christmas dinner— a month early, in November! His children have other plans for the goose, whom they name Auguste or "Gustje"; they want to keep Gustje as a pet and playmate.
A man energetically crushes stones into gravel with a hammer, while in another part of the workshop, a woman forms gravel into stone blocks with equal enthusiasm.
A man is left alone with his young daughter, Belle, after his wife dies in childbirth. One day, after many years, the man finds himself caught in the middle of a storm. He is thrown from his horse and wakes to find himself in a castle.
An official function includes a piano concert. The pianist pours his soul into his performance, but the audience wants more than spiritual sustenance.
The Chinese emperor has many concubines but only truly loves his first wife. When a jealous concubine learns that a child will be born to the emperor, she tries to remove her rival with a magic potion.