Film Archive
Muratti & Sarotti - History of German Animation (Muratti & Sarotti)
Using a variety of camera and graphic techniques, this unique animated documentary traces the development of animation as an art - and commercial - form in Germany. The camera roams through a surrealist archive, with animated file drawers that open to reveal the stories and films of such artists as Hans Richter, the noted surrealist, and Walter Ruttmann, whose Berlin, Symphony of a City, started the documentary "city poem" movement. Towering above the rest of them is the brilliant Oskar Fischinger, whose marvelously animated musical shorts influenced Norman McLaren, and inspired Walt Disney to make Fantasia. In a near encyclopedic approach, director Gockell finds the time to survey the accomplishments of lesser-known, but exceptional talents like Peter Sachs and Oskar Fischinger's younger brother Hans. Moving from the heady days of the Weimar Republic through the Nazi period and into the post-war era with its divided German states, Muratti & Sarotti demonstrates that an art, once envisioned, can survive any political regime.
Gerd Gockell was born in 1960 in Darmstadt and studied Graphic Design and Film in Brunswick. After working as a freelance animator for the Hessische Rundfunk in Frankfurt, he moved to London in 1988 and produced several animated short films. Back in Hanover, he co-founded anigraf-Filmproduktion in 1990. Since 1992, he has been teaching Experimental Animation at the Brunswick College of Fine Arts. In 2000, he became a visiting professor in the Animation Department at the Kassel Art College. His films include: Crofton Road SE 5 (1990) - winner of the Main Prize and Film Critics' Prize at the Oberhausen Short Film Festival 1990, Busy Body (1991), Miles, So What (1993), Tossing Pies (1995), The Innocents Abroad (1998), and Muratti & Sarotti (2000).Category Animation, Documentary Cinema
Year of Production 2000
Director Gerd Gockell
Screenplay Gerd Gockell, Susanne Hoebermann, Kirsten Winter
Director of Photography Thomas Bartels
Music by Hanns Eisler, Arthur Honegger
Production Design Ute Heuer, Susanne Hoebermann, Holger Jaquet
Producers Gerd Gockell, Kirsten Winter
Production Company Gerd Gockell & Kirsten Winter Film Production/Hanover
Length 80 min, 2,189 m
Format 35 mm, color, 1:1.66
Original Version German/English
Subtitled Versions English
Sound Technology Dolby SR, Stereo
Festival Screenings Montreal 2000, Hot Docs Toronto 2000, Ottawa Animation Fest 2000, Hiroshima 2000
With backing from Filmfoerderung NDR
German Distributor Salzgeber & Co. Medien/Berlin
World Sales
Gerd Gockell & Kirsten Winter Film Production
Boedekerstrasse 92
30161 Hanover/Germany
phone +49-5 11-66 01 65
fax +49-5 11-66 73 27
email: whats-her-name@t-online.de