The Bug Trainer

Colour, HD CAM
Lithuania, Poland, Japan, Germany, 2008, 53 min
IP – International premiere
Section: Documentary Films in Competition

Synopsis

Ladislas Starewitch (1882–1965) only gets two small mentions in Georges Sadoul’s Histoire générale du cinéma. Yet this artist, who has been adapted by the Russians, as well as the Poles and the Lithuanians, nicknamed the “European Disney”, is today considered one of the most ingenious figures in world cinema. Back in 1910 he shocked audiences with a film in which he managed to set various insects in motion and is thus regarded as the founder of puppet animation. He used all kinds of real insects and bugs; he first killed them, then threaded wires through them and brought them to life for the film screen. He was also one of the first to make a parody on the film industry itself, using the motif “film within a film”. For celebrated American animators the Quay brothers, Starewitch is a film alchemist; for other specialists who appear in this playful and deftly edited profile, he is a film pioneer who, at the dawn of animation, invented all his special effects himself. And for loved-up Bug, one of his most famous characters, wittily guiding viewers through the film, he is God.

About the director

Screenwriter and director Donatas Ulvydas (1975, Lithuania) graduated in film direction and television and film production from the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre in 1999. He has been the creative force behind more than 150 commercials and 40 music videos for which he has garnered a number of national awards. His documentary films have included Foje filme 14 (2000) and Europokeris (2002). Director and screenwriter Linas Augutis (1962, Lithuania) studied scenography and video art in the Vilnius Academy of Art. In the 1990’s he screened his short films at various festivals with a great deal of success. His documentary filmography includes: The Constitution of Lithuania (2002), To Reach a Star (2003). Director Marek Skrobecki (1951, Poland) is a specialist in puppet animation. He graduated from the Academy of Art and the National Film School of Poland in Łódź. He is the creator of the award-winning animated films D.I.M. (1992), Ichthys (2005) and Peter and the Wolf (2007).