‘One Out of Harmony with Her Own Time’: Lotte Reiniger, Anachronism and Doing Animation History through Film Society Reconstruction

Abstract

This article reflects on the complexities of doing animation history in relation to Lotte Reiniger, perhaps the most famous and prolific woman in animation but a figure who has been mythologized, marginalized and excluded from traditional film historical accounts. Beginning with a survey of existing scholarship, this article introduces the possibility of reading Reiniger as an ‘anachronist’ – one out of harmony with her own time – by drawing on the emerging field of media archaeology. The idea of Reiniger ‘out of time’ prompted a series of film society reconstructions, re-imagined from surviving archival materials (programmes, newspaper cuttings, letters) and presented to contemporary audiences on 16 mm and 35 mm prints. This article will reflect on the research, development and delivery of the re-enactments, bringing these experiments into dialogue with writings on media archaeology, reconstruction and performance theory. Film reconstructions are presented as a form of feminist media archaeology, which can offer an alternative to traditional chronological history.