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Led by Matt LaRocca, the VSO’s chamber orchestra accompanies the evolution of animation over almost 100 years. The afternoon opens with Lotte That Silhouette Girl, a film about animation pioneer Lotte Reiniger, followed by a screening of The Adventures of Prince Achmed, Lotte’s 1926 movie that is the oldest surviving animated feature film. The Adventures of Prince Achmed has been scored with original music by Erik Nielsen of Brookfield Vermont. The concert concludes with the premiere of the live-music version of The Cocoon, an animated short produced almost 100 years after The Adventures of Prince Achmed and winner of the VSO/MNFF Best Music Integration Into Film Award for 2023. This concert is presented in partnership with the Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival.

Lotte That Silhouette Girl: Before Walt Disney, there was a trailblazing woman at the vanguard of animation. Influenced by folktales and legends, Lotte Reiniger was a tour de force of creativity and innovation: she invented the multi-plane camera and created the oldest surviving animated feature. This stunning film explores the life and times of a woman who is finally being given her due.

The Adventures of Prince Achmed: When The Adventures of Prince Achmed premiered in Germany on September 23, 1926, it was hailed as the first full-length animated film. Almost 100 years later, this enchanting film still stands as one of the great classics of animation — beautiful, mesmerizing and utterly seductive. Taken from The Arabian Nights, the film tells the story of a wicked sorcerer who tricks Prince Achmed into mounting a magical flying horse and sends the rider off on a flight to his death. But the prince foils the magician’s plan and soars headlong into a series of wondrous adventures — joining forces with Aladdin and the Witch of the Fiery Mountains, doing battle with the sorcerer’s army of monsters and demons, and falling in love with the beautiful Princess Peri Banu.

The Cocoon: Trapped inside a room covered with muddy footprints, a man will stop at nothing to mop the floor perfectly clean. But with every step he takes to wipe away a footprint, he leaves a new one behind him. Click here for a preview of The Cocoon.
Director: David Shen Miller
Writer: David Shen Miller
Producer: David Shen Miller, Andrew Seth Cohen, Ryan Kieffer

Note date and time change: concert now begins at 2pm, and will be held on Thursday, August 22.

This concert is generously sponsored by Lyn and Ferdinand Lauffer, and by the John M. Bissell Foundation, Inc.