The Adventures of Prince Achmed Somewhere in Turkey

"There has never been anything like it! Dazzling!"--Peter Stack, San Francisco Chronicle on Prince Achmed

Watching German director Lotte Reiniger's The Adventures of Prince Achmed is like being inside a rapturous animated kaleidoscope with imagery straight out of A Thousand and One Nights. Made when she was only 23 and considered to be the first animated feature, it's a masterpiece of silhouette animation, made with paper cutouts, multiple camera techniques, and fascinating experiments with film stock and tinting. Although Reiniger's distinctive techniques were largely abandoned in 1930s, she continued to use them in her own art until her death in 1981. (1926; 65 mins.)

Shown in a new pristine 35mm print, Hal Roach's Somewhere in Turkey stars silent film genius Harold Lloyd as an archaeologist who rescues Bebe Daniels from the clutches of an evil Sultan. (1918; 10 mins.)