Raimund Krumme
Directing
Biography
An independent animation director, he has also directed commercials for the American and Japanese markets. His animated shorts Rope Dance (1986), Spectators (1989), Crossroads (1991), Passage (1994) and The Message (2000) have won numerous international awards, including the Prix du Jury in Annecy, twice the Bundesfilmpreis, the Filmband in Gold (Bonn), the Silver Dragon (Krakow) and the Grand Prix for Animation (Montréal). His films and drawings have been exhibited in galleries and institutions around the world. He recently exhibited drawings and animations in Lisbon at the Sociedade Nationalde Belas Artes at the Monstra-Animation-Festival. He has previously exhibited at UPV in Valencia, at the Fuzhong F15-museum for animation and documentary in New Taipei City, in Meknes, Morocco at the Institut Français, in Gori, Georgia, and several times in Berlin. He has extensive experience teaching Media Arts at many universities around the world.
Known For
Like Fantasia (1940) or Allegro Non Troppo (1977), L'Opéra Imaginaire (1993) is an assembly of animated short films based on classic music greats. Directed by some of the best European animators and artists, L'Opéra Imaginaire takes us through dance, theater, music and painting masterpieces. It uses several animation techniques, like stop-motion clay animation or CG characters.
Opéra Imaginaire
The film, Al Tudi Tuhak, is a creation story inspired by the art and mythology of the Northwest coast people. The story involves the creator, or "The Great Father" as he whittles the world into existence. Each of his wood shavings became fish, trees, birds,... even the sun and moon.
Al Tudi Tuhak
Based on a true incident involving a fatal riot at a Brussels football stadium, Spectators explores the behavior of crowds and the manipulation of the masses. At once ambiguous and deeply revealing, the film captures the emotional state of an audience gradually losing control.
Spectators
The film is based on a scene in Beethoven’s opera Fidelio. The inmates of the Seville prison are kept in dark cells without daylight. Now, for the first time after years, they are allowed to see the sun. Light as a metaphor for freedom.
Choir of the Prisoners
Jamie Maxfield's graduate thesis project in Experimental Animation at California Institute of the Arts. A Silver Medal winner at the Student Academy Awards.
Between the Lines
Animated 15-second short commercial by Raimund Krumme.
Got Milk - Sandwich
The first of Krumme’s films to incorporate a textual element, Message again treats themes of power and control, but now with an ominous undercurrent of fear. In particular, the film touches on the dangers of nationalism and the imagined resurgence of an oppressive and deadly authority.
The Message
For anyone who has ever confronted a difficult decision in which none of the solutions seems like the right one, CROSSROADS will have a special resonance. Made at a time when the director was facing great uncertainty in his life, the film is an extended, often humorous, look at a man pulled in too many directions, in a world in which everything keeps changing and all roads seem to lead back to the beginning.
Crossroads
In this whimsical and evocative parable, a master and his servant engage in a battle of wills as they attempt to cross a frozen lake. As they struggle and dance their way across the ice, the reality of who’s really in control becomes increasingly clear.
Passage
Two men, each holding one end of a rope, perform an intricate dance on, in, and through a square figure.