Soviet animation began in the mid-Twenties, thriving in the intimate atmosphere of the atelier. Working in a slightly crude, cut-out style, many of the early animators created films that revealed animation's nascent potential to communicate serious ideas. Dziga Vertov's Soviet Toys (1924) has an exuberant energy and political fervor that is at odds with the light-hearted cartoons produced in other countries at the time. By 1936, industrial cel animation-aided by large teams of artists and technicians-replaced the solitary artist. The Soyuzmultfilm Studio in Moscow fostered visual sophistication at the expense of spontaneity and a maturity of theme. For several decades an emphasis on innocuous children's stories and accepted folk tales dominated the animation movement. During this slump, a number of new designers were rising through the ranks to become directors. Chief among these artists was Feodor Hitruk, an animator since 1937. Two shorts serve to illustrate his probing style; Man in the Frame (1966), a caustic attack on bureaucrats, and Othello (1967), a work that condenses Shakespeare's play down to 50 seconds. Another internationally recognized Soviet animator, Yuri Norstein is a true auteur, working only with his wife and a cameraman. His stunning films treat anthropomorphic characters with serious human themes. The Heron and the Crane (1974) is the story of two birds who forfeit lasting friendship for the pettiness of the moment; The Hedgehog in the Mist (1975) tells the Socratic tale of a perambulating hedgehog lost to time and place. Widely considered one of the greatest works in the history of Soviet animation, Norstein's Tale of Tales charts a young boy's difficult struggles against the wartime memories that dominate him. The constantly changing imagery carries an emotional impact very few live action films can rival. Based on Gogol's classic story, Norstein's newest work The Overcoat will be feature-length when completed. Tonight, we will screen a twenty minute segment of what promises to be a benchmark in Soviet animation. Gary Bardin's recent Conflict expresses a new openness and clarity about nuclear war. Here, two opposing groups of matches battle it out, until one side launches an entire matchbox, igniting both camps. In The Recruit Sederov, by Edward Navarov, the Red Army is checked through a satiric inspection. Refusing to forfeit the comforts of home, spoiled and fat Sederov brings his family along to boot camp. A rare work of Estonian animation, Hell, by Rein Ramaat, glimpses the life of expatriate artist Edward Viralt. Ramaat adapts Viralt's own painterly palette to a work that surprisingly extols the virtues of a bourgeois artist. Finally the program includes works by several students who have studied under both Hitruk and Norstein. Among them are Elena Marchenko's sand animation The Woman Who Made Poppyseeds, completed at the Sverdlovsk workshop in Western Siberia; There Was Something, the first animated film from Lithuania, directed by Zenon Stenius; The Garden of Chrysanthemums by Nikolai Smirnov of the Tashkent Studio in Uzbekistan; The Three Masters, animation from Kazakhstan by A. Omarov; and The Wolf Cub by Natalia Orlova of the Sverdlovsk Studio. Tonight's guest, Charles Samu, the head of International Film Programs, has been introducing U.S. audiences to foreign works of animation for the past 18 years. Specializing in Soviet and Eastern European animation, Samu has coordinated visits of contemporary Soviet animators to the U.S., as well as touring shows of independent American animation in the U.S.S.R.