During teh Christmas and New Year holidays, the National Cinema Center’s portal films.lv offers worldwide the anniversary collection of puppet animation classic Jānis Zimmermans – 20 short films, which also include a selection of the adventures of the legendary “Emergency Brigade,” and the full-length animated film “Lielais Indriķis” (2023). From December 20 to January 5, the holiday collection can be viewed anywhere in the world with an internet connection.
Director Jānis Zimmermanis (1950) celebrated his 75th anniversary on December 9 of this year, and this is a great reason to collect his work in puppet animation for 40 years in one festive selection, honoring the director’s contribution to the history of Latvian and world animation cinema.
In 1985, the graduated puppet theater director Zimmermanis came to the puppet film group of the Riga Film Studio, and the legendary classicist Arnolds Burovs allowed the young enthusiast to try his hand at the first short film – it was The grandson of a ranger and… (1985), the oldest film in this anniversary collection. Already in the next movie A living friend (1987) director Zimmermanis met artist, later also screenwriter and producer Māris Putniņas, and the most stable and long-lasting tandem in the history of Latvian cinema was formed – they worked together for more than 35 years, establishing an autonomous studio in the 90s Animation Brigade and creating most of Latvian puppet animation gold fund. It shoudl be noted that Animation Brigade’s activity is also special on a global scale, as even in this age of general computerization, for many years, the highly valued hand work tradition, creating and moving “living dolls” was maintained.
Probably the most popular joint invention of Zimmermans and Putniņš is a series of short puppet films emergency team – three energetic men, bembelat, Sielink and Poterik, go to the aid of everyone in any complications, only as a result they may cause even more confusion… This anniversary collection includes a total of 13 Emergency Brigades short films of the cycle, and seven come from the very beginning, when the first films o