DEFA-Studio für Trickfilme

The very first images in the film set unprecedented standards in East German animated film: a Buñuelean eye that fills the entire screen, real-life sequences of fleeing animals and a sound collage running contrary to what is seen on the screen. This also extends to the protagonist of the film, a head on a foot without a body or arms who pads wearily through the depressing surroundings. Upon seeing various figures in the sky, he begins to copy their movements. To his surprise, he himself manages to grow wings and takes to the skies. But his attempt at flight ends in a sobering manner however, as it is revealed that flying creatures are just restricted in their range.

The Mapuche tribe asks their Gods for help in difficult situations, including illness and drought. When the Spanish conquerers on their horses invade their country, the indigenous people think that they are aliens. The Spaniards capture and enslave many of the Mapuche tribe. Lautaro, a young captured native, realizes that these aliens are human beings without any divine power. He learns to use their weapons and organizes a resistance movement against the intruders.

There once was a poor miller who had no children but only three apprentices to work for him. The two older boys were lazy, mean and stupid, but youngest was hard-working, friendly, and cheerful. When the miller grows too old to work, he send the boys out into the world. Whoever brings back the most beautiful horse will inherit the mill.

This short animation collage uncovers the financial backing of the Chilean Junta bosses by the US. Screened at the 1976 Oberhausen Int. Film Festival.

With the young Friedrich Engel’s letters and drawings from the years between 1838 and 1842, a unique cinematic portrait is created. The viewer thus gets to know the young Engels personally, learning about the significant moments of his development from a bourgeois-liberal upbringing to the theoretical partner of Karl Marx. Later be awarded the Gold Dove at the International Leipzig Documentary and Short Film Week.

For the multimedia exhibition Tangenten I (Tangents I), Dammbeck and co-organizer, sculptor and painter Frieder Heinze had planned to collaborate on a film that would combine non-camera animation with 35mm footage of a train ride between the two Dresden districts of Radebeul and Pieschen. When the exhibition was banned in 1978, Heinze turned to other projects, but Dammbeck continued working on the film by himself. Metamorphoses I—the first experimental film ever to be shown publicly in East Germany—marks the filmic beginning of Dammbeck’s long-term art project the Herakles-Konzept (Hercules Concept).

An elegant crowd attends a meeting but, while they listen to the speech, all they really care about is the buffet.

In ancient China, there is a poet named Lo who lives in the emperor’s palace. While the hardworking people long for peace and happiness, Lo writes hymns in honor of the militant emperor, who is perpetually hungry for conquest. The monarch is pleased by the poet’s words, but the people do not want to hear the hymns praising him anymore. Lo is completely unaware of this and is surprised when the kitchen maid Hsi-Hua refuses to sing his hymns. With her help, Lo learns what the people really want and is able to see how cruel the emperor is.

Anna, the witch girl, has one short leg and one long leg and is therefore only called the hobble witch. Anna trains until she is far superior to all the others in both running and sneaking races. When she even reaches the end of the world and outwits two clumsy giants who do not want any creature to escape from this terrible place alive, she realises that she can be proud of herself.