Over two consecutive weekends in November (Nov 12—14 & Nov 18—20), BAMcinématek presents Puppets on Film, the most complete survey of live puppetry in cinema ever compiled for both children and adults alike, with a total of 54 films (19 features and 35 shorts), including two international film premieres, Muppet movies, seven recent documentaries on the art form, 80s cult classics, a roster of fantasy films, shorts by contemporary artists, and the story of an angry tire.

Legend of the Sacred Stone

Two dozen special guests will appear in person for Q&As and introductions, including Jim Henson’s daughters Cheryl Henson, president of the Jim Henson Foundation and Heather Henson, artistic director of Ibex Films; actor John Turturro (Rehearsal for a Sicilian Tragedy); performance artist Joey Arias (Arias with a Twist); puppeteers Kevin Clash (Elmo), Martin P. Robinson (Leonardo in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), and Basil Twist (Arias with a Twist); Sesame Street cameraman James Miller; conceptual designers Brian and Wendy Froud (The Dark Crystal); Jim Henson’s Creature Shop creative supervisor Peter Brooke; directors David Soll (Puppet) and Roman Paska (Rehearsal for a Sicilian Tragedy); and many, many more.

Long before computer-generated imagery, inanimate and often adorable creations of fabric,foam, and wood were brought to life by hidden human hands. Puppets on Film assembles works of fiction and nonfiction from seven countries to celebrate the universal, magical art of puppetry and the myriad ways in which the art form has been incorporated into live-action filmmaking, as opposed to stop-motion puppetry or claymation. This epic series features the New York premiere of the award-winning festival hit Kooky by Jan Sverák (Kolya, winner of the Best Foreign Language Oscar), the US premiere of the Taiwanese martial arts cult epic Legend of the Sacred Stone, and NY premieres of many shorts.

Overshadowed by stop-motion animation and, more recently, computer-generated imagery, puppetry in the cinema has offered artists a way to create fantasy worlds without eschewing the human touch. “It’s the idea of being inside someone else’s skin, and seeing what they see, and feeling what they feel,” describes puppeteer Craig Schwartz (John Cusack) in Being John Malkovich. Puppets are perennial children’s favorites, but they pop up in a diverse range of films meant for adults, too. For movie audiences, they are an expression of childlike wonder and imagination—or, perhaps, an offbeat avenue into the more adult realms of raunchy satire, gory horror, and art-house introspection.

In anticipation of the November 23 release of The Muppets, the first feature film in 12 years to star the beloved puppet menagerie, Puppets on Film includes a selection of films produced, directed, or godfathered by Muppets creator Jim Henson, cinema’s most famous puppeteer. Beginning in his teens, Henson performed with puppets on local television, gradually refining his art of rod puppetry and creating the troupe of anthropomorphic animal critters now known around the world: Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, and the rest. The popularity of the Muppets’ eponymous 1976 television show led to a series of feature films and enabled Henson to pursue some of his dream projects. September 24, 2011 marked what would have been Jim Henson’s 75th birthday. The Jim Henson Company and the Jim Henson Foundation continue to celebrate the art of puppetry and the legacy of the Muppets. “I don’t write for felt,” Michael O’Donoghue famously quipped when the Muppets appeared on Saturday Night Live. But we defy anyone else not to be won over by Kermit and the rest of Henson’s gang, who headline two of the films in the series. Cheryl Henson, daughter of Jim Henson and president of the Jim Henson Foundation, introduces the screening of The Muppet Movie (1979—Nov 13), which was recently added to the National Film Registry and has something for everyone: cornball humor (“Drinks are on the house!”), an Academy Award-nominated song (“The
Rainbow Connection” by Paul Williams), and a raft of celebrity cameos (Orson Welles and Richard Pryor, among others). It also delights in the challenges of concealing the puppeteers as the Muppets moved out of the studio and into the real world, driving cars, riding bicycles, and interacting with human performers. Muppet Treasure Island (1996—Nov 20), the fifth of seven Muppet movies (so far), offers the irresistible combination of Muppets, pirates and a peg-legged Tim Curry.

Sesame Street, Henson’s other television classic, is represented in the series with The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland (1999—Nov 20), a vehicle for the breakout “second-generation” character Elmo, and Sundance Special Jury Prize winner Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey (2011—Nov 20), an inspiring documentary profile of Kevin Clash (appearing in person to introduce the screening), the puppeteer who has animated the furry red whatsit for more than 25 years. Codirected by Henson and Frank Oz (the voice of Fozzie Bear), The Dark Crystal (1982—Nov 18), a sweeping Tolkienesque fantasy lensed in CinemaScope and featuring no human characters at all, confirms Henson as an auteur. Conceptual designers Brian and Wendy Froud, who created the characters, will introduce the film. An outgrowth of The Dark Crystal’s logistically daunting production, Jim Henson’s Creature Shop has designed and operated life-size animatronic bipeds for a number of films, including two in the series: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990—Nov 18), a spin-off of the cult comic book, and Where the Wild Things Are (2009—Nov 20), Spike Jonze and writer Dave Eggers’ uncompromising adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s critically acclaimed but notoriously dark children’s book.

Puppets on Film also imports two puppet-based epics that are sure to become instant underground favorites. Falling somewhere between The Velveteen Rabbit and Toy Story as interpreted by Jan Svankmajer, Kooky (2011—Nov 20; NY premiere), winner of four Czech Lion film awards, is the story of an abandoned teddy bear “forced to stand on his two stuffed feet” as he journeys across the wild Bohemian woods. Adapted from a Taiwanese television series, Chris Huang’s indescribable Legend of the Sacred Stone (2000—Nov 12; North American premiere) is a colorful, lightning-paced, all-puppet martial arts opus, featuring astoundingly choreographed fight scenes between wire-operated marionettes.

Among the documentary offerings, beloved actor and BAMcinématek regular John Turturro travels to Sicily to trace his family history and explore the ancient tradition of Italian marionette theater in Rehearsal For a Sicilian Tragedy (2010—Nov 13). Turturro and director Roman Paska will introduce the film. The quirky Dumbstruck (2010—Nov 13) penetrates the “vent” subculture in its portrayal of five ventriloquists, some successful, others much less so, while Lindsey “Z.” Briggs’ Puppet Rampage (2007—Nov 18) records more than 500 puppeteers as they converge at the biannual National Puppetry Festival. David Soll’s Puppet (2010—Nov 12) spotlights puppeteer Dan Hurlin and examines critical resistance to the idea of puppetry as high art, while Arias with a Twist (2010—Nov 19), winner of the Audience Award at last year’s Tribeca Film Festival, chronicles the hit stage collaboration of performance artist Joey Arias and puppeteer Basil Twist (who both will introduce the screening, along with director Bobby Sheehan). Also in the series are documentary snapshots of regional puppet traditions and performances from around the globe: the Dutch street puppet phenomenon Electric Circus (The Puppeteer & the Inventor, 2008—Nov 14); Russian marionettist Igor Fokin, who became a fixture in Harvard Square late in life (The Story of Fenist, 2001—Nov 14); an Indian couple who restore and revive a collection of 150-year-old puppets (Born Again, 2001—Nov 14); the giant mechanical marionettes of the French company Royal de Luxe (The Saga of the Giants, 2000—Nov 14); and the South Africa-based Handspring Theatre’s production of War Horse (Making War Horse, 2009—Nov 14), the US production of which won the 2011 Tony Award for Best Play. Emphatically reminding us that puppets are not just for kids, Puppets on Film gathers a number of contemporary cult and independent films that incorporate various styles of puppetry. For Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990—Nov 14 in its original theatrical version), director Joe Dante reprised the puppet Mogwai from his 1984 horror hit to spoof both the original film and hundreds of other pop culture targets. Either the high or the low point of Bush II-era foreign policy satire, Trey Parker’s raunchy, profane Team America: World Police (2004—Nov 18) has fornicating and projectilevomiting puppets, not to mention marionette effigies of Alec Baldwin, Michael Moore, and a “ronery” Kim Jong-il, all operated with hilariously deliberate wires. Rubber (2011—Nov 13), a postmodern horror outing by French director/DJ Quentin Dupieux, concerns the mayhem committed by a homicidal automobile tire animated with hand puppetry and remote control. The protagonist of Being John Malkovich (1999—Nov 19), the first of acclaimed screenwriter Charlie Kaufman’s Möbius-strip meta-narratives, is a morose, misunderstood puppeteer. For Kaufman, puppetry embodies all of the fragile, underappreciated art forms, and director Spike Jonze respects the craft, showcasing several beautiful performances by Phillip Huber of the Huber Marionettes.

Highlights of the shorts programs include Higglety Pigglety Pop! Or There Must Be More to Life, another Maurice Sendak adaptation from Oscar-nominated filmmakers Chris Lavis and Maciek Szcerbowski (Madame Tutli Putli), and Genevieve Anderson’s Too Loud a Solitude, based on a novella by famed Czech author Bohumil Hrabal (Closely Watched Trains). Lyon Hill’s award winning short Junk Palace puppetizes the Collyer brothers, the two eccentric hoarders (and famous New Yorkers) who died morbid and much-publicized deaths in their Harlem mansion in 1947, and Moonfishing, a visually dazzling Tim Burton-esque fairy tale introduced by its director, David Michael Friend.

Puppets on Film is curated by Cheryl Henson and Lindsey “Z.” Briggs of the Jim Henson Foundation, and BAMcinématek.