Tributes

He is noted for his animation technique. While training to be a sculptor, he discovered that scratching images into painted plaster could be a beautiful way to create animations. This is only one technique of a method called destructive animation, where one image is erased (in this case, painted over) and re-drawn to create the next frame in the sequence. William Kentridge is another artist who works in this destructive way. Dumala's main themes, and the way to show them, recall ostensibly the world of writer Franz Kafka. His film Crime and Punishment was included in the Animation Show of Shows.

His films won over 90 international prizes, among them Grand Prix in Zagreb, Cracow, Espinho, Amsterdam, Montreal and Ottawa.

 

Filmography

1981 Lykanthropy (Lykantropia)

1983 The Little Black Riding Hood (Czarny kapturek)

1984 Flying Hair (Latajace Wlosy)

1985 A Gentle Spirit (Lagodna)

1987 Academy Leader Variations (segment)

1987 Nervous Life of the Universe (Nerwowe zycie kosmosu)

1988 Walls (Sciany)

1989 Freedom of Leg (Wolnosc nogi)

1992 Franz Kafka

2000 Crime and Punishment (Zbrodnia i kara)

2009 The Forest (Las) – live-action feature film

2010 Dr Character Presents (Dr Charakter przedstawia)

- Fight, Love & Work (Walka, milosc i praca)

2011 Dr Character Presents 2 (Dr Charakter przedstawia 2)

2012 8 Quartet of Shostakovich (8 kwartet Szostakowicza)

- Lullaby (Kołysanka)

2014 Hippos (Hipopotamy)

2015 Ederly – live-action feature film

 

 

THE SCREENING (selection)

1. The Little Black Riding Hood / Czarny Kapturek, 5 min.
2. A Gentle Spirit / Lagodna 12 min.
3. Freedom of Leg / Wolnosc nogi, 10 min.
4. Franz Kafka 16 min.
5. Dr Character presents / Dr Charakter przedstawia, 8 min.
6. 8 Quartet of Shostakovich / 8 Kwartet Szostakowicza, 20 min. [only for educational use]
7. Hippos / Hipopotamy, 13 min.

 

 

 

1. THE LITTLE BLACK RIDING HOOD / CZARNY KAPTUREK, 6’

Poland 1983

Screenplay, Directed, Animated: Piotr Dumała

Technique: 2D drawing animation

Director of Photography: Grzegorz Świetlikowski

Music: Janusz Hajdun

Production: Studio Małych Form Filmowych Se-Ma-For (Łódź)

Dialogues: None

 

This black humoured animation is an original interpretation of the popular fairytale “Little Red Riding Hood”. Little Black Riding Hood is an antagonist who sets out to visit his grandmother. On the way through the forest, he meets the wolf and instantly devours it. A hunter shoots Little Black Riding Hood, but the wolf escapes the dead body and devours the hunter. The wolf grabs the hunter’s rifle and hurries off towards the grandmother’s cottage…

 

Awards:

1983, 2nd Award in the 5–10 minute category at the 3rd International Animated Film Festival in Varna, Bulgaria.

1984, Honourable Mention at the 12th International Huesca Film Festival, Spain.

 

 

 

2. A GENTLE SPIRIT / ŁAGODNA, 12’

Poland 1985

Screenplay, Directed, Animated: Piotr Dumała

Co-animation: Woiciech Wojtkowski

Technique: 2D drawing animation

Director of Photography: Zdzisław Siwecki

Music: Zygmunt Konieczny

Production: Studio Miniatur Filmowych (Warszawa)

Dialogues: (Narration by Józef Duriasz)

 

Piotr Dumala's adaptation of Dostoyevsky's "A Gentle Creature" is a study in brown on brown, the visual equivalent of an Emily Dickinson poem laid over a Henry James novel with an Edward Gorey bookmark. It's the tragic story of a man and a woman's emotionally damaging relationship, told without a word...

 

Awards (selected):

1985: Golden Dragon, 22. Krakow ISFF, Poland

1985: Golden Ducat, 34. IFF Mannheim, Germany

1985: I Award “Silver Dancer”, 23. ISFF Huesca, Spain.

1986: Special Award, IAFF Hamilton, Canada.

 

 

 

3. FREEDOM OF LEG / WOLNOŚĆ NOGI, 10’

Poland 1988

Screenplay, Directed, Animated: Piotr Dumała

Technique: 2D drawing animation

Director of Photography: Grzegorz Świetlikowski, Krzysztof Męcina

Music: Janusz Hajdun, Mariusz Stopnicki

Production: Studio Małych Form Filmowych Se-Ma-For (Łódź)

Dialogues: None

 

A dream-like story of a sleeping man whose body parts live his own lives at night to return to him in the morning - all except one leg, which has chosen freedom. Its owner as well as a crowd of homeless men chases the leg, but it grows feathers and flies away as a bird. A grotesque tale with a poetic ending.

 

Awards (selected):

1989: Grand Prix at 1st Animated Film Biennial FAZY'89 in Bielsko-Biała, Poland

1989: Bronze Hobby Horse at 19th National Short Film Festival in Cracow, Poland

1989: Professional Prize at the Kiev KROK Festival

1990: 1st Prize for a 5 to12 Minute Film at the Zagreb World Festival of Animated Films.

 

 

 

4. FRANZ KAFKA, 16’

Poland 1991

Screenplay, Directed, Animated: Piotr Dumała

Technique: 2D drawing animation

Director of Photography: Jan Maciej Ptasiński, Adam Dąbrowski, Barbara Stankiewicz, Adam Mickiewicz

Music: Janusz Hajdun

Production: Studio Miniatur Filmowych (Warszawa)

Dialogue: None

 

Based on Franz Kafka's diaries, this piece centres on a few years of the writer's life. Kafka's descriptions of plasticity, desire and sensuality are expressed visually.

 

Awards (selected):

1992: Bronze Dragon, 29. Krakow ISFF, Poland

1992: Grand Prix, 10^th Zagreb World Festival of Animated Films

1992: 1^st Prize in the 15 – 30 minute film category at the 4^th Hiroshima IAF

1992: Award for the best animated film at the 38^th ISFF Oberhausen

1992: Grand Prix at the IAFF Espinho

1992: Award for the best animation at the Ottawa IAF

 

 

 

5. Dr CHARACTER PRESENTS / DR CHARAKTER PRZEDSTAWIA, 8’

Poland 2010

Screenplay, Directed, Animated: Piotr Dumała

Technique: 2D drawing animation

Director of Photography: Robert Rząca

Music: Wojciech Lemański

Production: Serafinski Studio

Dialogues: Polish

 

A pastiche of old TV programmes explaining science to the general public and an ironic commentary on peculiarities that have pervaded contemporary TV programmes. In his original programme Dr Character, modelled on a person from the opening credits of A Billion in Mind, a game show (which, by the way, was made by Piotr Dumała many years ago), presents extraordinary scientists, original inventors and a selection of curiosities. Jerzy, Płażewski, a doyen of the Polish film critics, gave his voice to the character.

 

Awards:

2012, 8th World Festival of Animated Film in Varna, Bulgaria, Jury Prize (TV series)

 

 

 

6. 8 QUARTET OF SHOSTAKOVICH / 8 Kwartet Szostakowicza, 20’

[only for educational use]

Poland 2009

Screenplay, Directed, Animated: Piotr Dumała

Technique: 2D drawing animation

Director of Photography:

Music: Dmitri Shostakovich

Production: Animator - International Festival of Animation

Dialogues: None

 

String Quartet No 8 is a new version of the film, made by Dumała and editor Beata Walentowska using the music String Quartet No 8 in C Minor by Dmitri Shostakovich.

 

 

 

7. HIPPOS / HIPOPOTAMY, 12’ 29”

Poland 2014

Screenplay, Directed, Co-Animated: Piotr Dumała

Co-Animated: Paweł Dębski

Technique: 2D drawn animation

Director of Photography: Mateusz Michalak

Music: Alexander Balanescu

Production: FUMI Studio

Dialogues: None

 

"Ballet of the cruelty", which is a disturbing study of human nature...

 

Awards (selected):

2014, Grand Prize, Ottawa International Animation Festival, Canada

2014, Silver Hobby-Horse, 54th Krakow Film Festival, Poland

2014: Special Mention, 24th Animafest World Festival of Animated Film, Zagreb, Croatia,

2014: Best 2D Animation, 7th Banjaluka IAFF, Bosnia and Herzegovina

2014: Best Animation, Cinefiesta 2014, Puerto Rico,

2014: KLIK! Award for the Best Animated Short, KLIK! Amsterdam Animation Festival, The Netherlands

2014: 56th International Festival of Documentary and Short Film of Bilbao ZINEBI, Spain, 2014 (Cine Club Fas Award)

2014: Les Sommets du cinéma d'animation, Canada, 2014 (Grand Prix)

2015: Best Animated Film, 19th Regard sur le court, Canada,

2015: Best Animated Short, 20th Riga International Film festival 2ANNAS 2015, Latvia,

2015: 2nd Award "Silver Sack", O!PLA 2015, in the category “Film made in professional studio”

2015: 9th Kinofest International Digital Film Festival, Romania, 2015 (Best Animated Film)

2015: Fesancor 2015, Chile, 2015 (Best International Animation)