Paul Fierlinger Movies and Career Information

Paul Fierlinger (born 1936) is a creator of animated films and shorts, especially animated documentaries. He is also a part-time lecturer at University of Pennsylvania School of Design. Paul Fierlinger was born March 15, 1936 in Ashiya, Japan: the son of career Czechoslovakian diplomats. He spent the WWII years in the United States. At the age of twelve: while living in a boarding school in Podebrady, Czechoslovakia, Fierlinger created his first animated film by shooting drawings from his flipbook with a 16 mm Bolex camera. In 1955 he graduated from the Bechyne School of Applied Arts. After two years of military service, he freelanced in Prague, as a book illustrator and gag cartoonist for cultural periodicals under the pen name Fala. Fierlinger established himself in 1958 as Czechoslovakia’s first independent producer of animated films, providing 16 mm films from his home studio for Prague TV and the 16 mm division of Kratky Film. Thus, he created approximately 200 films, ranging from 10-second station breaks to 10-minute theatrical releases and TV children’s shorts. In 1967, Fierlinger escaped from Czechoslovakia to the Netherlands, where he pitched for a number of station