IRENA DODAL



THE HISTORY OF CZECH ANIMATED FILM OF THE 1920s AND 1930s (Dodalovi: Elekta-Journal, IRE-film)

The aim of the project is to study primary sources to reconstruct the history of Czech animated film, which developed and flourished in the 1920s in the framework of Elekta-Journal (Karel Dodal, Hermína Týrlová-Dodalová) and in the 193s in the first studio of animated film with sound, IRE-film (Karel Dodal, Irena Leschnerová, Hermína Týrlová). The project is focused on the filling the gaps in our biographical, production and filmographic knowledge of the subject, on study of the authorial concept behind the Dodals' work, and analysis of their output and also period comments on the theme in the press. 

Karel Dodal was the first Czech film-maker to specialise as draughtsman, animator, trick cameraman and director on animated film, especially cartoon.  He started in Elekta-Journal,  went on to found the IRE-film studio together with Irena Leschnerová in 1933 ateliér IRE-film, and later continued to work in animation in exile in the USA and Argentina. Hermína Týrlová, who was married to Dodal from 1928 to 1932, worked as an animator and in-betweener in Elekta-Journal and later in IRE-film, and at the beginning of the German protectorate found work as a director and animator of puppet films in Zlín (Gottwaldov). Irena Rosnerová, née Leschnerová, became Karel Dodal's life partner (from 1935 his wife) an in the IRE-dim studio fulfilled the functions of film producer, screen-writer and director. She also worked in animation for a period after the war in the USA and Argentina, later making documentary films and working as a theatre director and teacher. Her period of imprisonment in the Terezín Ghetto was an important separate episode in her life .*)

The project involves the study of film, photographic and written documents in the NFA, National Archive, regional and town archives and documents in private archives. 
Foreign archives will also be asked to co-operate, and the method of oral history will be exploited where this is possible. 

Project researcher: PhDr. Eva Strusková