by Richard O’Connor
There’s a sequence in Drawn From Memory in which a young Paul Fierlinger sits in a bar with his former classmates Václav Havel, Milos Foreman, and the actor Pavel Landovský. They tell the story of a man who slipped through the Iron Curtain by posing as a marker painter along the road leading to the Austrian border. They all agree, an inspired idea but “a thing like that can only be done once.”
Layer upon layer upon layer of narrative constructs this sequence. The anecdote of the painter, “Picasso”, as the border guard named him, is a scene within the scene. The voice track doubles, Czech from the storyteller mixed under Fierlinger himself translating in his clipped, halting fashion. The scene cuts between the storyteller in the bar and the road to the border. The narrative voice of Fierlinger -sometimes speaking inside the story, other times, comments on the whole scene.
Drawn From Memory begins with a warning. The memory of a volcano. An eruption that never happened. The one incident etched in the artist’s mind from his earliest days is a false memory. From there he sketches out his biography, as he remembers it.
Paul Fierlinger might be best known for his Sesame Street films. He produced work for The Children’s Television Workshop beginning in the 1970s. The standouts are Teeny Little Super Guy series beginning 1982, running regularly until 2001. From his home studio outside Philadelphia he created over a dozen shorts for Sesame including the Alice Kadeezenberry series in the 1990s. Around that time he also made Amby & Dexter, interstitials for Nickelodeon. This work for children may be his most widely seen work (aside from TV commercials). Work marked by idiosyncratic animation, muted colors, tactile design and quiet sophistication which makes no gestures towards conforming to conventional approaches to children’s media.
In a life of awards and acclaim, Paul Fierlinger’s most lasting contribution to film might be the last few minutes of 1990’s And Then I’ll Stop… Sponsored by US Health (now Aetna) the film recounts first person stories of addicts. In the final minutes the animator takes the microphone. Working on the film, he says, made him consider his own alcohol addiction. He connects this to his personal and professional problems.
Drawn From Memory follows this film. And Drawn From Memory is followed by other films (Still Life with Animated Dogs, From Eliza to Paul and Sandra) which center his own life story. Music critics often credit Joni Mitchell with bringing personal narrative to pop songwriting. Prior to Ladies of the Canyon musicians might obliquely reference their personal lives, afterwards private adventures were regularly offered for public consumption. The final act of And Then I’ll Stop… likewise marks the beginning of an era when animators infused films with personal biography. Independent animation in 1980s was split between MTV cool and NFB style, the 70s were marked by an explosion of voices exploring the medium. The 1990s would begin the rise of non-fiction narrative (Abductees, Vester 1995. Snack and Drink, Sabiston 1999). Paul Fierlinger’s approach differs markedly from predecessors like John & Faith Hubley whose films were more improvisational than autobiographical. Fierlinger directly addressed the audience, as if standing firm on judgement day with every sin laid bare. A man like that can only be born once.
Paul Fierlinger was born on March 15, 1936 in Ashiya, Japan. His father, Jan, was a Czech diplomat. As explained in Drawn From Memory, his father and uncle decided to position themselves in places that might be advantageous at the conclusion of the Second World War. He wound up in a boarding school in Maine.
The Fierlingers returned to Prague after the war. His uncle became Prime Minister. The “Fierlinger” name earned Paul unwanted privilege in school and the military despite his poor ability to speak Czech and his overall disinterest in school. By 1958 he was producing animation in his home studio for Czechoslovak Television. After emigrating via Netherlands, then France Fierlinger set up shop in Wynnewood, PA opening AR&T (Animation Recording & Titling) Associates in 1971. AR&T produced upwards of 700 films, including Academy Award nominee It’s So Nice to Have a Wolf Around the House (1979), and the features My Dog Tulip (2009), Slocum at Sea with Himself (2015), More Vivid Than This Morning’s News (2024).
Paul Fierlinger died April 4, 2025 in his home outside Philadelphia. He is survived by his wife and collaborator Sandra (Schuette) Fierlinger and millions who grew up with his shorts and became better adults through experiencing his films.