Videos are listed alphabetically by company. Punch & Judy performers appear together under Punch & Judy.
BENJAMIN POLLOCK. ‘Penny Plain, Two Pence Coloured,’ a Gaumont newsreel about manufacturing of Pollock toy theatres before WWII. Clicking link downloads a WMV file to your computer.
BRITISH MOVIETONE Large collection of news reels and television programmes. See e.g. ‘Behind the Scenes at a Marionette Show’ for a backstage look at the London Marionette Theatre in 1930.
BRITISH PATHE. Astounding collection of historic newsreels from around the world. Search under mask, marionette, puppet etc. and download videos to your basket. Links to videos you select are sent to you by email.
BUTTON MOON. 1980s science fiction television series for young children starring utensil puppets created by Playboard Puppets.
CABARET MECHANICAL THEATRE. Virtual exhibitions of hand-cracked performing objects by Carlos Zapata and others.
EVANS, NATHAN. Booth puppet shows with a homosexual edge riffing on pop themes—Kate Bush, Ziggy Stardust, Punch and Jude.
FINGER KINGDOM. Comical and gentle fairy tales with knight, wizard and dragon finger puppets by Ed Hartwell.
GREEN GINGER. Rust. Pirate radio stations operating off the coast of Wales. A reel for an expressionist drama with tabletop puppets.
HAYWARD, DOUGLAS. Marionette variety turns performed by English puppeteers Douglas and Hazel Hayward. See especially their Danse Macabre. For videos, click on photos of puppets then attachments
HULL, ROD. When Puppets Attack. Puppet sidekick Emu attacks the host of a Dutch variety show in a 1979 television broadcast.
HUMDRUM. Oscar-nominated silhouette film by Peter Peake about bored shadow puppets playing with hand shadows.
MICHAELS, PETE. Compilation of clips from the ventriloquist’s tv appearances.
ON THE OTHER HAND PUPPET THEATRE. Wordless excerpt from Moving Tales, a solo tabletop puppet performance by Ken Haines about Mr Potter and his foibles.
PUNCH & JUDY Punch & Judy-A History. Multimedia presentation of Punch and Judy in Liverpool and video clip from a Punch show by Professor Codman.
PUNCH & JUDY Punch and Judy Man. Multimedia presentation about the career of Punch professor Mark Poulton.
PUNCH AND JUDY. Geoff Felix. Short clip showing the doctor routine from a 2005 Covent Garden performance.
SOOTY. Classic British television glove puppetry by Harry Corbett.
SPITTING IMAGE. The Ronnie and Nancy Show, a one-off satire of President Ronald Reagan’s wedding anniversary and an averted nuclear holocaust created for American TV. Not as funny as it once was.
SPITTING IMAGE. Da Do Run Ron. Mock 1984 campaign ad for American president Ronald Reagan. Political satire with latex puppets from the ITV programme created by Peter Fluck and Roger Law.
SPITTING IMAGE. Grantham Anthem. Political satirical song performed by latex puppet of Margaret Thatcher from the cult puppet TV show.
STAR FLEET. British version of Japanese sci-fi supermarionation television series from 1982, combining Star Wars subject with Gerry Anderson puppet techniques.
TELEGOONS. An episode of the hilarious 1960s BBC marionette series.
WATCH WITH MOTHER. Classic television puppets: Andy Pandy; Bill and Ben; Rag, Tag and Bobtail; The Woodentops.
EUROPE
Videos are listed alphabetically by country of origin of performers or directors.
BELGIUM. Vlinders. Evocative excerpts for puppet and object theatre for children: Papersnippets, Bear Tales, Valentino and Oestise Poetsie.
BELGIUM. Lanterna Magica. Short magic lantern show featuring classic 19th century tricks: jumping rope, juggling, explosion.
BELGIUM. Puppets on a Plank. Anonymous street puppeteer plays pipes and dances two planchette puppets at the Ghent Festival in 2005.
CYPRUS. Karagoz. Short dialogue from traditional Turkish shadow puppet play. Clicking the link initiates download of an MPEG file.
CZECH REPUBLIC. Svankmajer, Jan. Short clips from Alice and other surreal puppet animation films by this seminal Czech puppet film artist.
CZECH REPUPLIC. Svankmajer, Jan. Et Cetera. Stop motion film directed by Svankmajer, influenced by shadow puppetry.
CZECH REPUPLIC. Svankmajer, Jan. The Death of Stalinism in Bohemia. Anti-propaganda object film without dialogue or actors’ faces. Uploaded on Spanish YouTube account. Confirmation of age required.
DENMARK. Strings. Trailer for brilliant new Danish string puppet film directed by Anders Rønnow-Klarlund.
FRANCE Loic Bettini Colourful and imaginative cabaret marionettes set to music and animated by masked solo performer Loic Bettini.
FRANCE THEATRE GUIGNOL ANATOLE. Short documentary about an outdoor guignol (glove puppet) theatre for children in Park Buttes Chaumont, Paris, with puppeteer Pascal Pruvost and much audience interaction.
FRANCE. Le Théâtre Pas Sage. See particularly Le Tonneau (Polichinelle) for rough hand puppetry with a swazzle-toting relative of Mr Punch.
FRANCE. Taxi 2M. Piece from Champagne Ardenne created by students and teachers of the Institut International de la Marionnette, combining puppets, object theatre, dance and movement.
FRANCE. Automata Musical machines and living dolls. Charming collection of 19th and early 20th century French automata.
FRANCE. Compagnie Philippe Genty. Short reel for ‘Vanishing Point,’ a spectacle of dance, puppets and performing objects.
FRANCE. Guignol Guerin. elevision segment on traditional French glove puppets.
FRANCE. Guignol. Traditional singing and dancing glove puppet from the Musée International de la Marionnette de la Ville de Lyon.
FRANCE. Les Guignols de l’Info. Satirical political puppets for television, à la Spitting Image.
FRANCE. Les Guignols de l’Info. Clinton F***er. Spitting Image style Bill Clinton puppet plays an adult video game.
FRANCE. Polichinelle Automaton manipulating two jumping jack puppets.
FRANCE. Robert-Houdin, a Magicians Life. Trailer for French documentary about the 19th century magician, with restorations of his astounding automatons.
FRANCE. Royal de Luxe. Video clips and images of a procession through the cathedral town of Nantes, with giant puppets including an elephant of the Sultan of the Far Indies, celebrating Jules Verne centennial.
FRANCE. Royal de Luxe. The Little Girl in The Sultan’s Elephant, as performed in London in 2006.
FRANCE. Royal de Luxe. Petite Géante. Five meter tall puppet in Nantes.
FRANCE. Vaucanson, Jacques de. Recreation of Vaucanson’s famed duck automaton.
GERMANY. Fabula Filmpuppen. Dancing body costumed frog with pop music.
GERMANY. Freakz. Processional puppets and masks by students of the Musikhochschule Stuttgart Fachgruppe Figurentheater.
GERMANY. Kaspar. Der Verzaubert Kaspar. Traditional hand puppets introduce road safety to a lively audience of German children.
GERMANY. Lille Kartofler Figurentheaters. Bunraku-style puppets presenting children’s fables.
GERMANY. Oskar Schlemmer. Mechanical ballet. Masks and body puppets in a restoration of a classic Bauhaus stage work.
GERMANY. Oskar Schlemmer. Man and Mask: Oskar Schlemmer and the Bauhaus Stage. Documentary about the Bauhaus stage and its masks and body puppets.
GERMANY. Rebecca Horn. Panel discussion about body artist Horn’s contemporary automata and painting machines.
GREECE. Heron’s automaton. Animated reconstruction of ancient Greek automaton from the Association for the Study of the Ancient Greek Technology and the Technology Museum of Thessaloniki. (With Greek voiceover.)
GREECE. Marionette Theater Gotsi. Clips from Forest Stories and Pinokio, marionette shows for children.
HUNGARY. Ferenc Cako. Ferenc Cako. Live sand animation. See particularly ‘Cako sand animation in Seoul 2003’.
HUNGARY. Mikropodium. Swimming dolphin from Stop.
HUNGARY. Mikropodium.Stop. Reel of the wordless puppet piece performed with small but expressive puppets combining features of rod puppet, Vietnamese water puppets and bunraku.
ITALY. Meandro Scoperto. Video clips of digitally reconstructed Greek New Comedy masks in performance by Italian actors, in English and Italian.
ITALY. Burattini a tavoletta. Planchette puppet and folk music in a Mazzano Romano wine cellar.
ITALY. Cigarini, Dante. Hand puppets and ventriloquist and other variety figures.
ITALY. Topo Gigio Ten inch tall mouse puppet playing sidekick to talk show host Ed Sullivan circa 1965.
NETHERLANDS. 60 Degrees. Quicktime video clip of a unique work by Silo Theater, the best known Dutch object theatre.
NETHERLANDS. Mirrors for the Blind. An English-language video about a carver who breathes lives into marionettes by King Sigurd’s Magic Mirror Marionette Theatre, under the direction of Sigurd Olivier.
NETHERLANDS. Vischmarkt Papieren Theater. The Miller and His Men. Opening sequence of this classic toy theatre play, with figures moving to an arrangement of the Henry Bishop score.
NETHERLANDS. Lejo Theatre and Animation. Wordless cabaret of puppets fashioned from human hands and pairs of eyes.
NETHERLANDS. Stuffed Puppet. Excerpt from Schicklgruber, a provocative drama with mouth puppets about Hitlers last days. Puppetry by Australian-born Neville Tranter.
PORTUGAL. S.A.Marionetas - Teatro & Bonecos. Glove and table puppets, including a delightful folkloric Teatro Dom Roberto, Portugal’s version of Mr Punch presented by José Gil.
RUSSIA. Omsk State Theatre of Puppet, Actor, Mask ‘Harlequin.’ Puppets, animated dolls, acting and storytelling for adults and children. See especially Rose and Spider, Cisterellia and Tale about Tsar Herode or Vertepschik, the company’s revival of Vertep.
SPAIN Marimba Marionetas. Collection of Spanish television clips about this children’s company from Madrid.
SPAIN. String puppet skeleton danced to music by a street performer in Barcelona.
SPAIN. Bertran, Jordi. Trampolinista from Poemes Visuals. SPAIN. Bertran, Jordi. Trampolinista from Poemes Visuals. A foam rod puppet contends with a musician playing guitar and kazoo to get the proper music for its death-defying dive.
SPAIN. Marimba Marionetas. Robin Hood, Peter Pan and dinosaurs as glove, tabletop and muppet-style puppets from the Madrid children’s puppet company.
SWITZERLAND. Mummenschanz. Comic mask play without words and across cultures.
SWITZERLAND. Mummenschanz. The Swiss mask troupe in a wordless skit about personal grooming and mask envy from The Muppet Show.
SWITZERLAND. Mummenschanz. Duct. The Swiss troupe animate a length of connected tube from the inside to form different shapes and portraits. Comic genius at work.
TURKEY.Ankara Cagdas Sanat Tiyatrosu. Blacklight puppet version of Karagoz, the traditional Turkish shadow puppet theatre.
NORTH AMERICA
Videos are listed alphabetically by company, show name or principal creator.
NEW YORK WORLD’S FAIR, 1939-1940 Includes footage of mechanical hoochie-coochie dancers.
NEW YORK WORLD’S FAIR, 1939-1940 Includes footage of W.P.A. puppeteers.
NEW YORK WORLD’S FAIR, 1939-1940 Includes giant inflatable puppet procession.
ALIEN ALERT! Humorous puppet web series about alien who crash-lands in Hollywood.
ALVARADO, PROFESSOR EDUARDO. 76 year old street entertainer playing Yamaha keyboard with dancing dolls in New York subway station.
AVENUE Q Video clips from the Tony Award winning puppet musical.
AVENUE Q. It Sucks to be Me. Duet from the hit muppet-style musical from the Tony award ceremony.
AVENUE Q. Discussion about the London production of this puppet musical from BBC’s Newsnight Review, with clips from the stage show.
BAIRD, STEPHEN. Folk singer singing Put Your Fingers to children with muppet style puppet.
BILLY BASTARD. Trailer for adult puppet crime series in production about a tripolar megalomaniac, from makers of Rem & Stimpy.
Bits N Pieces Puppet Theatre Musical Tale of Peter Rabbit. All-singing, all-dancing adaptation of Beatrix Potter featuring masked actors and puppets.
BOOK OF POOH. Television series created by Mitchell Kriegman combining bunraku-style puppets with CG virtual sets.
BOWMAN, JACK. Evocative short clips of work by political puppeteer and performance artist Jack Bowman.
BREAD AND PUPPET. 19th annual Domestic Resurrection Circus, with Peter Schumann’s trademark masks, stilts and giant puppets.
BREAD AND PUPPET. Ah! The Hopeful Pageantry of Bread and Puppet. Feature-length documentary about Peter Schuman’s radical puppet and mask company.
CAKEY! THE CAKE FROM OUTER SPACE. Cable TV show starring a boy with a growth disorder and a talking alien cake.
CALDER, ALEXANDER. Calder’s Circus. Object animation of a toy circus in wire, with narration and dialogue in English and pigeon French. A modernist classic dating back to 1927.
CALDER, ALEXANDER. Cirque de Calder. 1961 film of Calder performing his toy circus constructed in 1920-30. A masterpiece of object animation.
CANADA. Cabaret U-Mano. Adult cabaret using grotesque bunraku-style puppets.
CANADA. Edmonton Public Library Shows. Glove puppet shows of classic children’s tales performed by library staff.
CANADA. Mr Meaty. Puppet television series about fast food restaurant employees.
CANADA. Nanalan’. Preschool puppet television show about a little girl and her caregiver.
CANADA: CABARET DECADANSE. Bunraku-style puppets from Quebec in adult cabaret numbers.
CANADA: L’Ubus Théâtre. Le Périple. Delightful tabletop puppets and sand animation in a French language philosophical fable for the entire family.
CANADA: Street Theatre. Puppets, masks and performing objects used for celebration and protest in Canada.
CANADA: ZeD. Very large collection of online videos from Canada. Search (top right)under ‘puppet,’ ‘mask’ etc.
CENTURY OF PROGRESS Century of Progress Exposition: Wings of a Century. Includes silent footage of automaton dinosaurs at The Chicago World’s Fair in 1933.
CHAPLIN, CHARLIE. The Gold Rush. Reel for classic silent comedy featuring Chaplin’s famous dancing dinner roles.
CORMIER, GEOFF. Wayang Modern: Stalingrad Impressions. Javanese shadow puppet techniques presenting images from the Battle of Stalingrad for an unreleased film.
CORNBLATT, MARQUE. Marque Cornblatt Interactive Kinetic Sculptures. Evocative reel of moving sculptures, many combining video with representations of the human body.
CRANK YANKERS Adult puppetry with muppet-style puppets from Comedy Central.
DANTE’S INFERNO. Updating of the journey to hell by ‘hapless slacker’ Dante, performed in the style of graphic novels and toy theatre with paper figures.
DEAR JAMIE… SINCERELY ME. Music video with finger puppets to the music of Hellogoodbye.
DEMAR, BILL. Brilliant children’s ventriloquist routine with the congested frog Feldon.
DRAGON AND LION DANCING. Traditional Chinese pageant animation courtesy of the John Wai Kung Fu Academy of Florida.
DRAMA OF WORKS. Doctor Faustus. Demonstration of grotesque tabletop puppets from this puppet adaptation of Christopher Marlowe.
DRUMS AND SHADOWS Shadow puppet Macbeth adaptation produced at UMass Fine Arts Center in 2003, with puppets by Miguel Romero.
DUNHAM, JEFF. Ventriloquist. Act with cantankerous Walter on the David Letterman Show.
ENVIRONMENTAL ENCROACHMENT Chicago radical puppet group videos.
ERNEST AND BERTRAM Infamous short film by Peter Spears. ‘Lillian Hellman visits Sesame Street. A tale of rumors, innuendo, and felt as the secret lives of childhood icons are revealed.’
EULENSPIEGEL PUPPETS. Backstage with the Eulenspiegel Puppets. Television segment about the educational show Freedom Show: Gertie’s Journey on the Underground Railroad, featuring shadow, rod and bunraku-style puppets.
EXTREME DIET COKE & MENTHOS EXPERIMENTS, THE. Fizzy drink dancing fountain created by Eepybird scientists by adding Menthos mints to 200 liters of Diet Coke.
FIFTEEN MINUTES: OF MICE AND MOPS. Global Puppet News staff present the weekly puppet news magazine of the air, with muppet-style puppets.
FLEXITOON. Hamlin. Puppet adaptation of Pied Piper starring a Spanglish-speaking cockroach. High quality children’s show.
FLOWERS, WAYLAND. Wayland’s extravagant puppet creation Madame exchanges witticisms and sings a song with Golden Girl Bea Arthur on this television clip.
FRAGGLE ROCK. Opening title for 1980s puppet television show with Henson’s trademark muppets.
GAMBLE, JIM. The Burlesque Dancer Puppet Show. Walkabout adult act with a stripper marionette singing Let Me Entertain You.
GANSON, ARTHUR. Oddly affecting kinetic sculptures, mechanical mediations on frailty, persistence and comic surprise. A chair meanders around an asteroid, an artichoke leaf plods on endlessly, a wide-eyed cat frozen
GLOVE AND BOOTS Muppet-style puppet shorts. See particularly the weekly web series, ‘Mario’s Word of the Week.’
GREAT HALLOWEEN LANTERN PARADE. Lanterns, processional puppetry and an outdoor overhead projector shadow performance. A Baltimore community event directed by Molly Ross.
GREG THE BUNNY. What the cast has been up to since the cancellation of this adult puppet TV show.
HIGBY, SHA SHA Documentary about an American dance artist who uses body puppets.
HOW TO MAKE AND USE PUPPETS. Workshop on teaching puppetry to children, with Ellen Neches of Shady Lane School. Begins at 7.27.
HOWDY DOODY. Interview with Buffalo Bob Smith from the Archive of American Television, creator of Howdy Doody.
INTERNET SLUTTS. Television puppets Murk and Wally explore the adult world of Internet.
ITCHE KADOOZY SHOW, THE. Humorous puppet news show dealing with the weekly Torah portion and Jewish holidays, produced by ultra-orthodox Lubavitch Jews.
JELLYFISH NEWS. Puppet web series satirising news and current events.
JIM HENSON COMPANY. Puppet Up Hip Hop Show. Improv comedy with muppet-style puppets.
JOHNSON, JAY. Ventriloquist. Act on the David Letterman Show with Darwin, a singing and talking monkey from the 2006 Broadway show, The Two and Only.
KORVACS, ERNIE. Ernie Korvacs: Puppets & Classical Music. Reel of early television puppetry, with drumming monkeys and animated food, set to the 1812 Overture.
KUKLA, FRAN AND OLLIE. More than twenty clips from the 1950s television show, with puppetry by the inimitable Burr Tillstrom.
LA MAMA EXPERIMENTAL THEATRE CLUB Rich collection featuring contemporary puppets and performing objects by Tadeusz Kantor (Wielopole-Wielopole), Theodora Skipitares (Under the Knife III), Federico Restrepo (Aguirre/9 Windows) etc.
LADY FROM SOCKHOLM, THE. A feature-length, all sock puppet film noire shot in 12 days using more than 100 pairs of socks and sets built with paper, paint and hot glue.
LION KING, THE Julie Taymor interview about her puppet and mask filled production of The Lion King.
LION KING, THE. Collection of songs from the Broadway musical with puppets and masks designed by Julie Taymor and Michael Curry.
LIVE FREAKY! DIE FREAKY! Musical puppet film version of the Manson murders with emphasis on gore and hard rock. Not for everyone.
LONG CHRISTMAS RIDE HOME, THE. Interview with actor-puppeteers in the Long Wharf Theater production of this Paula Vogel play, with bunraku-style puppets by Basil Twist.
LOS MOODOO PUPPETS. Spanish language muppet-style puppets for children broadcast on KWHY Spanish TV in L.A
LUCAS, RONN. Ventriloquist. Act on the David Letterman Show with Scorch, a wise-cracking dragon.
MANNETRON Animatronic performances featuring objects created by Mannetron.
MARCONDES, GUILHERME. Tyger. A giant tiger animated by three figures dressed in black stalks a city of animated cutout figures who transform into animals in this wordless music video.
MESNER, PAUL. Slapstick rod puppets for children from Kansas City.
MEXICO. Marionetas Lemus. Workshops and performance excerpts from company specialising in string puppet reinterpretations of Disney characters and other pop icons.
MICHAEL JACKSON PUPPET THEATRE. MSNBC Satiric dramatization of Michael Jackson trial with popsicle stick puppets.
MICHAELS, PETE. Compilation of clips from the ventriloquist’s tv appearances.
MISTER BUNGLE PUPPET SHOW. Rough and rude glove puppetry from underground animator and comix illustrator Frank Panucci.
MISTER ROGERS’ NEIGHBORHOOD. Short clip from documentary showing Fred Rogers animating puppets for television in 1967.
MONKEY WRENCH PUPPET LAB. The Copulating Mermaid of Venice, California. Tabletop puppets in an adaptation of a Charles Bukowski story.
MONKEY WRENCH PUPPET LAB. The Copulating Mermaid of Venice, California. Part 2 of the adapted Charles Bukowski story.
MR BONKO SHOW. dult satirical web series with sock puppet selling predigested beer and anal lubricant.
MUPPET SHOW, THE. Generous selection of clips from the classic Henson puppet variety show.
MUPPET SHOW, THE. Selection of clips from the first series of this Henson television puppet show.
MUPPET SHOW, THE. Mahnahmahnah. Classic musical number for singing pink snowths and bearded weirdo from the first series of this Henson television puppet show.
MUPPETS. Kermit the Frog decides against Its Not Easy Being Green in a Superbowl car ad for the Ford Hybrid.
MUPPETS. aking of It Is Easy Being Green. Humorous behind the camera look at the making of the Ford Escape Hybrid car tv ad, starring Kermit the Frog.
MUPPETS. Statler & Waldorf: From the Balcony. Cranky old critics from The Muppet Show deal with Hollywood gossip and new releases.
MUPPETS.Muppets Meetings Films. Corporate films featuring Jim Henson’s Muppets.
MY MORNING JACKET: ONE BIG HOLIDAY. Music video by Kentucky rock group with shadow puppets and body puppets.
NEGATIVEHATE SHADOW PUPPET THEATRE. Shadows and projections narrating the sci-fi story Phase Out Tyrant with an electronic score. Performed in the Bronx in 2000.
NO STRINGS ATTACHED. Short independent film directed by Andrew Jones about a puppet and a female escort.
ODYSSEY Reel for a puppet, mask and performing object theatre piece by Il Teatro Calamari, with animators in bunrakuesque black costumes.
OLIVER, TODD. Ventriloquist. Act on the David Letterman Show with Irving, the talking dog.
PARIS HILTON DEFAMATION DEPOSITION PUPPET THEATER. Transcripts of Paris Hilton libel trial as toy theatre.
PEE WEE’S PLAYHOUSE. Queer puppet-and-people television comedy from comedian Pee Wee Herman.
PERVERSE PUPPETRY. Compilation of online puppet videos for adults. Not for the faint of heart.
PICCOLO PUPPET PLAYERS. Sausagemaker. Horror film version of Punch and Judy episode, with puppeteers Brian Patterson and Heidi Wohlend.
PRAMIK, JOHN. Highlights for popular children’s marionette show about pirates.
PRESSER, ELI. Street marionette show with down-and-out string figure staggering to Louis Armstrong.
PUPPET FESTIVAL Video clips of puppet artists at Seattle’s Festival of the Millennium.
PUPPET RAPIST. Trailer for adult television series in production about a convicted puppet rapist on the outside coping with sexual urges while working with puppets.
PUPPET STATE PLAYERS. Horatio’s Adventures in the Big City. Glove puppets and one actor present the political awakening of a new immigrant to New York, filmed outdoors at Coney Island.
PUPPET STUDIO. America’s Story. Puppets and computer animation combine to narrate simplified American history.
PUPPETROPOLIS Bunraku-influenced rough puppet video clips by Los Angeles-based puppeteer Genevieve Anderson.
PUPPETRY AND THEATRE. Panel discussion with Pam Arciero, Cheryl Henson, Rick Lyon, Roman Paska and Basil Twist
PUPPETS AND PEOPLE. Steffi’s Picnic: A Children’s Musical. Avenue Q-style show for children, with muppet-style puppets and two singing, dancing and puppeteering Canadians.
PUPPETS AND STUFF. Making Puppets. Instructional puppetmaking video by Paul Lewis, showing how to make a mouth and rod puppet (ie Muppet-type).
PUPPETS WHO KILL. Adult television series about lying and cheating homicidal puppets.
PUPPETSOUP THEATER OF OBJECTS. Voice of the Turtledove. Video of Souptalks Seattle, a work for tableltop puppet by Warner Blake about turtles, Napoloen, the artist, the last symphony orchestra, history.
QUINTRON AND MISS PUSSYCAT. Rough glove puppetry at the Oakland, California gallery 21 Grand.
RASHKIN, DMITRY. Interactive string and planchette puppets for children by a Russian immigrant puppeteer.
REED, LARRY Kawit Legong: Prince Karna’s Dream. Intercultural Balinese-American performance featuring Gamelan Sekar Jaya and puppet designs by Larry Reed.
REED, LARRY. Television documentary on a California production of Wayang Bali: Dangerous Flowers by puppet master Reed and Gamelan Sekar Jaya orchestra, combining Balinese wayang kulit with modern shadow techniqu
RHODES, CARLA. Ventriloquist. Act with drugged-up Keith Richards.
ROGERS, FRED. Interview with puppeteer and children’s television icon from the Archive of American Television.
ROGUE ARTISTS ENSEMBLE. Hyperbole: Changes. Shadows and bunraku-style puppets in wordless macabre dreamscapes.
SAM Short independent film about college students by Sean Overbeeke, starring a squirrel puppet.
SAN DIEGO OPERA The Making of Animalopera: Bringing Seniors & Kids Together. Documentary about a San Diego Opera puppet opera for children.
SAN DIEGO OPERA Papagayo: A Puppet Opera. Documentary about a San Diego Opera work for children.
SANTA CLAUS PUNCH AND JUDY. Christmas-time 1930s booth show with puppeteer George Prentice.
SESAME STREET. Interview with Joan Ganz Cooney from the Archive of American Television, the creator of Sesame Street, the children’s television programme that launched the muppets.
SLIPKNOT. Music videos from the masked rock band. Not for the faint of heart.
SONTAG, THOMAS. Puppet music video of Tiga’s ‘Hot in Herre’ and other hip hop songs by the Lord of the Marionette.
SPINNEY, CAROLL. Archive of American Television interview with the puppeteer best known for his interpretations of muppets Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch from Sesame Street.
SPINNEY, CAROLL. The Sesame Street puppeteer speaks about his career.
STORE WARS. Star Wars puppet parody pitting organic against processed foods in a supermarket far far away, sponsored by Organic Trade Association.
STUPID SCIFI Short online films by puppeteer James Donmoyer and puppet builder Scott Shoemaker featuring Stupid SciFi characters Bubs and Hal, with muppet-style puppets.
SURVIVAL RESEARCH LABORATORIES. LA Loves SRL. Clips of a 2005 spectacle starring remote-controlled post-apocalyptic machines of destruction and mayhem.
SWAZZLE. Shows and behind the scenes clips from this California children’s Muppet-style puppet company.
TAYMOR, JULIE. Interview with the director of The Lion King and Titus.
TEAM AMERICA Trailer for controversial new marionette film, Team America: World Police, by the makers of South Park.
TEARS OF JOY. Feature on this Oregon touring children’s tabletop puppet and mask company, with excerpts from Perseus and Cinderella.
THEATRE OF A TWO HEADED CALF. Contemporary productions of Witkiewicz Tumor Brainiowicz and Jarry’s Ubu Roi combining human actors with puppetry.
TILLSTROM, BURR. Berlin Wall Hand Ballet. Tillstrum’s 1964 pantomime of two hands separated by the Iron Curtain briefly reunited was broadcast in 1964 on That Was The Week That Was and won an Emmy.
VENT HAVEN MUSEUM. Videos showing the remarkable McElroy collection of dummies and a vintage Nestle Quick television spot.
VENTRILOQUISM FOR DUMMIES. Television short on Vent Haven convention in Kentucky.
WALKER, KARA. Silhouettes, a pop-up book and overhead projector puppetry critiquing representations of African Americans.
WALTZING WATERS. Undulating fountain show with programmed lights and music. Aquatic spectacle directed by Michael Przystawik.
WHACKJACK. Puppet web series starring a hardboiled Clint Eastwood soundalike detective.
ZALOOM, PAUL In Smog and Thunder. Trailer for a film by Paul Zaloom, object theatre animator extraordinaire.
ZALOOM, PAUL. My Civilization. Satiric overhead projector puppetry about the origin of life by the object animator and political commentator.
ASIA
Videos are listed alphabetically by country of origin of principal performers. Please note that Bali, Java and all other islands in the archipelago are included under Indonesia.
AZERBAIJAN. Baku Music Academy. Marionette interpretation of the 1913 operetta Arshin Mal Alan by Uzeyir Hajibeyov.
CAMBODIA. Shadow puppets at Wat Bo. Short clips of classical and modern figures.
CHINA Hand shadows. Solo variety show act without words at a tea house in Chengdu, Sichuan Province.
CHINA. Bianlian: Changing Masks. Variety act involving quick mask changes popularised in King of the Mask. Filmed live in a tea house in Chengdu, the province of Sichuan.
CHINA. Yangzhou Municipal Puppet Troupe. Dancing rod puppet in amateur video of a performance this well-travelled company.
CHINA.. A life in shadows. Short documentary about shadow puppets in a Shaanxi Province hamlet.
INDIA. Puppet Festival in New Delhi, 2003. Performances and workshops of classical and popular puppetry from all over India.
INDIA. Kathputli. Montage of dancing woman and dancing Anarkali puppet from the Amar Singh Radhor story of Rajasthan, starting at 4.34.
INDIA. Kathputli. Magician string puppet from cultural performance at Bagore-ki-Haveli in Udaipur.
INDIA. Kathputli. Excerpt from Amar Singh Rathore play with traditional Rajasthani marionettes.
INDONESIA Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. UNESCO award for Wayang Puppet Theatre.
INDONESIA (BALI) Kawit Legong: Prince Karna’s Dream. Intercultural Balinese-American performance featuring Gamelan Sekar Jaya and puppet designs by Larry Reed.
INDONESIA (BALI) Making shadow puppets in Bali. Documentary film footage by Gregory Bateson and Margaret Mead made in the 1930s.
INDONESIA (BALI) Masks and Human Puppets in Balinese Villages. Topeng pajegan and ritual procession with gamelan and giant effigies.
INDONESIA (BALI) Masks and Human Puppets in Balinese Villages. Topeng pajegan and ritual procession with gamelan and giant effigies.
INDONESIA (BALI). Wayang Kulit. Short clip of traditional shadow puppet play in Ubud.
INDONESIA (BALI). Wayang Kulit. California’s Bali and Beyond introduces traditional-style Balinese shadow puppet theatre in Kawi and English to American audiences.
INDONESIA (BALI). Wayang Kulit. Clip from traditional Balinese shadow puppet performance, showing fighting and talking.
INDONESIA (CENTRAL JAVA) Joko Susilo wayang kulit (shadow puppet) performance in English, filmed at the Kennedy Center in 2004.
INDONESIA (CENTRAL JAVA). Wayang kulit. Comical clip from budalan (marching army) scene by the late female puppeteer Nyi Harni Sabdowati.
INDONESIA (EAST JAVA) Reog Ponorogo. Masked trance dancing from East Java.
INDONESIA (EAST JAVA) Behind Reog Ponorogo. Indonesian language documentary about lion dancing in Ponorogo.
INDONESIA (LOMBOK). Be not afraid to strike the gong. Clips of Sasak shadow puppet theatre and barong masked dance.
INDONESIA (WEST JAVA) Topeng de Cirebon, La danse masquée. Video of topeng mask dance by Rasinah (Indramayu, West Java) and English-language interview with ethnomusicologist Endo Suanda.
INDONESIA (WEST JAVA). Wayang Golek. A martial arts dance routine by the rod puppet clown Cepot, performed by the popular puppeteer, Asep Sunandar Sunarya and Giri Harja 3.
INDONESIA. Bali – Impressions of Paradise. Documentary with Balinese Calon Arang mask play (24.00), wayang kulit shadow puppets (24.35), topeng mask dance (35.53) and other performing arts.
JAPAN Bunraku. Clips from National Theatre performances from 1996 to 2001.
JAPAN. Bunraku. Brief clips demonstrating music and manipulation.
JAPAN. BUNRAKU. Teatro de Bunraku. Spanish-language documentary about Japanese traditional pupppetry.
JAPAN. Grego. US-born, Japan-based street puppeteer and musician performing on the streets with a jig puppet (Jack), marionette spider (Kasagum) and puppet psaltery named Mazja.
JAPAN. Kasoh Taikai. Amateur television contest of live illusions, featuring puppets, object animation and masks.
JAPAN. Matrix Ping Pong. Human bunraku table tennis, with composite human-puppet players and effects imitating the Matrix film franchise.
JAPAN. Nori Sawa. Excerpt from workshop by Japanese puppeteer who has adopted bunraku for solo puppet theatre.
JAPAN. Shadow Magic. Television segment of show combining hand shadows with magic.
MALAYSIA. Genting World Lion Dance Competition. Traditional Chinese lion dance groups from all over East and Southeast Asia competing in Genting, Malaysia.
MALAYSIA. Wayang kulit. Excerpts from a traditional Malaysian shadow puppet play.
MALAYSIA. Wayang Kulit. Shadow puppet performance combining modern and traditional elements by the Kelantanese puppeteer Dalang Saupi.
MALAYSIA. Wayang Kulit. Clown routine from a shadow puppet performance by the Kelantanese puppeteer Dalang Saupi.
PHILLIPPINES. Anino Shadowplay Collective. Atmospheric non-traditional shadow puppet theatre and silhouette animation based on Philippine tales.
PHILLIPPINES. Mr Noah’s Big Ark. English-language puppet musical from Trumpets gospel theatre written and directed by Jaime del Mundo.
SOUTH KOREA. Puppet Theatre Friends (Inhyung Gukdan Chingoodles) in A Lazy Boy Becomes a Bull. Lazy Dolsoe dons a bull mask and becomes a bull.
TAIWAN. Legend of the Sacred Stone. SFX-heavy Kung Fu puppet film directed by Chris Huan.
TAIWAN. Demonstration of traditional Chinese glove puppet fighting.
TAIWAN. Nansha. Taiwanese martial arts puppet television series.
THAILAND. Joe Louis Puppet Theatre. News segment on the winner of the traditional performance category at the 2006 World Festival of Puppet Art in Prague for its Hun Lakhon Lek performance of The Myth of Rahu and the Lunar Eclipse.
THAILAND. Nang yai. Traditional shadow puppet theatre filmed on the street in Ayutthaya.
VIETNAM. Thang Long Water Puppets Theatre. Short clips showing various puppets in performance from this well-travelled Hanoi company.
AFRICA
Videos are listed alphabetically by country of origin of principal performers.
BURKINA FASO Mask dances from Burkina Faso.
EGYPT. Persian Puppets. Television sketch about a genie in a lamp from the Egyptian version of Sesame Street.
MALI. Dogon mask dancing, including an 18 foot snake mask. (scroll down for link)
SHAPE OF DARKNESS, THE. Two-part documentary featuring masks and dances from Nigeria, Chad, Ife, Benin, Ivory Coast, Dogon, Camaroon and Senegal.
AUSTRALIA/PACIFIC
Videos are listed alphabetically by company, show name or principal creator.
HAND SHADOWS. Crowe, Raymond. Fast-paced and humerous hand shadows set to Louis Armstrong’s A Wonderful World.
LOOKING FOR A MONSTER. Pilot for Gary Friedmans documentary about Jewish Czech puppeteer Hanus Hachenburg, including excerpts from Friedmans 2001 marionette production of Hachenburgs harrowing 1943 puppet play We Are Lookin
MYSTERIOUS GEOGRAPHIC EXPLORATIONS OF JASPER MORELLO, THE. Trailer for 2005 Oscar-nominated silhouette film directed by Anthony Lucas, combining stop-motion cutouts and CGI. Technically stunning.
NEW ZEALAND. Meet the Feebles. Peter Jackson’s cult puppet film exploring the seedy side of a Muppets-like variety show.
RUBBERY FIGURES. Political satire with puppets in the Spitting Image tradition by Melbourne artist Peter Nicholson, with many clips from this 1987-92 tv show.
SNUFF PUPPETS. Melbourne company performing on the streets of Galway, Ireland, using larger-than-life body puppets, as the Boons, a family of white tourists. Snuff Puppets segment runs from 4.35 to 11.15.
Unima 2008 World Puppetry Festival. Promotional video for the festival, with clips of Australian puppetry.
SOUTH AMERICA
Videos are listed alphabetically by country of origin of principal performers.
ARGENTINA. Anyone got a drink. San Telmo street puppeteer animating a variety string puppet of a drunk set to Tango music.
ARGENTINA. The hand that can destroy. Hand shadows to promote environmental protection.
BRAZIL Dancing processional puppets.
BRAZIL. Mamulengo, the Theater of Laughter. Popular glove and rod puppets from northeast Brazil.
MISCELLANEOUS
Videos are listed according to type of performing object.
KINETICS: The Record of an Exnibition. Excerpt from kinetic sculpture documentary of exhibition at the Hayward Gallery, London, showing Bryan Wynter’s Mobile Imoos VII.
STRING FIGURES Kid’s Guide to Easy String Figures. Online instructional videos for string figures from around the world. See especially ‘Man Climbing a Tree’ (Australia).