Zinaida Brumberg(1900-1983)

Zinaida Brumberg, like her sister Valentina, was born in Moscow into a Jewish family. Their father Semyon Brumberg was a doctor who later took part in World War I, while their mother Cecilia Brumberg was a music teacher. They were described by their friends as "two complete opposites": Valentina a short, active woman always obsessed with ideas and Zinaida a tall, slow woman who preferred to sit at home. In 1916 both sisters graduated from a Moscow gymnasium with Diplomas of Education. In 1918 they entered Vkhutemas, which they finished in 1925. In the same year they joined the experimental workshop led by Nikolai Khodataev, Yuri Merkulov and Zenon Komissarenko to work on the cutout feature film "China in Flames" made in support of the Chinese national liberation movement. In 1928 they co-directed their first hand-drawn animated short "The Samoyed Boy" together with Nikolai Khodataev and Olga Khodataeva, another brother-and-sister team. In 1936 the Brumberg sisters along with many other Moscow-based animators moved to the newly founded Soyuzmultfilm where they focused on creating Disney-styled shorts based on the popular children's fairy tales. With the start of the Great Patriotic War in 1941 they were evacuated to Samarkand and then to Almaty along with other key animators. They continued making films, including anti-fascist propaganda. They returned to Moscow in 1943 and by 1945 they finished "The Lost Letter" which ran over 40 minutes, making it the earliest surviving traditionally animated Soviet feature film, for which they relied on the technique known as "rotoscoping" or "Eclair" (named after the Eclair video projector commonly used in the Soviet Union). During the next 15 years they produced a number of other Eclair-based features and short films, often teaming with their close friend, a comedy actor Mikhail Yanshin who not only lent his appearance, movements and voice, but also worked as a screenwriter and consulting director, providing them with the talents of the Moscow Art Theatre. Their continued work earned lasting popularity, even creating the stickman character for the short "Fedya Zaitsev" that eventually became Soyuzmultfilm's emblem for many years. With "It Was I Who Drew the Little Man" (1960), a full-length remake of "Fedya Zaitsev," the Brumberg sisters joined the new wave of animation brought by the Khrushchev thaw. They abandoned rotoscopy and moved away from realistic art style towards more experimental forms. The Brumberg sisters left the industry in 1974, and in just a year Valentina died of illness. Zinaida died six years later. They were buried in Moscow.