Inspired by The Golden Feather from Yiddish Folktales

Edited by Beatrice Weinreich & Translated by Leonard Wolf

Learn more about the film and get a behind the scenes look below:

“This project began with the vunder mayses, or the “wonder tales”. I was inspired by the character of the Bobe-Ha in Beatrice Weinreich’s collection of Yiddish folktales, almost certainly based on the Slavic Baba Yaga.”

“Folklore rests on the icons––the “enchanted rings, golden feathers, and glass mountains” (Beatrice Weinreich). Admittedly, I am not and have never been overly concerned with narrative. But the structure of folklore made sense to me––a tale boiled down to a “string of events” and rooted in distinct iconography, and aesthetic beauty. In this project, I never felt the need to define motives, or ascribe meaning to the characters’ lives. I just wanted to build a world, and let something of “a tale” breathe through it.”

“This project was my first time working with stop motion, so I was entirely concerned with the materiality of the characters and their environment. All three sets were built on top of large tree stumps that had been burnt as torches to alter their shape and texture. The old woman’s skin was made from the husks that line milkweed stems, which were then soaked and then pasted almost like papier-mache. As a kid, I always understood stop motion as a crunchy, fernetic, unraveling display of movements, and I wanted this world to maintain that.”

Nicole Goldberg is an animator and filmmaker from Los Angeles, currently based in New York. She is a recent graduate of Bard College. Working in both computer animation as well as stop motion, she has established a luminescent visual style rooted in world building and fairytale. This project, her thesis work, granted her the Sidney Peterson Prize, an award given to students in recognition of excellence in experimental film. 

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