Documentary About Pioneering Creators Of Betty Boop, Superman And Popeye Cartoons Wins Lucrative Library Of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize

Matthew Carey
·6-min read

EXCLUSIVE: A multi-part film about the Fleischer Brothers, creators of a pioneering animation studio that launched Betty Boop, Popeye The Sailor, and Superman cartoons, has won the richest prize in documentary.

Today, the Library of Congress, The Better Angels Society, Ken Burns, and the Crimson Lion/Lavine Family Foundation today announced Cartooning America as the winner of the sixth annual Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize for Film. The $200,000 award will go to director Asaf Galay.

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“Most people have never heard the names Max and Dave Fleischer, but their legacy on American animation is profound, having preceded – and also inspired – Walt and Roy Disney,” notes a release about the prize. “Unlike the polished characters produced by the Disney studio, the Fleischer characters came right off the streets of New York City: the subtly Jewish Betty Boop, the muttering, street-smart Popeye, and Superman, the first-ever superhero cartoon. The Fleischers were the first to mix live action with animation, to premiere the first sound cartoon, to pioneer the use of 3D, and to create a feature animation based on an original screenplay.”

The release continues, “Cartooning America uses visuals including pencil tests, storyboards, drawings, behind-the-scenes home movies, and the Fleischers’ very autobiographical cartoons, alongside interviews with family members, historians, and the animators they inspired, to tell this family’s dramatic rags to riches to rags again story.”

Six films were in the running for the Library Of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize. They were chosen by a committee of filmmakers from Ken Burns’ Florentine Films and historians from the Library of Congress. The half dozen finalists were narrowed to a final two by a jury chaired by Librarian of Congress Dr. Carla Hayden, and composed of historians Dr. David G. Gutiérrez, Professor Annette Gordon-Reed, and Dr. Claudio Saunt; award-winning documentarians Julianna Brannum, Sam Pollard, and Betsy West; and Jacqueline Glover, former senior vice president, HBO Documentary Films and currently the executive director of Harvard University’s Black Film Project.

Dr. Hayden, in consultation with Ken Burns, selected the winning film. Runner-up Magic & Monsters, directed by Norah Shapiro, will receive a $50,000 cash prize. Four finalists (see below) will each receive a $25,000 cash prize.

The Library Of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize “provides critical recognition and resources to exemplary documentary films that tell compelling stories about American history.” It was established in 2019 by the Library of Congress and The Better Angels Society, a nonprofit “dedicated to engaging Americans with their history through documentary film.” Core underwriting for the prize is provided by a gift from Jeannie and Jonathan Lavine through the Crimson Lion/Lavine Family Foundation.

Bruce "Cookie" Bowers, a voiceover artist who worked on Betty Boop and other cartoons, in the 1930s.
Bruce “Cookie” Bowers, a voiceover artist who worked on Betty Boop and other cartoons, in the 1930s.

In a statement, Burns said, “We’re thrilled to recognize these filmmakers whose work helps to provide us with a sense of place that is often reassuring during extraordinary times like these. Cartooning America reminds me why I – like the Fleischer brothers – have pursued visual storytelling, and why this medium remains so vital and affecting. We are so grateful to Jeannie and Jonathan Lavine whose generous support, through the Crimson Lion/Lavine Family Foundation, has made this prize possible for the last six years.”

“Animation created some of the most iconic figures in American cinema,” Dr. Hayden observed. “I am pleased to recognize, in first place, a documentary that so vividly portrays two early pioneers of the animation industry that has brought us so much laughter and joy. Our runner up documentary [Magic & Monsters], in contrast, is an exploration of the search for justice and catharsis by victims of abuse – a reminder that difficult stories are as important for posterity as those we celebrate. I congratulate both of these talented filmmakers on their efforts to bring these very different stories into our national narrative.”

Max Fleishcer in Gulliver City, Fla., 1939.
Max Fleishcer in Gulliver City, Fla., 1939.

Cartooning America director Asaf Galay’s previous credits include The Adventures of Saul Bellow (2021), Army of Lovers in the Holy Land (2018), The Hebrew Superhero (2015), and The Muses of Bashevis Singer (2014). Galay will receive the Library Of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize at a ceremony on September 17 attended by the Librarian of Congress, Burns, and members of Congress. On October 10, Galay will appear at a Live! at the Library event, participating in a conversation with Katherine Malone-France that will highlight “the importance of archival footage and the Library of Congress’s collections in making the film.”

Since its launch in 2019, the Prize for Film has distributed over $2 million in awards to filmmakers. Winning films have included Flannery (directed by Elizabeth Coffman and Mark Bosco, S.J.); Hold Your Fire (directed by Steven Forbes); Gradually, Then Suddenly: The Bankruptcy of Detroit (directed by Sam Katz and James McGovern); Bella! This Woman’s Place Is In the House (directed by Jeff L. Lieberman); Philly on Fire (directed by Ross Hockrow and Tommy Walker); and Drop Dead City – New York On the Brink in 1975 (directed by Peter Yost and Michael Rohatyn).

These are the winning films for 2024:

Winner: CARTOONING AMERICA, directed by Asaf Galay

The Fleischer brothers were a family of New York Jewish immigrants whose inventions helped create America’s animation industry. Their cartoons were hilarious and strange, reflecting the world they lived in. It’s a rags to riches to rags again story, of a family whose influence on animators working today was profound.

Runner-Up: MAGIC & MONSTERS, directed by Norah Shapiro

Founded in 1965, the Minnesota Children’s Theatre Company gained worldwide acclaim. However, in the 1980s, its founder was convicted of child sexual abuse, revealing a dark history within the theater. Now, a group of former child actors seeks justice and healing, offering a blueprint for reckoning with institutional trauma post-#MeToo.

Finalists:

AREA 2, directed by James Sorrels

City leaders tacitly permitted Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge and his “Midnight Crew” of detectives to torture dozens of Black detainees in his notorious “Area 2” police station between 1972 and 1991. Area 2 chronicles the epic fight for justice through the journeys of three Midnight Crew torture survivors.

BEHIND THE LINES, directed by John Benitz

Based on The New York Times bestselling books, Behind the Lines follows a passionate historian on his journey around the world to find and preserve letters written during times of war. This personal and often emotional exploration of the war experience uncovers our worst impulses but also the secrets to our shared humanity.

DORY PREVIN: ON MY WAY TO WHERE, directed by Julia Greenberg & Dianna Dilworth

Dory Previn was a successful lyricist for Hollywood films in the 50s and 60s who in the 70s transformed into an influential cult singer-songwriter, and famously went public about her schizophrenic diagnosis, ultimately accepting her voices and anticipating a modern-day neurodiversity movement.

WEDNESDAYS IN MISSISSIPPI, directed by Marlene McCurtis

Throughout Freedom Summer of 1964, teams of activist Black and White women from northern cities risked all to fly into Mississippi, conducting undercover civil rights work to leave a lasting legacy for local empowerment and national progress. This was Wednesdays in Mississippi, a landmark all-women achievement too long overlooked.

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