大卫 埃里克 1941 年出生在美国新泽西州伊丽莎白市。在康奈尔大学取得政府管理学 （国际关系和亚洲研究）学士学位，在加州大学伯克利分校获得戏剧硕士学位，而后在哥伦 比亚大学再次获得电影艺术硕士学位。他曾通过富布莱特奖学金前往印度学习雕刻和音乐， 并在之后在日本跟随 Tokuriku 学习墨绘。 

在过去的 40 年中，埃里克已经有逾四十部独立动画电影问世。这些影片在许多国际 电影节上放映并获奖，并在美国艺术联合会、国际动画巡展和安纳西与萨格布最佳作品展等 巡回展映。在中国上海、葡萄牙、法国巴亚盖斯、匈牙利凯奇凯美特、斯洛伐克的比比亚纳、 波兰 09 动画艺术家、日本广岛和渥太华等动漫节，在辛克克里克影展和纽约动画中心、动画电影博物馆和现代艺术博物馆都有埃里克的作品回顾展映。他的完整作品被现代艺术博物 馆、太平洋电影档案馆、柏林 ASIFA（世界动画协会）档案馆和东京国际动画收藏馆收藏。埃里克在斯图加特、上海、吉林、杭州、凯奇凯梅特、台湾、萨格布、广岛和韩国等动画艺 术界应邀出任评委。埃里克在美国享有美国电影学会、艺术国际、全息电影基金会和美国国 务院授予的津贴待遇。 

1978 年，埃里克的雕塑全息动画作品《俄狄浦斯在克洛诺斯》，在法国安纳西国际动画 节和南斯拉夫萨格布动画节等，是首次被放映的同类作品代表。埃里克在 1983 制作的全息 动画作品《兰子的幻想》，于其后一年的萨格布举行了全球首映，并在此主持了首届动画全 息图像论坛。1987 年在保加利亚的瓦尔纳，埃里克主持了第二届该论坛。他于 1988 年制作 的作品《俄狄浦斯在克洛诺斯 2 》于 95 年在安纳西动画历史展映中进行了专题报道。埃里克向欧洲和亚洲受众推广了许多美国独立动画展，并撰写了大量题材广泛、取材时 代的文章。他在 1988 年当选为世界动画协会（ASIFA）国际动画协会理事，在 1991 年当选 为该协会副主席并连任六年。他在ASIFA为国际动画事业所做的工作运用了几种不同的形式。在过去的 25 年中，他已向北美动画业界引进了逾35 名各国优秀动画艺术家，并主持和组织 他们的作品在博物馆、大学和文化中心等地进行巡回展映。此外，埃里克还主持国际间的动画联合创作。

1985 年，他于布加斯特的 A. Petringenaru 博士共同执导了《永久复兴》一片， 这是美国与罗马尼亚首次通过电影这一艺术形式合作。1987 年，他组织艺术家共同指导并 制作了风格独具的动画影片《学院领导变奏曲》，共同参与创作的艺术家来自波兰、中国、 瑞士和美国，这部影片在戛纳电影节荣膺动画短片评委会特别奖。1989 年，他制作了影片《动画自画像》，一部汇集了日本、美国、捷克斯洛伐克、南斯拉夫和爱沙尼亚的优秀艺术 家共同合作的作品，获得了奥斯卡最佳动画短片提名奖。这两部动画影片都在国际动画影展 和世界各地的电视台放映。在 1993 年，埃里克制作了影片《成吉思汗》，该片是迄今所知道 的首部美国与蒙古国合作的作品。在萨格布 2002 年的动画节上，根据他为动画事业所做的努力和工作，他获得 ASIFA 终身成就特别奖。 

自 1979 年起，埃里克开始在佛蒙特州、新罕布什尔州、夏威夷和加利福尼亚州的逾千 儿童教授动画课程。这些课程的纪录影片被制作成专辑，在十五个国家的公共广播电视台放 映。他为欧洲和亚洲的儿童组织了动画工作室，在 1987 年，埃里克带领来自九个国家的孩子们联合制作了《ASIFA 儿童电影》，该片被第二届世界动画大典收录。他为 ASIFA 做的更多的工作包括 1988年在上海、1991 年在哈瓦那、1992 年在乌兰巴托和 1993 年在卡拉奇组织 的儿童动画课程工作室。1994 年，尼克罗顿国际儿童频道时段为埃里克制作了他为夏威夷、 中国和克罗地亚儿童工作的专题报道。埃里克先后在纽约州立大学帕切斯学院、佛蒙特大学、挪威 MRDH 学院和中国北京电影学院执教。自 1992 年起作为达特茅斯学院电影学院电影学教授授课至今。埃里克在达特茅斯学院的学生毕业后在动画工作上赢得了世界的肯定，包括 1996 年大学生动画学院奖等。 

在 1997 年 6 月的法国安纳西动画节上，埃里克应邀组织和主持了一个为“青年美国动画艺术家”制作的特别节目。埃里克书写了百余篇关于他在为儿童工作、他在全息动画制作方面和国际动画事业的文 章。他在动画研究协会担任常任理事，并在《动画期刊》1991 年创刊起担任编委会委员。 

作为认证注册表达治疗师（NETA），埃里克曾为朔肯出版社撰写医学书籍《肠道手册》。他还著有《创意之书》。由奥利维 科特为埃里克书写的传记《世界公民埃里克》详实生动地记录了他的生活和工作，2002 年在巴黎由蒂姆兰德出版社出版。

DAVID EHRLICH was born in 1941 in Elizabeth, New Jersey.  He received a BA  in Government (International Relations and Asian Studies) from Cornell, an MA in Drama from UC, Berkeley, and an MFA in Film from Columbia. He studied sculpture and music in India under a Fulbright grant after which he studied sumi-e with Tokuriku in Japan.

In the last 40 years, Ehrlich has made over 40 independent abstract animated films that have been shown and awarded in film festivals throughout the world and have gone on tour through the American Federation on the Arts, The International Tournees of Animation, and the "Best of Annecy and Zagreb".  Ehrlich was given film retrospectives at the Shanghai, Cinanima (Portugal), Baillargues (France), Kecskemet (Hungary), Bibiana (Slovakia), Animator 09 (Poland), Hiroshima (Japan) and Ottawa Animation Festivals, the Sinking Creek Film Celebration, and in New York, at the Animators Gallery, the Museum of the Moving Image and the Museum of Modern Art. His complete works are held in the collections of MoMA, Pacific Film Archives, the ASIFA Archive in Berlin, and the International Animation Library in Tokyo. Ehrlich was invited to serve on the juries of the Stuttgart, Shanghai, Jilin, Hangzhou, ANIWOW, Kecskemet, Taiwan, Zagreb, Hiroshima, Ottawa and SICAF(Korea) Animation Festivals. He is a recipient of grants from the American Film Institute, Arts International, the Holographic Film Foundation, and the U.S. Department of State.

"OEDIPUS AT COLONUS", Ehrlich's 1978 animated sculptural hologram, was the first work of its kind ever shown at the International Animation Festivals in Annecy, France, and Zagreb, Yugoslavia.  Ehrlich's 1983 hologram, "RANKO'S FANTASY," had its World Premiere at Zagreb in 1984, where Ehrlich led the First Animated Hologram Symposium. He led the Second Symposium at the Varna (Bulgaria) Animation Festival in 1987. His 1988 piece, "OEDIPUS AT COLONUS NO. 2," was featured in the 1995 Annecy Show on the History of Animation.

Ehrlich curated and introduced several shows of American Independents for audiences in Europe and Asia and has written widely on his generation's work. In 1988, he was elected to the Board of Directors of ASIFA, the International Animators Association and in 1991 became its Vice-President, an office he continued to hold for six years. His international work on behalf of ASIFA has taken several forms. During the last 30 years, he has brought to North America over 35 animation artists from throughout the world, and has organized and led their screening tours through museums, universities and cultural centers. Ehrlich has also produced a number of international animation collaborations.  In 1985, he co-directed "PERPETUAL REVIVAL" with Dr. A. Petringenaru from Bucharest, in what was the first joint film project between the U.S. And Romania.  In 1987, he produced and co-directed "ACADEMY LEADER VARIATIONS," a unique animated collaboration by artists from Poland, China, Switzerland, and the U.S. that won a Special Jury Prize in Animated Shorts at Cannes.  In 1989, he produced "ANIMATED SELF-PORTRAITS," an animated collaboration by artists from Japan, the U.S. Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, and Estonia that made the Oscars Short List. Both of these two films had wide distribution in the International Tournees of Animation and on TV here and abroad.  In 1993, Ehrlich produced “GENGHIS KHAN” the first known U.S./Mongolian co-production. At the Zagreb Animafest 2002, Ehrlich was awarded the ASIFA Special Prize for his contribution to animation.

Since 1979, Ehrlich has been teaching animation workshops for thousands of children in Vermont, New Hampshire, Hawaii and California. Films from these workshops are in the collections of fifteen countries and have been shown on PBS. He has also led workshops for children in Europe and Asia, and in 1987, produced "THE ASIFA CHILDREN'S FILM", an international animation collaboration by children in nine countries that was included in THE SECOND ANIMATION CELEBRATION. His further work on behalf of ASIFA led Ehrlich to organize and direct the first children's animation workshops in  Shanghai (1988), Havana (1991), Ulan Baatar (1992) and Karachi (1993). His work with children  in Hawaii, China and Croatia was featured in 1994 segments of NICKELODEON.

Ehrlich has taught at SUNY, Purchase, the University of Vermont, MRDH College in Norway, the Beijing Film Academy, Communication University of China, and since 1992 has been Visiting Professor of Film Studies at Dartmouth College. His Dartmouth students have gone on to win recognition around the world, including the 1996 Student Academy Award in Animation. For the Annecy Animation Festival in France in June of '97, Ehrlich was invited to curate and present a special program of "Young American Animators" from colleges throughout the U.S.

Ehrlich has written over 100 articles on his work with children, animated holography, and international animation. He has served on the Board of the Society of Animation Studies and, since its founding in 1991, on the Editorial Board of THE ANIMATION JOURNAL. A Certified Expressive Therapist (NETA), Ehrlich has written "The Bowel Book" for Schocken Press and has completed "The Creativity Book". In 2002, a book on Ehrlich's  life and work, "David Ehrlich: Citizen of the World", by Olivier Cotte, was published by Dreamland Editeur in Paris.