Karl Heinz Lotz

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Karl Heinz Lotz (born November 27, 1946 in Teicha ) is a German film director who also works as a screenwriter and film producer .

life and work

Karl Heinz Lotz was born in Teicha, a small town near Halle in 1946 as the son of a locksmith and a housewife. After passing high school in Halle in 1965 and training as an electrician, Lotz began studying physics and mathematics at the “Karl Liebknecht” University of Education in Potsdam, which he broke off after just one semester. Through various unskilled jobs, he finally came to the Hans Otto Theater in Potsdam as a lighting technician , in 1970 he became production manager at the DEFA studio for feature films and later assistant director for television in the GDR . In 1971 he began studying directing at the Potsdam Film and Television Academy and after completing his studies switched back to the DEFA studio for feature films, where he was able to gain experience during a five-year assistant director. In this function he worked with well-known DEFA directors such as Roland Oehme , Egon Schlegel , Roland Gräf and Rainer Simon before he was allowed to direct his first own feature film in the early 1980s.

With the Jens Bahre film adaptation, the children's film Der Dicke und Ich , made in 1981 , Lotz made a highly acclaimed debut. His first work was classified by film critics as "sensitively filmed". With his second film Young People in the City (1985) he was awarded the Max Ophüls Prize in Saarbrücken in 1987 . Other films were made, often for a younger audience, such as the DEFA fairy tale film Der Eisenhans (1988) based on a material by the Brothers Grimm (adaptation: Katrin Lange ) or in 1990 I can also go backwards , a film that deals with physical disabilities .

In addition to his work for film and television, Lotz also worked for radio in the GDR and produced, among other things, in the mid-1980s Maybe There is a Heaven with Horses , a feature about the 91-year-old German war veteran Rudolph Meffner, who was one of the last at the time living German cavalrymen of the Russian Civil War . In 1986, under his leadership, the documentary boys, we are still alive , was created, which was awarded as Best Documentation at the International Film Festival in Oberhausen.

On the 200th anniversary of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's death , Lotz filmed Die Trillertrine, one of the last DEFA productions, in 1991 and became unemployed when the East German film production facility was closed. He then founded his own production company with the documentary filmmaker Rainer Ackermann, which since then has mainly produced television documentaries.

Karl Heinz Lotz was for many years a lecturer at the University of Film and Television Potsdam Babelsberg, the University of Music and Theater Rostock and the University of Drama "Ernst Busch" Berlin . From 1995 to 1997 he was also festival director of the Schwerin Film Art Festival . He is currently teaching dramaturgy at the Schwerin Design School .

Filmography (selection)

Study time

  • 1972: Moment Musicale (Director)
  • 1974: Twice around the world and the first track (director)
  • 1974: I can't carve light (screenplay)
  • 1974: Leaves Fantasy in a Season (Director, Screenplay)
  • 1975: A Beginning (Director)
  • 1975: Loneliness (Director)
  • 1975: Else, Ella and Emma (diploma film: directing)

Assistant director

Director

actor

production

  • 1993: Our bad children
  • 1995: sailing to Uist

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Lotz, Karl Heinz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German film director , screenwriter and film producer
DATE OF BIRTH November 27, 1946
PLACE OF BIRTH Teicha