Peter Rocha

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Peter Rocha (born September 1, 1942 in Gotha ; † August 30, 2014 in Potsdam ) was a German documentary filmmaker .

Life

Peter Rocha, who came from a Lower Sorbian family, was born in Gotha in 1942. His grandfather was the Lower Sorbian folk poet Fryco Rocha .

Rocha goes to school in Cottbus . He initially trained as a bricklayer . He then studied painting at a college for applied arts from 1961 to 1964 , where he passed his state examination . He later studied at the German Academy for Film Art in Babelsberg . The first documentary films, such as Laundry , Vietnam - 5th episode: A doll for Bè Mai , cybernetics and tower plumber, were made while studying . Rocha then worked as a freelance director and screenwriter for DEFA . From 1970 he got a permanent position in the studio.

From 1982 to 1983 Rocha completed additional studies at the Leipzig Institute for Literature "Johannes R. Becher" .

Under the direction of Karl Gass , the "Nestor" of the DEFA documentary , he portrayed economic processes and companies as well as selected workers as part of the "Effect" group. In his films Rocha documented everyday life in the GDR with an “idiosyncratic and often humorous look”. His very critical portraits of the working people often brought him into conflict with those responsible at DEFA.

With Bejdin - Colonel a. D. , the portrait of a Russian war veteran, Rocha made a plea for glasnost and perestroika in 1988 . In contrast to earlier critical works by Rocha, the film did not survive the censorship in the GDR unscathed. After numerous discussions, cuts and drastic cuts , the copy of the film disappeared before it could be shown.

At the end of the 1980s, Rocha increasingly turned to the subject of environmental destruction and the devastation of entire villages in the Lusatian lignite mining area. Films were made such as Hochwaldmärchen about the destruction of entire stretches of land for coal mining and life on the river about a Sorbian family. The third and last film in the trilogy, Pain in Lusatia , was made with the participation of Gerhard Gundermann and Jurij Koch after the fall of the Wall and was able to show the environmental sins in the lignite mining area even more clearly than the first two films. Rocha's Lausitz films later inspired documentary filmmaker Peter Benedix to make his own films about lignite mining in Lausitz.

In 1991 Rocha was fired in the course of the liquidation of DEFA. In the 1990s, isolated documentaries were made. He then retired from filmmaking and devoted himself to painting and photography. He was unable to make another planned film about Lausitz.

Peter Rocha, who last lived in Tremsdorf , died at the end of August 2014 after a long illness at the age of 71 in the Ernst von Bergmann Potsdam Clinic .

Filmography

  • 1966: laundry
  • 1966: Vietnam - 5th episode: A doll for Bè Mai
  • 1967: cybernetics
  • 1967: Tower plumber
  • 1967: Through Poland with a pram
  • 1968: experiments on Karl Marx
  • 1969: Erika T. - Notes about a woman born in 1918
  • 1970: October came ...
  • 1971: Lichtmacher festival in Oberspree
  • 1972: Occupational health hazards in the GDR industry
  • 1972: Raketeers. Stars and Stripes and Federal Eagle in NATO
  • 1973: Ergonomic complex analysis
  • 1974: Leipzig Fair
  • 1974: My guest book - Prof. Manfred von Ardenne
  • 1976: The Living One - Georg Friedrich Handel
  • 1977: Seduction to music
  • 1977: Children's composer class in the Halle district
  • 1978: Recognizing yourself in play - children's music theater
  • 1978: Peter Schreier - Paths and stations of a world star
  • 1979: Witaj - means: I greet you
  • 1980: Lothar S. - train driver
  • 1981: mother
  • 1981: Otherwise we would be lost ... Buchenwald children report
  • 1984: The Lewerenz - portrait of a stoker
  • 1984: As long as you are with me - L. Färnberg
  • 1985: From the files of the Prussian criminal police - The Communist Conspiracy in Berlin
  • 1985: A castle story
  • 1987: souvenir photo - Heinz Kahlau
  • 1986: Berlin-Northeast
  • 1987: High forest fairy tale
  • 1988: Singing in Magdeburg Cathedral
  • 1988: Bejdin - Colonel a. D.
  • 1988: Podo
  • 1989: Life on the Flow
  • 1989: The Physicist - Views on Prof. Dr. Dr. Dr. H. Jürgen Treder
  • 1990: The pain of Lausitz
  • 1991: Dreams of flight
  • 1993: the road
  • 1997: How agile is Maien - on the road with the preacher Frahnow
  • 1997: Kurjo's farm
  • 1999: Wendish evening light - Pastor Herbert Noack, born in 1916

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Always with a critical eye . at pnn.de, accessed on July 17, 2015
  2. ↑ Wolfgang Albus: Obituary Peter Rocha ( memento from January 18, 2015 in the web archive archive.today ), Łužyca (rbb), October 18, 2014.
  3. ↑ a b c Ralf Schenk : Obituary for Peter Rocha (1942–2015). In: Film-dienst 23/2014 of November 6, 2014, page 26
  4. ↑ Three Villages in Lusatia - Peter Benedix on his documentary "Bridge Years". In: Film-dienst 14/2015 of July 9, 2015, pages 24–25
personal data
SURNAME Rocha, Peter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German documentary filmmaker
DATE OF BIRTH September 1, 1942
PLACE OF BIRTH Gotha
DATE OF DEATH August 30, 2014
Place of death Potsdam