Rolf Losansky

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Rolf Losansky (2011)

Rolf Losansky (born February 18, 1931 in Frankfurt (Oder) ; † September 15, 2016 in Potsdam ) was a German film director and screenwriter who was one of the most successful children's filmmakers at DEFA in Potsdam-Babelsberg .

Life and education

Rolf Losansky was the son of the script painter Alfred Losansky and his wife Luise, a nurse, and grew up in the Dammvorstadt of Frankfurt (Oder) , today Słubice ( Poland ). After attending school in Frankfurt (Oder) and Krumbach (Swabia) , he completed an apprenticeship as a printer in Frankfurt (Oder ) from 1946 to 1949 , before joining the workers and farmers faculty in Berlin from 1950 to 1953 . He could not make up his mind about his career choice and initially studied medicine for three semesters at the Humboldt University in Berlin . As a pedagogical employee in the pioneer park in Berlin's Wuhlheide , Rolf Losansky organized major events and folk festivals.

From 1955 to 1960 Rolf Losansky studied directing at the German Academy for Film Art Potsdam-Babelsberg . His teachers were the directors Martin Hellberg , Kurt Maetzig , Richard Groschopp and Andrew Thorndike . Even during their studies, he supported Wera and Claus Küchenmeister in the selection of children for their documentary "Träum für Morgen" (1956). In addition, he assisted Annelie and Andrew Thorndike with archival research for the documentary “The Teutonic Sword” (1958) and supported the directors Joachim Hadaschik and Ivo Toman (ČSSR) with the work on “There fought 12 armies”, a documentary film about the First Summer Spatakiade in Leipzig . The documentary “Soldat und Sportler” (1959) was his graduation film, with which he obtained his diploma in 1960 in addition to a theoretical work.

Rolf Losansky lived in Potsdam, was married to Annelore Losansky, philosophy lecturer at the University of Film and Television “Konrad Wolf” in Potsdam-Babelsberg , and had two children.

His archive is located in the archive of the Academy of Arts in Berlin.

job

In 1961 Losansky started as an assistant director to Frank Beyer (“Königskinder”) and Günter Reisch (“ Oh, you happy… ”), before staging his debut film “Secret of 17” in 1962/63 about eleven-year-old amateur historians exploring a Hussite castle. His employees were also university graduates such as screenwriters Günter Mehnert and Gerd Gericke and cameraman Klaus Neugebauer . After the poetic crime film “ The Search for the Wonderful Colored Bird ”, Losansky received a directing contract with the DEFA studio for feature films. After two less successful comedies for adults, Losansky and Mehnert, who made seven films together, continued their debut and in their next films dealt with the problems of children and young people in their society.

Losansky and Mehnert did not separate the world of adults and children / adolescents, but took into account a wide range of environmental influences and references as well as social spaces that are characteristic of children and young people in society. Losansky dealt just as truthfully with adults, primarily with parents, since for him there was no “children's world” separate from the world of adults: “I don't want to portray the adult world as foreign to children. They have to go there, that's where they want to go. ”In Losansky's other films for younger school children, realistic actions were mixed with fantastic elements, partly in animation, to create modern fairy tales. He worked with various authors, especially with the author and scenarioist Christa Kozik .

In Losansky's films, some of which were made with considerable technical effort, popular actors appeared alongside young amateurs, including Dieter Franke , Jutta Wachowiak , Rolf Hoppe , Barbara Dittus and Rolf Ludwig . Since 1968 Losansky worked repeatedly with the cameraman Helmut Grewald .

After the fall of the Berlin Wall, Losansky stayed true to his profession, children's and youth films, and was able to make three more films. In addition, he traveled all over the world with his films and staged at the theater, including Zwerg Nase on stages in Altenburg and Gera . He also ran scriptwriting seminars. In 2005 he started a project called “The Children of Potsdam”. The result should be a documentary film about the togetherness in the Am Stern district from the perspective of the young people.

Filmography

Awards

  • I'll show you
  • ... damn it, I'm an adult
    • 1975 - Prize of the International Children's and Youth Film Festival in Gijón (Spain)
    • 1976 - Heinrich Greif Prize 2nd class in a collective
  • A snowman for Africa
    • 1978 - Award of the International Children and Youth Film Festival in Gijón (Spain)
    • 1979 1st National Festival for Children's Films of the GDR in Gera : Prize of the Children's Jury
  • 1979 - National Prize of the GDR for Art and Culture 2nd class in the DEFA studio collective for feature films in the field of children's and youth films
  • Achilles heel
    • 1983 - Art Prize of the DTSB (together with Günter Mehnert)
  • 1983 - National Festival for Children's Films of the GDR: Honorary diploma of the expert jury for exemplary efforts in entertainment films for children
  • Moritz in the advertising column
    • 1984 - Critics' Prize
    • National festival for children's films in the GDR
      • Foundling price
      • Prize of the children's jury
      • Special Prize from the Minister for Popular Education
  • The school ghost
    • 1987 - National Festival for Children's Films in the GDR
      • Prize of the children's jury
      • Special Prize from the Minister for Popular Education
    • 1987 - Children's Film Festival Essen : Blue Elephant of the children's jury
    • 1988 - Critics' Award
  • 1988 - Artur Becker medal of the FDJ in silver
  • 2007 - "Ehrenschlingel", international film festival Schlingel in Chemnitz - The festival for children and young audiences honors great directors of European children's films with this award.
  • 2011 - “Prize for the Services to German Film” from the DEFA Foundation at the 11th award ceremony of the DEFA Foundation, Berlin Kosmos

Literature (selection)

  • Rolf Losansky: Criticism of the bourgeoisie with the specific means of film satire . Diploma thesis at the German Academy for Film Art Potsdam-Babelsberg in the field of directing, 1960.
  • Rolf Losansky, Günter Mehnert, Klaus Richter de Vroe: The children's film and its audience. Thoughts and experiences . In: From Theory and Practice of Film, No. 04/1976.
  • Hans-Dieter Tol: Rolf Losansky. About the beauty and difficulty of growing up and being grown up . In: Rolf Richter (ed.): DEFA feature film directors and their critics , Volume 1. Henschel Verlag Berlin 1981.
  • Ingeborg Zimmerling: Wonderful ages are my favorite . In: Filmspiegel, No. 13/1987.
  • Wolfgang Fischer: "Children can laugh better" - conversation with Rolf Losansky, director of films about childhood . In: Film & TV Kameramann 04/1994.
  • Barbara Felsmann: The long way to the new fatherland - After the end of DEFA (3): The situation of children's film directors . In: film-dienst 13/1996.

Web links

Commons : Rolf Losansky  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Junge Welt, September 20, 2016
  2. ^ Rolf Losansky Archive Inventory overview on the website of the Academy of Arts in Berlin.
  3. ↑ Quoted from: Rolf Losansky is dead. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung of September 17, 2016, p. 14.
  4. ^ Potsdamer Latest News: "The Children of Potsdam". Lindenpark runs youth film project , December 17, 2005, accessed on October 17, 2016.
personal data
SURNAME Losansky, Rolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German director and screenwriter
DATE OF BIRTH February 18, 1931
PLACE OF BIRTH Frankfurt (Oder)
DATE OF DEATH 15th September 2016
Place of death Potsdam