Uwe Belz

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Uwe Belz (born October 5, 1937 in Berlin ; † December 17, 2002 there ) was a German director , mainly of documentaries .

Life

Growing up in Berlin's Prenzlauer Berg district , Belz taught himself to play several musical instruments on his own. After graduating from high school, he began an apprenticeship as an optician in 1956 and then trained as a photographer at the Technical School for Photography and Optics in Berlin-Weißensee . After working as a camera assistant and cameraman for German television broadcasting , and as a director's assistant in the film department of the advertising agency DEWAG , he joined the DEFA studio for popular science films in 1963 , where he made industrial films. From 1963 to 1968 he completed an external degree in directing at the German Academy for Film Art (now the University of Film and Television Konrad Wolf ) in Potsdam-Babelsberg . At the DEFA studio for documentary film, he eventually developed into one of the busiest directors. His oeuvre includes around 150 works, from industrial films and some propaganda to short films that can almost be called experimental, extensive travel reports, especially from the Soviet Union and China, which were shown as multi-part series on GDR television , to (sometimes full-length) portraits of "ordinary people" such as by celebrities, especially artists. Still, Belz was nowhere near the fame of many other DEFA documentary filmmakers - possibly because his trademark was his versatility rather than an easily recognizable style or recurring themes and motifs.

After the DEFA was wound up, due to the end of the GDR, Belz started working as a freelance director and scriptwriter in 1991. Now he also made films on the forms and effects of Stalinist terror, a total of more than thirty works. One of his last was with " Manfred Krug - Wenn ich singen ..." the full-length portrait of one of the once greatest DEFA stars, who ended his acting career soon after this film and largely withdrew from the public.

In addition to his film work, Belz also repeatedly devoted himself to (stage) entertainment. For example, he developed the idea for the GDR television program “ Showkolade ” with Gunther Emmerlich as the host, which he also staged, as well as several programs in the “Small Revue” of the Berlin Friedrichstadtpalast (today the home of the Quatsch Comedy Club ).

Belz, who was married and had two daughters, died on December 17, 2002 at the age of 65 after a serious illness in Berlin.

Filmography (selection)

  • 1960: TV epitaval: The René Levacher case alias ...
  • 1969: Mass 69
  • 1969: GDR 20th
  • 1970: Klemke
  • 1970: Peter Schreier sings songs by Ludwig van Beethoven
  • 1972: 792 sec. with Frank Schöbel
  • 1973: Giovanni Boccaccio
  • 1973: Manfred Krug
  • 1973: Who Loves the Earth ... (Co-Director)
  • 1974: Pablo Neruda
  • 1974: companions - encounters in the 25th year of the GDR (co-director)
  • 1976: With Günther Fischer
  • 1976: At Laky
  • 1976: With Manfred Krug
  • 1976: Ho Chi Minh, or a city for Uncle Ho
  • 1976: KM - 100 years after Highgate
  • 1977: Rock with Scorpio
  • 1979: Encounters in the snow
  • 1980: A quarter of a sheep's hour
  • 1981: On the Lena - a city, a village in Yakutia
  • 1981: Between taiga and tundra - Yakut dimensions
  • 1981: On the Mekong - five years later
  • 1984: De Goliath un sin crew
  • 1985: Adventure in Sajan (6 episodes)
  • 1986: Gabi - placement 12th place
  • 1986: A man of the century - Heine in Paris
  • 1987: Adventure on the Yenisei
  • 1988: Downstream to Shanghai (8 episodes)
  • 1988: travesty
  • 1988: Beijing at the second glance
  • 1989: strong men
  • 1990: On the move on eternal ice (5 episodes)
  • 1991: Consul Weyer's office hours (TV series)
  • 1992: Where the day begins: Out and about in Siberia
  • 1992: In the Middle Kingdom
  • 1993: Siberia at second glance
  • 1994: Encounters in Tibet
  • 1995: The Road - Gulag ("Stalin's Traces" series)
  • 1995: Birobidshan ("Traces of Stalin" series)
  • 1996: Cossacks on the Silent Don
  • 1997: Jewish life on the Amur
  • 1998: Life on the Tundra
  • 1999: Manfred Krug - When I Sing ...

Awards

  • 1970: Honorary recognition from the Leipzig International Documentary Film Festival for "Klemke"
  • 1974: Art Prize of the GDR for "Pablo Neruda"
  • 1974: Silver medal of the Moscow International Film Festival for "Pablo Neruda"
  • 1974: Art Prize of the GDR (collective) for "Who loves the earth ..."
  • 1980: Heinrich Greif Prize III. Great for his outstanding contributions to the development of cheerful and poetic documentaries
  • 1982: Silver medal of the Moscow International Film Festival for "Between Taiga and Tundra - Yakutian Dimensions"

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ [This information like all others according to http://www.defa-stiftung.de:80/cms/belz ]
personal data
SURNAME Belz, Uwe
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German director, mainly of documentaries
DATE OF BIRTH October 5, 1937
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH December 17, 2002
Place of death Berlin