Wolf Koenig

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Wolf Koenig (born October 17, 1927 in Dresden ; † June 26, 2014 in Toronto ) was a Canadian film director , producer , animator and cameraman from Germany .

life and career

Koenig was born in Dresden, but emigrated to Canada with his parents in 1937. The family settled not far from Galt , where they bought a farm. Koenig first came into contact with the National Film Board of Canada in May 1948 when an NFB film crew was making an agricultural film not far from his parents' farm. Director Raymond Garceau advised Koenig, who was interested in film, to apply to the NFB. In July 1948 Koenig was employed as a splicer at the NFB and in 1950 he joined the NFB's animation studio. He was quickly recognized as a multi-talent: from the 1950s he worked as an animator or cameraman in numerous animation and documentary films, including as cameraman for the Oscar- winning short film Neighbors by Norman McLaren .

Koenig first worked as a director in the late 1950s and co-directed the documentaries City of Gold and The Days Before Christmas (both 1958), which are now considered NFB classics of the genre. With Colin Low , Terence Macartney Filgate , Roman Kroitor and Tom Daly , Koenig became one of the formative documentary filmmakers in Unit B of the NFB in the following years . The unit B is considered "innovative than world-famous source films that have become classics in the meantime the documentary" today. In contrast to those of his colleagues, Koenig's films were characterized by “a sophisticated style and often a fine irony in the consideration of human behavior and modern society”. He is considered an intuitive documentary filmmaker with a keen eye for observation. Until 1965 Koenig worked several times with Roman Kroitor at the NFB, including on the Oscar-nominated short documentary City of Gold (1958) and on the Paul Anka film Lonely Boy , a pioneer of rock-music-related documentary film. With his work on the documentary film series Candid Eye , Koenig also became one of the film pioneers of Direct Cinema .

From 1962 to 1967 and from 1972 to 1975 Koenig was executive producer of the English-language animation department of the NFB. As a producer he was nominated three times in a row for an Oscar in the category "Best Animated Short Film" from 1967 to 1969 : For The Drag (made 1966, nominated 1967), What on Earth! (1966/1968) and The House that Jack Built (1967/1969). At the same time he was still active as an animator and cameraman in outstanding film productions, so he was involved in the animation of Low and Kroitor's film Der Himmel über uns (Universe) in 1960 , which Stanley Kubrick used as a model for various sequences in the classic 2001: A Space Odyssey served. After 1975 Koenig increasingly worked on documentary educational films and short films, he continued to work as a producer of animation and documentary films.

Koenig retired from the film business in 1995 and settled in Westport . After that he occasionally appeared in the independent film sector and otherwise devoted himself to furniture construction.

Filmography (selection)

Awards (selection)

  • 1958: Canadian Film Award, Canadian Film of the Year, for City of Gold
  • 1963: Canadian Film Award, Canadian Film of the Year, for Lonely Boy
  • 1966: BAFTA (Flaherty Documentary Award) nomination for Stravinsky
  • 1967: Oscar nomination , Best Animated Short Film category , for The Drag
  • 1968: Oscar nomination, Best Animated Short Film category, for What on Earth!
  • 1969: Oscar nomination, Best Animated Short Film, for The House that Jack Built
  • 1984: Genie Award , Best Short Film, for Ted Baryluk's Grocery
  • 1994: Genie Award nomination, Best Documentary, for Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Doc pioneer Wolf Koenig passes away
  2. ↑ Tammy Stone: Candid Eye, & Lonely Boy Unit B: take one's interview with Wolf Koenig - Canada National Film Board - Interview . May 2002 ( online ( memento of April 12, 2009 in the Internet Archive )).
  3. ↑ a b c See tiff.net
  4. ^ "A world-famous source of innovative films that have become documentary classics". See Tom Daly ( English, French ) In: The Canadian Encyclopedia . Retrieved July 29, 2019.
  5. ↑ "were characterized by a sophisticated style and often a subtle irony in their observation of human behavior and modern society." Cf. biography of Wolf Koenig on onf-nfb.gc.ca ( Memento from October 10, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  6. ↑ "pioneering rock documentary". See Wolf Koenig ( English, French ) In: The Canadian Encyclopedia .
  7. ↑ a b See biography of Wolf Koenig on onf-nfb.gc.ca ( Memento from October 10, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
personal data
SURNAME King, wolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-Canadian film director, producer, cameraman and animator
DATE OF BIRTH October 17, 1927
PLACE OF BIRTH Dresden
DATE OF DEATH June 26, 2014
Place of death Toronto