Bert Van Bork (1928–October 29, 2014) was a German-born producer, director, cinematographer, still photographer, painter, and printer. He studied fine arts in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

, and later moved to

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

where he shot and directed instructional films for companies such as

Encyclopædia Britannica Films Encyclopædia Britannica Films (also named EB Films for short) was the top producer and distributor of educational 16 mm films and later VHS videocassettes for schools and libraries from the 1940s through the 1990s (by which time the internet ...

and

Physical Science Study Committee The Physical Science Study Committee, usually abbreviated as PSSC, was inaugurated at a 1956 conference at MIT to review introductory physics education and to design, implement, and monitor improvements. It produced major new physics textbooks, inst ...

Early life

Van Bork was born in Augustusburg, Saxony, Germany. At the age of fifteen, Bert won a competition to study at the Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Berlin. There Van Bork attended classes taught by Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, one of the four founders of the German Expressionist art group “Die Brücke”. Following the second World War Van Bork continued his studies at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst in Leipzig as well as Dresden. During this time he produced the critically acclaimed woodcut series “Night Over Germany”, marking a personal documentation of the German post-war experience.

Career

In 1954 Van Bork emigrated from Germany to the United States, settling in Chicago with his wife whom he had met in Leipzig, Bert continued to express his German Expressionism roots. Showing in his depictions of landscapes of the American Southwest and the Chicago skyline. In this time he became accomplished for his work in photography as well as earning him the National Award for Outstanding Photography in Germany in 1954. His career as a filmmaker rose in 1957 when he presented a documentary film about the life cycle cicadas he had made, “The Seventeen Year Locust” to Warren Everote at EB Films. He was hired by Encyclopædia Britannica films to mainly produce art and science instructional films for educational shooting productions

and the

. Then in 1966 Van Bork paid homage to his roots in German expressionism, holding a gallery at The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago in 1966. A filmography has been compiled of the films Van Bork remembered making before his passing in 2014.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Van Bork, Bert Film people from Saxony 1928 births 2014 deaths People from Mittelsachsen Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig alumni