Thomas Heise (born August 22, 1955 in

East Berlin East Berlin was the ''de facto'' capital city of East Germany from 1949 to 1990. Formally, it was the Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet sector of Berlin, established in 1945. The American, British, and French sectors were known as ...

), is a German documentary filmmaker.

Life and work

Heise is the son of philosophy professor Wolfgang Heise. He was a printer's apprentice between 1971 and 1973. After a year in the National People's Army, Thomas Heise worked as a director's assistant between 1975 and 1978 in East Germany's DEFA Film Studios, finishing his final exams at night school. In 1978 he studied to be a director at the Konrad Wolf Hochschule für Film und Fernsehen. Following his first film, "Why make a film about these people" (Wozu denn über diese Leute einen Film?), about the culture of East Berlin before the wall came down, he broke off his studies, and began to work as a freelance writer and director. All of his early documentary films were banned or prohibited from screening by the East German government, as well as his radio pieces. In December 1989, 4 weeks after the fall of the Berlin wall, his radio piece ''Widerstand und Anpassung - Überlebensstrategie. Erinnerungen eines Mannes an das Lager Dachau'' (Resistance and Adaptation - Survival Strategies. Memories of a Man of the Dachau Camp) was finally broadcast on Berlin radio. After the fall of the Berlin wall, Thomas Heise finally became known, creating a number of disputed works, on topics affecting his country, such as the radical right-winged youth movement in Halle. Between 1993 and 1998 he directed a number of theater pieces, until in 2005 his film ''Mein Bruder. We Will Meet Again'' premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2005. Heise continues to live and work in Berlin and as a film professor at the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design since 2007. In 2019, he created a documentary film entitled ''Heimat ist ein Raum aus Zeit (Heimat is a Space in Time)'', that won the main award from Nyon’s reputable «Visions du Réel» and won the main prize at the

Muestra de Cine de Lanzarote The Muestra de Cine de Lanzarote is a cinema festival annually held on the island of Lanzarote. The festivals was founded in 2011 by Asociación Tenique Cultural and was led by Javier Tolentino and Víctor Moreno. It was created to promote and c ...

Filmography

* 1980: ''Why Make a Film About These People?'' (33 min) * 1981: ''Anka und…'' ever completed* 1982: ''Erfinder 82'' * 1984: ''Das Haus'' (state documentary of the former East German Republic) * 1985: ''Volkspolizei 1985'' (state documentary of the former East German Republic) * 1987: ''Heiner Müller 1'' * 1989: ''4. November 1989'' * 1989/90: ''Imbiß-Spezial'' * 1989/90: ''Zuchthaus Brandenburg, Dezember 1989'' * 1991: ''Eisenzeit'' * 1992: ''STAU - Jetzt geht's los'' * 1997: ''Barluschke'' * 1999/2000: ''Neustadt (Stau - Der Stand der Dinge)'' * 2000: ''Meine Kneipe'' * 2002: ''Vaterland'' * 2004/05: ''Mein Bruder - We'll Meet Again'' * 1999/2006: ''Im Glück (Neger)'' * 2007: ''Kinder. Wie die Zeit vergeht'' * 2009: ''Material'' * 2011: ''Sonnensystem'' * 2012: ''Die Lage'' * 2012: ''Gegenwart'' * 2014: ''Städtebewohner'' * 2019: ''Heimat ist ein Raum aus Zeit''

Sources

External links

*
Official homepage

Biography

Biography on kinoreal.at
* * Stefan Reinecke
taz-Interview with Thomas Heise about his film ''Mein Bruder - We'll meet again''
In: ''

Die Tageszeitung ''Die Tageszeitung'' (, “The Daily Newspaper”), is counted as being one of modern Germany's most important newspapers and amongst the top seven. taz is stylized as ''die tageszeitung'' and commonly referred to as ''taz'', is a cooperative-own ...

'', 17.2.2005. {{DEFAULTSORT:Heise, Tyhomas German documentary film directors Living people Artists from Berlin Film directors from Berlin Members of the Academy of Arts, Berlin 1955 births