Paul Zils Explained

Paul Zills
Birth Name:Paul Zills
Birth Date:June 18, 1915
Birth Place:Wuppertal, German Empire
Death Date:March 30, 1979
Death Place:Munich, West Germany
Nationality:German (former)
Indian
Occupation:Filmmaker

Paul Zils (18 June 1915 – 30 March 1979) was a German-Indian documentary filmmaker who played a major role in the development of the Indian documentary filmmaking movement.[1]

Career

Early in his career, Zils reportedly worked for UFA, before leaving Germany. During World War II, he was interned in a POW camp as a German national in Bali and then brought to India where he was interned in Bihar.[2] In 1946, Zils reportedly first began working in India as director of the external unit of the Information Films of India and then for a dozen of years after independence, working both for the new Indian government and for international institutions and multinationals, shuch as Shell Film Unit.[3] [4] For example, Zils worked for the documentary unit of the United Nations to produce films acquired by the Government of India for widespread distribution using mobile projectors, such as Kurvandi Road and A Tiny Thing Brings Death.[5] He made films in the Major Industries, Life in India, and Folk Dances series for Burmah-Shell Oil. Zils established the independent production company, Art Films of India.

Zils sponsored the publication of a quarterly magazine, Indian Documentary,[6] and contributed regularly to the leading art journal of the era, MARG.[7] He also provided training to a number of associates and colleagues who went on to become noted filmmakers themselves, such as Fali Balimoria whose The House That Ananda Built was the first Indian documentary to be nominated for the Oscars.[8] In 1958, he returned to West Germany and made flms under the Deutsche Condor Films lavel and later made films in Sri Lanka.[9] [10]

He became a naturalised Indian citizen during the 1950s during his time in India where he was based in Bombay.[11] [12] [13]

Filmography

Directed and/or Produced by Him[14]

As Second Unit Director

References

  1. https://indiancine.ma/AKTW/info
  2. Vasudevan . Ravi . 2020-01-01 . "In India's Life and Part of It" . Petrocinema . 183.
  3. Vidal . Denis . 2003 . The uncertainties of patronage about the origins of documentary cinema in India and in the British Empire . Hal: Open Science.
  4. Deprez . Camille . 2013 . The Films Division of India, 1948–1964: The Early Days and the Influence of the British Documentary Film Tradition . Film History . 25 . 3 . 149–173 . 10.2979/filmhistory.25.3.149 . 0892-2160.
  5. Web site: June 1, 1950 . Films in India show the road ahead Courier: A Publication of UNESCO . 2023-11-13 . unesdoc.unesco.org.
  6. Book: Gokulsing, K. Moti . Routledge handbook of Indian cinemas . Dissanayake . Wimal . 2013 . Routledge, Taylor & Francis group . 978-0-415-67774-5 . Routledge handbooks . London New York, NY.
  7. Singh . Devika . 2013 . Approaching the Mughal Past in Indian Art Criticism: The case of MARG (1946—1963) . Modern Asian Studies . 47 . 1 . 167–203 . 0026-749X.
  8. Web site: 1997-12-01 . Films in Search of a Movement . 2024-01-01 . Himal Southasian . en-GB.
  9. Web site: Documenting the documentary . 2024-01-01 . www.sundaytimes.lk.
  10. Web site: Preserving the documentary heritage . 2024-01-01 . sundaytimes.lk.
  11. Web site: Asian Film Directory and Who's who . 1952 . 16 March 2024 .
  12. Web site: PAUL ZILS . Metromod . 16 March 2024 .
  13. Web site: Amrit Gangar uncovers the fascinating stories of Germans working in Bombay cinema before and after the Second World War . Indian Quarterly . 16 March 2024 .
  14. Web site: Paul Zils Director, Second Unit Director or Assistant Director . 2023-11-13 . IMDb . en-US.
  15. Web site: Paul ZILS . 2023-11-19 . Festival de Cannes . fr-FR.

External links

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