Wolf Koenig
Encyclopedia
Wolf Koenig is a Canadian film director
, producer
, animator
, cinematographer
, and a pioneer in Direct Cinema
at the NFB
.
with his family in 1937, when they fled Nazi Germany
. They settled in 145 acre (0.5867947 km²) farm along the Grand River
, outside what is now known as Cambridge, Ontario
. In 1948, a local representative for the Canadian department of agriculture
needed the family's tractor to demonstrate a new tree-planting machine. As the young Koenig pulled the machine across a field, he noticed a small film crew
from the NFB's former agricultural film unit, recording the demonstration. After filming was complete, he approached the men, who included director Raymond Garceau, and told them he loved films, especially animation, and hoped to work in filmmaking. They suggested he send in a job application and approximately six weeks later he received a letter offering him the position of a junior splicer for $100 per month.
’s Neighbours
(1952), animating Colin Low
’s The Romance of Transportation in Canada
(1953) and serving as cinematographer
on Low’s Corral
(1954). Koenig co-directed several historically significant NFB documentaries during, including City of Gold (with Low, 1957), The Days Before Christmas (1958), Lonely Boy
(with Kroitor, 1962) and Stravinsky (1965). Along with Terence Macartney Filgate, Roman Kroitor
and Tom Daly, he was also one of the principal contributors to the NFB's Candid Eye
series, which was influential in the development of direct cinema.
Koenig made major contributions to a range of notable projects. He was also the cinematographer for Arthur Lipsett
’s Experimental Film (1963) and N-Zone (1970), both admired by George Lucas
.
Koenig served as executive producer of the NFB's English animation unit from 1962 to 1967 and again from 1972 to 1975. His credits as an animation producer included the Academy Award nominees The Drag (1965), What on Earth!
(1966) and The House That Jack Built
(1967). Koenig also produced Alanis Obomsawin
’s documentary Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance
, named Best Canadian Feature Film at the 1993 Festival of Festivals (now Toronto International Film Festival
).
, where he makes furniture and remains sporadically active in film.
He received numerous honours awards during his career, including a 1984 Genie Award for Best Theatrical Short as producer of Ted Baryluk's Grocery
and six Canadian Film Award
s: Film of the Year and Best Arts and Experimental Film for City of Gold, Film of the Year and Best General Information Film for Lonely Boy, Best TV Information Film for Stravinsky and Best Documentary Short Film for The Hottest Show on Earth (1977).
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
, producer
Film producer
A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...
, animator
Animator
An animator is an artist who creates multiple images that give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence; the images are called frames and key frames. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, video games, and the internet. Usually, an...
, cinematographer
Cinematographer
A cinematographer is one photographing with a motion picture camera . The title is generally equivalent to director of photography , used to designate a chief over the camera and lighting crews working on a film, responsible for achieving artistic and technical decisions related to the image...
, and a pioneer in Direct Cinema
Direct Cinema
Direct Cinema is a documentary genre that originated between 1958 and 1962 in North America, principally in the Canadian province of Quebec and the United States...
at the NFB
National Film Board of Canada
The National Film Board of Canada is Canada's twelve-time Academy Award-winning public film producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary, animation, alternative drama and digital media productions...
.
Early life
Koenig emigrated to Canada from GermanyGermany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
with his family in 1937, when they fled Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
. They settled in 145 acre (0.5867947 km²) farm along the Grand River
Grand River (Ontario)
The Grand River is a large river in southwestern Ontario, Canada. From its source, it flows south through Grand Valley, Fergus, Elora, Waterloo, Kitchener, Cambridge, Paris, Brantford, Caledonia, and Cayuga before emptying into the north shore of Lake Erie south of Dunnville at Port Maitland...
, outside what is now known as Cambridge, Ontario
Cambridge, Ontario
Cambridge is a city located in Southern Ontario at the confluence of the Grand and Speed rivers in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. It is an amalgamation of the City of Galt, the towns of Preston and Hespeler, and the hamlet of Blair.Galt covers the largest portion of...
. In 1948, a local representative for the Canadian department of agriculture
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
The Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food, also referred to as Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada , is the department of the government of Canada with responsibility for policies governing agriculture production, farming income, research and development, inspection, and the regulation of animals...
needed the family's tractor to demonstrate a new tree-planting machine. As the young Koenig pulled the machine across a field, he noticed a small film crew
Film crew
Television crew positions are derived from those of film crew positions.A film crew is a group of people hired by a production company for the purpose of producing a film or motion picture. Crew are distinguished from cast, the Actors who appear in front of the camera or provide voices for...
from the NFB's former agricultural film unit, recording the demonstration. After filming was complete, he approached the men, who included director Raymond Garceau, and told them he loved films, especially animation, and hoped to work in filmmaking. They suggested he send in a job application and approximately six weeks later he received a letter offering him the position of a junior splicer for $100 per month.
NFB career
Koenig quickly established himself as a multi-talented artist, filming Norman McLarenNorman McLaren
Norman McLaren, CC, CQ was a Scottish-born Canadian animator and film director known for his work for the National Film Board of Canada...
’s Neighbours
Neighbours (film)
Neighbours is a 1952 anti-war film by Scottish-Canadian filmmaker Norman McLaren. Produced at the National Film Board of Canada in Montreal, the film uses the technique known as pixilation, an animation technique using live actors as stop-motion objects...
(1952), animating Colin Low
Colin Low (filmmaker)
Colin Archibald Low, CM, RCA is a Canadian animation and documentary filmmaker.Born in Cardston, Alberta, Low attended the Banff School of Fine Arts and the Calgary Institute of Technology, now known as the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology...
’s The Romance of Transportation in Canada
The Romance of Transportation in Canada
The Romance of Transportation in Canada is a 1952 animated short directed by Colin Low animated by Wolf Koenig and Robert Verrall and narrated by Guy Glover. Eldon Rathburn composed the film score...
(1953) and serving as cinematographer
Cinematographer
A cinematographer is one photographing with a motion picture camera . The title is generally equivalent to director of photography , used to designate a chief over the camera and lighting crews working on a film, responsible for achieving artistic and technical decisions related to the image...
on Low’s Corral
Corral (film)
Corral is a 1954 National Film Board of Canada documentary by Colin Low, partly shot in the Cochrane Ranch in what is now Cochrane, Alberta....
(1954). Koenig co-directed several historically significant NFB documentaries during, including City of Gold (with Low, 1957), The Days Before Christmas (1958), Lonely Boy
Lonely Boy (film)
Lonely Boy is a 1962 cinema verite documentary about former teen sensation Paul Anka. The film takes its name from Anka's hit song, Lonely Boy, which he performs to screaming fans in the film...
(with Kroitor, 1962) and Stravinsky (1965). Along with Terence Macartney Filgate, Roman Kroitor
Roman Kroitor
Roman Kroitor is a Canadian filmmaker who is known as an early practitioner of Cinéma vérité, as co-founder of IMAX, and as creator of the Sandde hand-drawn stereoscopic animation system...
and Tom Daly, he was also one of the principal contributors to the NFB's Candid Eye
Candid Eye
Candid Eye is a Canadian documentary television series which aired on CBC Television in 1958.-Production:This series aired various National Film Board of Canada documentaries such as Blood and Fire , The Back-Breaking Leaf , The Days Before Christmas and Police Candid Eye is a Canadian...
series, which was influential in the development of direct cinema.
Koenig made major contributions to a range of notable projects. He was also the cinematographer for Arthur Lipsett
Arthur Lipsett
Arthur Lipsett was a Canadian avant-garde director of short experimental films.In the 1960s he was employed as an animator by the National Film Board of Canada . Lipsett's particular passion was sound. He collected pieces of sound from a variety of sources and fit them together to create an...
’s Experimental Film (1963) and N-Zone (1970), both admired by George Lucas
George Lucas
George Walton Lucas, Jr. is an American film producer, screenwriter, and director, and entrepreneur. He is the founder, chairman and chief executive of Lucasfilm. He is best known as the creator of the space opera franchise Star Wars and the archaeologist-adventurer character Indiana Jones...
.
Koenig served as executive producer of the NFB's English animation unit from 1962 to 1967 and again from 1972 to 1975. His credits as an animation producer included the Academy Award nominees The Drag (1965), What on Earth!
What on Earth!
What on Earth! is a 1966 National Film Board of Canada animated short co-directed by Les Drew and Kaj Pindal, which takes a humorous look at car culture from the point of view of fictional Martians, who mistake automobiles for Earth's true inhabitants and people as their parasites...
(1966) and The House That Jack Built
The House That Jack Built (1967 film)
The House That Jack Built is a 1967 National Film Board of Canada animated short based on the nursery rhyme "This Is the House That Jack Built." Directed by Ron Tunis, written by Don Arioli and produced by Wolf Koenig, eight-minute film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short...
(1967). Koenig also produced Alanis Obomsawin
Alanis Obomsawin
Alanis Obomsawin, OC is a Canadian filmmaker of Abenaki descent. Born in New Hampshire, and raised primarily in Quebec, she has produced and directed many National Film Board of Canada documentaries on First Nations culture and history...
’s documentary Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance
Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance
Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance is a 1993 feature-length film documentary film by Alanis Obomsawin, chronicling the 1990 Oka Crisis.Produced by the National Film Board of Canada, the film won 18 Canadian and international awards, including the Distinguished Documentary Achievement Award from...
, named Best Canadian Feature Film at the 1993 Festival of Festivals (now Toronto International Film Festival
Toronto International Film Festival
The Toronto International Film Festival is a publicly-attended film festival held each September in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In 2010, 339 films from 59 countries were screened at 32 screens in downtown Toronto venues...
).
Legacy
Koenig retired from the NFB in 1995 to Westport, OntarioWestport, Ontario
Westport is a village in Eastern Ontario, Canada. It lies at the west end of Upper Rideau Lake, at the head of the navigable Rideau Canal system, between Kingston and Ottawa....
, where he makes furniture and remains sporadically active in film.
He received numerous honours awards during his career, including a 1984 Genie Award for Best Theatrical Short as producer of Ted Baryluk's Grocery
Ted Baryluk's Grocery
Ted Baryluk's Grocery is a 1982 short documentary about Ukrainian-Canadian Ted Baryluk's grocery store in Winnipeg's North End. Co-directed by John Paskievich and Michael Mirus and produced by the National Film Board of Canada, the film consists of Baryluk talking about his store, his customers and...
and six Canadian Film Award
Canadian Film Award
The Canadian Film Awards were the leading Canadian cinema awards from 1949 until 1978. These honours were conducted annually except in 1974 when Quebec directors withdrew their participation and prompted a cancellation that year....
s: Film of the Year and Best Arts and Experimental Film for City of Gold, Film of the Year and Best General Information Film for Lonely Boy, Best TV Information Film for Stravinsky and Best Documentary Short Film for The Hottest Show on Earth (1977).
External links
- Wolf Koenig, Canadian Film Encyclopedia, Film Reference Library, Toronto International Film FestivalToronto International Film FestivalThe Toronto International Film Festival is a publicly-attended film festival held each September in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In 2010, 339 films from 59 countries were screened at 32 screens in downtown Toronto venues...
- Watch films by Wolf Koenig at NFB.ca