On the Occasion of Wolfgang Braumann’s 65th Birthday
9 April 2003 - 13 June 2003

“Making films for children just happened to me. It wasn’t my programme.” Although Wolfgang Braumann also shot comedies like “Der Mann, der nach Oma kam” (directed by Roland Oehme) or the last DEFA musical “Zille und ick” about painter Heinrich Zille, he belongs to the category “makers of children’s films” with regard to DEFA history.
Present, fairy tales and adventures – all filmed with hand-held cameras in order to convey as much realism as possible, atmospheric backlight shots, well-composed scenes with a lot of set decoration and special effects. Gags, dream sequences, chases. Flying with the camera: shots taken from the big crane or helicopter shots belonged to the specialties of the cameraman. Having children in front of the camera meant to adjust the position of the camera to their body height and to adjust oneself to their perspective: “To me, they were always equal partners.” Walter Beck, Hans Kratzert, Egon Schlegel, Jörg Foth and Günter Meyer belonged to the directors he repeatedly worked with. Almost 40 films emerged during approx. 25 years, many of which can still be seen on TV today.