Darßer NaturfilmFestival 2024 - Program section SPECIAL: NATURE FILM CLASSICS
Many people remember Heinz Sielmann for his television series "Expeditions into the Animal Kingdom", which ran on ARD from 1965 to 1991. Together with Bernhard Grzimek, he was synonymous with animal films.
In his award-winning film "Galapagos - Dream Islands in the Pacific", he shows the unique animal world on this remote volcanic island archipelago, which is known to have inspired Charles Darwin's theory of species. After isolation, the species that migrated from the mainland gradually adapted to the changed environmental conditions and developed new species. The film depicts Sielmann's encounters with trusting iguanas and wary sea lions in impressive images. He filmed the huge breeding colonies of cormorants and explains the adaptations of the dragon-like lizards, which learned to swim due to a lack of food. For his first in-house production, he and his team spent over a year on the Galapagos, following in the footsteps of evolution. The film premiered at the Berlinale in 1962, where it won the Silver Bear for the best feature-length documentary, and was released in cinemas in West and East Germany in March 1963.
Germany // 1962 // 92 min.
Director: Heinz Sielmann // Written by: Heinz Sielmann // Cinematography: Heinz Sielmann, Irenäus Eibl-Eibesfeldt, Klaus Philipp // Music: Hans Posegga // Editing: Friedl Buckow-Schier // Producer:in: Heinz Sielmann // Production: Heinz Sielmann-Produktion
