A work in constant progress (and occasional regress).
Birthplace:
Wuppertal, Germany
Born:
June 18, 1915
Died:
March 30, 1979
Paul Zils (18 June 1915 – 30 March 1979) was a German-Indian documentary filmmaker who played a major role in the development of Indian documentary filmmaking. Born in Germany, Zils moved to India in the late 1940s, where he became deeply involved in the country's burgeoning film industry, particularly in the documentary genre. He is best known for his collaborations with the Films Division of India, where he worked as both a director and a producer, helping to shape the documentary film landscape in post-independence India. Zils was instrumental in capturing the social and political changes occurring in India during the mid-20th century, focusing on issues such as poverty, agriculture, and cultural heritage. His films were notable for their sensitivity to Indian traditions and issues, and his work brought global attention to the power of documentary cinema as a tool for social change.
Assistant Director:
1936 Lucky Kids
1937 Fanny Elssler
1937 Seven Slaps
Director:
1936 Lucky Kids
1937 Fanny Elssler
1937 Seven Slaps
1945 Bombay, the Story of Seven Isles
1947 Community
1947 India's Struggle for National Shipping
1948 Child
1948 Kurwandi Road
1948 Mother-Child-Community
1949 A Tiny Thing Brings Death
1949 General Motors in India
1949 The Last Jewel
1949 Two Worlds
1949 White Magic
1950 India is Ours
1950 Our India
1952 Shabash
1952 Zalzala
1954 Family in Bangalore
1954 Ujala
1955 Agriculture
1955 Fisherfolk of Bombay
1955 Oraons of Bihar
1956 Textiles
1956 The Ripening Seed
1956 The School
1957 Fifty Miles from Poona
1957 Maa, the Story of an Unmarried Person
1957 New Life of a Displaced Person
1958 Martial Dances of Malabar
1959 The Vanishing Tribe
1963 Buddhismus in Ceylon
1965 Asiatische Religionen
Writer:
1936 Lucky Kids
1937 Fanny Elssler
1937 Seven Slaps
1945 Bombay, the Story of Seven Isles
1947 Community
1947 India's Struggle for National Shipping
1948 Child
1948 Kurwandi Road
1948 Mother-Child-Community
1949 A Tiny Thing Brings Death
1949 General Motors in India
1949 The Last Jewel
1949 Two Worlds
1949 White Magic
1950 India is Ours
1950 Our India
1952 Shabash
1952 Zalzala
1954 Family in Bangalore
1954 Ujala
1955 Agriculture
1955 Fisherfolk of Bombay
1955 Oraons of Bihar
1956 Textiles
1956 The Ripening Seed
1956 The School
1957 Fifty Miles from Poona
1957 Maa, the Story of an Unmarried Person
1957 New Life of a Displaced Person
1958 Martial Dances of Malabar
1959 The Vanishing Tribe
1963 Buddhismus in Ceylon
1965 Asiatische Religionen
Most data and links to images for the Movies section come from TheMovieDB (TMDB).
Additional data for Film Titles come from The Open Movie Database (OMDb).
At least one plug-in comes from IMDb.
Data are -- hey, it's a plural -- subject to the limitations of their sources. (For example, TMDB search results currently max out at 20.) I am limiting myself to free data sources for now. (No, a "free trial" is not free.)
While much of the above data are retrieved directly from outside APIs and other such sources, data from American Film Institute (AFI) and British Film Institute (BFI) were manually entered the old fashioned way into a MySQL database. Re BFI I took the following liberties:
Regarding profile removals and data corrections:
Filtering is applied here to film projects flagged as "adult" by TheMovieDB. Pending "popular demand" I am contemplating a login and profile system with preferences (such as whether to allow adult images to appear) and permissions (such as data entry).
Whereas the overall purpose of this website is to serve as a personal demo/portfolio/workshop of web and data skills, this Movies section is not meant to compete with or substitute for far more definitive movie websites.
Whether or not he still clings to an award which he won in 1986 as a film critic for his college's newspaper, Jeffrey Hartmann is not responsible for the texts of overviews and biographies supplied by external data sources.