- Born 1938
Commercial apprenticeship to 1976. Self employed thereafter - A lifelong interest in film and photography starts to be expressed with the release of the first documentaries and published photographs in the 1970's
- Fulltime producer, author, nature photographer and documentary film-maker since 1977
- Special Interests: Documentaries about orchids, mushrooms, 'slime moulds' (myxomycetes), insects, the animals, plants and ecology of the Swabian Alps, time lapse photography
- Commissioned Works: German Television stations ZDF, WDR, SWR, NDR, Arte
- Long term collaborator with Science journalist and TV personality Volker Arzt
- Publications in a range of books and magazines including GEO, Natur and Kosmos, Kraut und Rueben
- Establishment of Karlheinz Baumann Verlag publishing house in 1992
- Publication of Die Myxomyceten (3 volumes) by Hermann Neubert, Wolfgang Nowotny and Karlheinz Baumann
Expeditions and International Filming Assignments
- The Table Mountains (Tepuis) in Venezuela in 1989 and 1992 as part of the ZDF documentary series Terra X
- Varied trips to Ecuador, Canada, USA for German television commissions
- Filming and photographic trips to Australia, Borneo, Namibia, Japan and many European countries for independent projects
Prizes and Awards (selected)
- Internationaler Agrarfilm-Competition, Berlin:1984 Goldene Aehre for Mutterkorn – eine Geisel im Mittelalter (left picture: the former minister for agricultur Ignaz Kiechle presents the award)
- Deutscher Wirtschaftsfilmpreis 1984
- Naturfilmfestival Biovision Düsseldorf 2000, Goldener Nautilus Wildlife Europe 1999 Sundsvall (Sweden), Innovations Award
- Internationales Naturfilmfestival NATURALE Bad Duerkheim 1999
- Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau Kurzfilmpreis 1995
- Nominierung für den Deutschen Kurzfilmpreis from the Minister for Interiour 1986 und 1988
- Deutscher Kurzfilmpreis 1999
- International Biennial of Scientific Film UNICAJA 2000 Ronda (Spanien)
- 23. International Wildlife Film Festival Missoula (USA) 2000
- Worldmediafestival Hamburg 2001
- Ökomedia 2002 Goldener Luchs, Bester Naturfilm
- International Biennial of Scientific Film UNICAJA 2002 Ronda (Spanien)
- The New York Festival 2002
- Techfilm 2002 (Hradec Králové/Tschechien)
- Prix Leonardo 2003 Parma (Italien)
- 6. Internationales japanisches Naturfilm Festival 2003
- Festival International der L'Emission Scientifique de Television (image & science 2003)
Testimonials
Dieter
Kaiser (Executive Producer, WDR German Television)
"Like all the major documentary film makers, Karlheinz loves his work.
What makes him special, what sets him apart, is his eye. Karleinz can see
the extraordinary in an ordinary situation. One of his first films - Hidden
Hunters encapsulates Karlheinz perfectly – he hunts with his
camera to capture the world around us that we never get to see. There are
very few people whose work has the ability to reach the everyman and the
academic with equal merit, weight and sympathy."
Volker
Arzt (Science journalist, author and television presenter)
"Karlheinz has an uncanny ability to inhabit his subject material
completely. His films are so successful because he can enter fully and
profoundly into the worlds he is exploring. This is a wonderful talent
for a documnetary maker to have and we all benefit as a result."
