Born in Augustusburg, Germany. Among the most daring filmmakers in the 16mm academic film genre was Encyclopedia Britannica Films' Bert Van Bork, whose stunning camera shots are augmented by his painterly eye for framing, and his superior editing skills. Van Bork's story is a fascinating one, not only in terms of his own personal history, but of his multi-dimensional relationship to many different art forms as well. Born in post-WWI Germany, his art studies included stints in the Academies of Fine Arts in Berlin, Leipzig, and Dresden. Following the WW II, he began producing stark woodcuts of intense and terrifying beauty, often made from the pine remains of destroyed buildings and old furniture, depicting a Berlin struggling with an uncertain future. In 1954, he moved to Chicago by way of New York, working in oil on canvas as well as drypoint, displaying an influence of German expressionism in his portrayals of the landscapes of the American Southwest, and cityscapes of Chicago. By this time, Van Bork had become an accomplished stills photographer as well, and received the National Award for Outstanding Photography in Germany in 1954. In 1957, Van Bork brought a film he had made, THE SEVENTEEN YEAR LOCUST to Warren Everote at EB Films, who then hired him to produce mainly art and science films (the film was renamed INSECT LIFE CYCLE: THE PERIODICAL CICADA for distribution). Soon, he became famous for both his stunning geological studies and infamous for his daring in obtaining footage under extremely arduous conditions, whether volcanic, underground, or aerial. He has made over 200 films, his list of film awards is extensive, and yet there is no extant complete filmography of Van Bork. Each of the Van Bork films listed in the cine16 filmography are exceptional, and are among the best short films ever made. Van Bork's EYEWITNESS, nominated for an Academy Award in 1999, "examines a unique genre of art: sketches and paintings done secretly by men and women who lived and died inside the walls of the Nazi death camps. This body of work, much of it unearthed for the first time from the death camp's archives, provides chilling testimony to Auschwitz's daily routine of torture and execution. EYEWITNESS documents the life and work of three artists - Jan Komski, Dina Gottliebova and Felix Nussbaum - who more than fifty years ago witnessed and painted the horror." Van Bork's exhibitions of two-dimensional art continue to appear in the Chicago area, and he has released a book of his art in conjunction with an exhibition in Germany, Bert Van Bork: Kunstlerporträts (Passage-Verlag, ISBN 3-932900-34-0).  Nominated for Achievement in Documentary Short Subjects 1999: EYEWITNESS - Producer 1 nomination