Melanie Spitta
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Melanie Spitta (1946 – 28 August 2005; sometimes recorded as Melanie Splita)[1][2] was a German Sinti film-maker.[3]
She was born in 1946 in Hasselt, Belgium, in a Sinti family, and died on 28 August 2005 in Frankfurt, Germany.[4] Her family had moved from Germany in 1938 in an attempt to escape persecution by the Nazis, but her six siblings died in Auschwitz concentration camp, where her mother was also imprisoned but survived, with damaged health.[5] The family later moved to Düren in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.[5]
In her film-making and other activism she worked to reveal the Nazi genocide of the Sinti and other Romani people.[6] In 1999 she was awarded the Otto Pankok Prize, inaugurated by Günter Grass in memory of his teacher Otto Pankok.[7][8][9]
Her film Das Falsche Wort[10] is in the permanent collection of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum,[11] and her work was included in the online World Roma Congress Art Exhibition in 2021.[12] Her 1981 film, Es ging Tag und Nacht, liebes Kind (It went day and night, dear child), made with Katrin Seybold, covered the night of 2-3 August 1944 when the last Sinti and Roma prisoners in Auschwitz-Birkenau were killed in the gas chambers.[6] Spitta and Seybold also made the 1981 film We are Sinti Children and Not Gypsies, which is available on Mubi.[13]
Filmography[edit]
- Schimpft uns nicht Zigeuner (1980, Don't scold us as gypsies)[14]
- Wir sind Sintikinder und keine Zigeuner (1981, We are Sinti children and not gypsies)[15]
- Es ging Tag und Nacht liebes Kind (1982, It went day and night, dear child)[3]
- Das Falsche Wort (1987, The wrong word)[16]
- Meleza und Gallier (1996, Meleza and Gallier)[3]
References[edit]
- ^ "Splita, Melanie". www.deutsche-biographie.de (in German). Deutsche Biographie. Retrieved 15 April 2024.
- ^ "Splita, Melanie". DNB, Katalog der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek. Retrieved 15 April 2024.
- ^ a b c "Melanie Spitta". iffr.com. International Film Festival Rotterdam. 2024. Retrieved 14 April 2024.
- ^ "Melanie Spitta". www.filmportal.de. Retrieved 14 April 2024.
- ^ a b "Bio-Filmographie Melanie Spitta". ARCHE (in German). 1999. Retrieved 15 April 2024.
- ^ a b "Film evening "Es ging Tag und Nacht, liebes Kind (It went day and night, dear child)"". European Holocaust Memorial Day for Sinti und Roma. 28 July 2020. Retrieved 14 April 2024.
- ^ "RNN / Filmmaker Melanie Spitta Wins Otto Pankok Prize". groups.google.com. RomNews Network. 7 December 1999. Retrieved 14 April 2024.
- ^ Grass, Günter (July 1998). "True Europeans". Index on Censorship. 27 (4): 51–53. doi:10.1080/03064229808536386. ISSN 0306-4220.
- ^ Swoboda, Hannes; Wiersma, Jan Marinus. "A Blind Spot in the Consciousness of Europe: Interview with Günter Grass". In Flašíková-Beňová, Monika; Swoboda, Hannes; Wiersma, Jan Marinus (eds.). Roma: A European Minority The Challenge of Diversity (PDF). European Union: Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament. p. 28. ISBN 978-92-823-3375-4. Retrieved 14 April 2024.
Melanie Spitta, who was awarded the Otto-Pankok prize
- ^ "Gesellschaft für Antiziganismusforschung e.V." www.antiziganismusforschung.de (in German). 1 October 2023. Retrieved 14 April 2024.
- ^ "Sinti Persecution". collections.ushmm.org. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Retrieved 14 April 2024.
- ^ "World Roma Congress Art Exhibition". Romani Cultural & Arts Company. 2021. Retrieved 14 April 2024.
- ^ "We are Sinti Children and Not Gypsies (1981)". Mubi. Retrieved 14 April 2024.
- ^ "Schimpft uns nicht Zigeuner". iffr.com. IFFR. Retrieved 14 April 2024.
- ^ "Wir sind Sintikinder und keine Zigeuner". iffr.com. IFFR. Retrieved 14 April 2024.
- ^ "Das falsche Wort". iffr.com. IFFR. Retrieved 14 April 2024.
External links[edit]
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