Hartmut Bitomsky was born in Bremen on May 10 1942. In 1962, he enrolled as a theatre, German, and journalism major in Berlin. He transferred to Berlin's newly founded "Deutsche Film-und Fernsehakademie" (dffb) in 1966, yet two years later, he and 17 of his co-students were expelled from the dffb due to their political activism.

After working as an assistant director on Peter Lilienthal's documentary "Der Beginn" (1966), he completed his first short "3000 Häuser" (1967). He then directed several TV documentaries, including the Brecht-inspired "Die Teilung aller Tage" (1969/70, co-author: Harun Farocki) about Karl Marx' theory of economics, "Einmal wirst auch du mich lieben. Über die Bedeutung von Heftromanen" (1973) and "Kino/Kritik: Über die Wörter, den Sinn und das Geld von Filmen" (1974). He also made features for the German edition of the childrens' television programme "Sesame Street" (1972/73).

His first and only fiction feature film "Auf Biegen und Brechen" (1975), was mostly ignored by critics and audiences. From 1974 until 1985, Hartmut Bitomsky worked as editor of the groundbreaking magazine "Filmkritik". As a filmmaker, he focused on documentaries and essayist films, many of which were produced for television. Among them were "Berichte über einen englischen Filmemacher" (1976), a portrait of British filmmaker Humphrey Jennings, "Der Schauplatz des Krieges. Das Kino von John Ford" (1976) and the four-part documentary "Highway 40 West" (1980/81). Bitomsky caught wide attention with his project "Deutsche Trilogie" (German Trilogy), consisting of the documentaries "Deutschlandbilder" (1982/83) and "Reichsautobahn" (1984-86), which both reflect upon fascist aesthetics and Nazi propaganda, and "Der VW-Komplex" (1988/89), which recounts the history of the Volkswagen company in Wolfsburg throughout the decades. This was followed in 1992 by "Die UFA", a film essay about the eponymous German studio.

In 1993, Bitomsky became dean and lecturer at the School of Film and Video of the California Institute of the Arts. Consequently, he only completed a few films during the following years. He got rave reviews "B 52" (1997 – 2001), a documentary about the both legendary and infamous US bomber, and "Staub" (2006/07), which premiered at the Venice IFF. In 2006, Bitomsky was appointed director of the dffb, succeeding Reinhard Hauff. However, due to health reasons, he had to resign in 2009.