DOCs FALL
T ea m
TABLE OF CONTENTS
DOCS FALL 2016
Catherine Ann Berger Managing Director caberger@swissfilms.ch T +41 76 368 02 65
Selina Willemse Head of Festivals & Markets swillemse@swissfilms.ch T +41 79 286 51 88
SWISS DOCS FALL 2016 Documentary Films Feature Length – Completed Documentary Films Mid-Length – Completed In Memoriam: Peter Liechti
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Documentary Films Shorts – Completed
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Documentary Films – Coming Soon
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MY LIFE AS A ZUCCHINI – Switzerland’s official submission for the 89th Academy Awards ®
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Documentary Films – In Production
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Aida Suljicic Head of Programmes & Festival Advisor asuljicic@swissfilms.ch T +41 77 431 87 79
Marcel Müller Festival Advisor & VoD Consultant mmueller@swissfilms.ch T +41 79 787 93 88
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Cover: THE GIRL DOWN LOCH ÄNZI by Alice Schmid Back Cover: ALMOST THERE by Jacqueline Zünd Published in October 2016
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Almost There Jacqueline Zünd
Switzerland 2016, 80 min. Original languages: English / Japanese World premiere: IDFA 2016 (First Appearance) Production: Hugofilm Productions GmbH, Zurich Intermezzo Films SA, Geneva SRF Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen RTS Radio Télévision Suisse SRG SSR ARTE World Sales: First Hand Films GmbH, Zurich T +41 44 312 20 60 www.firsthandfilms.com
The story of three men who embark on a journey in search of meaning and happiness in the autumn of their lives. Bob swaps his safe home for a campervan and tries to find the tough guy inside himself in the barren Californian desert. Drag queen and stand-up comedian Steve is fed up of England and makes amends with his past between Benidorm’s concrete towers. And Yamada rediscovers his smile by reading stories to children in Tokyo. A film about time, dignity and the transience of life.
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© Aishe Yavas
* 1971 in Zurich. Jacqueline Zünd attended the Ringier School of Journalism and LIFS (London International Film School). From 1996–98 she worked as an editor for the Swiss broadcasting service and in 1998 she started working as an independent director. Her last documentary film GOODNIGHT NOBODY (2010) won several awards such as Best Newcomer film at Visions du Réel Nyon and a special mention at DOK Leipzig.
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Burning Out Jerôme le Maire
* 1969 in Liège, Belgium. Jérôme le Maire graduated from the Institut des arts de diffusion, Louvain-la-Neuve in 1995. His feature documentary WHERE IS LOVE IN PALGROOVE (2007) was selected for several film festivals such as Visions du Réel, Nyon and RIDM and was nominated for a European Film Award. TEA OR ELECTRICITY (2012) was also nominated for a European Film Award for Best Documentary.
A drama about life and death. For two years, the director followed the members of a surgical unit in one of Paris' biggest hospitals. Constantly under severe stress, understaffed and subject to budget cuts, employees fight each other for resources. Meanwhile the management imposes ever more stringent efficiency and profitability targets. All over Europe burnout has reached epidemic proportions among employees in the public and private sectors. Will we end up killing ourselves? Or will we be able to find meaning and joy at work? www.burning-out-film.com
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France / Belgium / Switzerland 2016, 90 min. Original language: French World premiere: IDFA 2016 (Competition) Production: Zadig Productions, Paris AT Doc, Brussels Louise Productions, Lausanne RTBF ARTE RTS Radio Télévision Suisse SRG SSR World Sales: CAT&Docs, Paris T +33 1 44 61 77 48 www.catndocs.com
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Cahier africain Heidi Specogna
Switzerland / Germany 2016, 119 min. Original languages: French / Arabic / Sango World premiere: Festival del film Locarno 2016 International premiere: DOK Leipzig 2016 (Int'l Competition) Production: PS Film GmbH, Zurich Filmpunkt GmbH, Cologne ZDF / 3sat World Sales: Rushlake Media GmbH, Cologne T +49 221 58 83 21 80 www.rushlake-media.com
It all started with a school exercise book. Its pages were checkered with the testimonies of 300 Central African women, girls and men. They reveal what Congolese mercenaries did to them. On their own initiative they gathered together their testimonies to record the crimes committed against them. The film is a long-term observation that begins accompanying its protagonists in 2008. But while they try to master their difficult daily lives with confidence – and while, in The Hague, the legal prosecution of crimes committed during the last war is still in progress – the next war breaks out.
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* 1959 in Switzerland. Heidi Specogna worked as a journalist before studying film at the DFFB Berlin from 1982–88 and founded her own production company Specogna Film in 1990. Specogna is known for her award-winning documentaries CARTE BLANCHE (2011), THE GOAL GETTER’S SHIP (2010) and THE SHORT LIFE OF JOSÉ ANTONIO GUTIERREZ (2006). She works as a lecturer in documentary filmmaking at the Film Academy Baden-Württemberg in Ludwigsburg.
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Calabria Pierre-François Sauter
® Dan Budnik
* 1966 in Switzerland. Pierre-François Sauter studied fine arts and worked for both Radio Télévision Belge (RTBF) and Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen (SRF). After FACING THE JUDGE (2009), which premiered at Visions du Réel in Nyon, CALABRIA is his second documentary feature film.
A road movie in a hearse. After the death of a calabrian emigrant who came to Switzerland to find work, two undertakers, Jovan and José, who are themselves emigrants, travel from north to south of Italy to repatriate the dead body into his home village. Jovan, a gypsy who was a singer in Belgrad, believes in life after death. While José, a Portuguese who is passionate about culture, believes only what he sees. Together, they face the contingencies and the surprises of the trip. Their journey is an opportunity to pay a tribute to the dead person and to enjoy life. www.calabria-film.com
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Switzerland 2016, 117 min. Original languages: French / Serbian / Romani / Portuguese / Italian World premiere: Visions du Réel Nyon 2016 International premiere: Doc Lisboa 2016 (Int'l Competition) Production: Le Laboratoire Central, Lausanne Mira Film GmbH, Zurich RTS Radio Télévision Suisse World Rights: Le Laboratoire Central, Lausanne T +41 78 605 69 81 www.lelaboratoirecentral.com
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Dr. Jack
Docteur Jack
Benoît Lange / Pierre-Antoine Hiroz
Switzerland / France 2016, 83 min. Original languages: French / Bengali / Hindi / English World premiere: Festival du Film Français d'Helvétie Bienne 2016 Production: PointProd SA, Geneva Episode 4, Paris RTS Radio Télévision Suisse Dr Jack Production, Aigle World Rights: PointProd SA, Geneva T +41 22 328 48 48 www.pointprod.ch
Surrounded by books, Jack Preger leads an ascetic life in a room on the roof of his school. This tireless doctor has roamed the slums of Calcutta for 35 years. Through his perseverance and radical life choice, he initiated a movement that has become global: street medicine. At 83 years of age, he has accepted for the first time to speak in front of a camera, thus opening the personal book of his exceptional life, that of a secular saint. www.drjack.world
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Benoît Lange * 1965. In 1989 Benoît Lange started documenting Jack Preger’s life on Calcutta’s streets with a photographic book. He has made a few short and middle-length films within Calcutta, such as LES OUBLIÉS DE CALCUTTA (1995) and LES AVENTURIERS DE LA MÉDECINE (1997). Pierre-Antoine Hiroz * 1961 in Switzerland. Pierre-Antoine Hiroz worked as mountain guide before becoming a self-taught filmmaker in 1983. He has made numerous films for television.
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Fishing Bodies Pescatori di corpi Michele Pennetta
The film follows the crew of the Alba Angela, a clandestine fishing boat, as their destinies cross path with Ahmed, a refugee who now lives illegally on the boat that, before becoming his home and prison, brought others like him to Sicily. An intimate portrait of indifference in the face of immigration. * 1984 in Italy. Italian citizenship. Michele Pennetta received his BA in Visual Communication from SUPSI in Lugano in 2008 and his MA in cinema from ECAL (École Cantonale d’Art de Lausanne) in 2010. His short documentaries THE DOGS BARK (2010) and THE BET (2013) were selected for numerous international festivals. FISHING BODIES is his first feature film.
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Switzerland 2016, 65 min. Original languages: Italian / Arabic World premiere: Festival del film Locarno 2016 Production: Close Up Films, Geneva RSI Radiotelevisione svizzera World Rights: Close Up Films, Geneva T +41 22 808 08 46 joelle@closeupfilms.ch www.closeupfilms.ch
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Jean Ziegler,
The Optimism Of Willpower
Jean Ziegler, l'optimisme de la volonté Nicolas Wadimoff
Switzerland 2016, 90 min. Original languages: French / German / Spanish / English World premiere: Festival del film Locarno 2016 Production: Dreampixies, Vevey RTS Radio Télévision Suisse SRF Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen SRG SSR ARTE G.E.I.E. World Sales: Autlook Filmsales GmbH, Vienna T +43 720 34 69 34 www.autlookfilms.com
In 1964, Jean Ziegler was asked by Che Guevara to fight the “capitalist Monster”. Former collaborator of Kofi Annan, professor and writer, Ziegler’s books still act as a manifesto to left-wing intelligentsia. At the UN Human Rights Council, he fights against “vulture funds”, a new avatar of the “Monster”. He goes back to Cuba, in his opinion the mother of all anticapitalist forces. The visit becomes a dialogue between reality and symbolism, confronting his thinking with today’s Cuban destiny. What is the future of anticapitalism? Is Ziegler amongst the winners or losers against the “Monster”?
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* 1964 in Geneva. Nicolas Wadimoff has directed both fiction and documentary, among them the multi awarded CLANDESTINS (1997), which premiered in Locarno. His last films AISHEEN (STILL ALIVE IN GAZA) (2010), OPERATION LIBERTAD (2012) and SPARTIATES (2014), have been shown at prestigious international film festivals such as Berlinale, Festival del film Locarno and at the Cannes Quinzaine des Réalisateurs.
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Like Dew In The Sun Comme la rosée au soleil Peter Entell
Why can’t people live together in peace? After centuries of hatred, violence and massacres, Ukraine is at war once again. People continue to kill in the name of the mother country, flag, culture, religion. An opera about a filmmaker’s journey to the land of his ancestors. * 1952 in New York. American citizenship. Peter Entell has been living and working in Switzerland since 1975. He has worked in Europe, Africa and Asia on social, political and environmental projects. Entell is known for his films A HOME FAR AWAY (2012), SHAKE THE DEVIL OFF (2007) and ROLLING (1997), which were selected for numerous inter national festivals such as IDFA and Festival del film Locarno. LIKE DEW IN THE SUN had its premiere at Visions du Réel, Nyon and is also selected for IDFA.
www.dewinthesun.com
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Switzerland 2016, 110 min. Original languages: French / English World premiere: Visions du Réel Nyon 2016 International premiere: IDFA 2016 (Competition) Production: Show and Tell Films, Founex RTS Radio Télévision Suisse World Rights: Show and Tell Films, Founex T +41 79 376 55 57 pentell@bluewin.ch
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Looking Like My Mother Dominique Margot
Switzerland 2016, 78 min. Original languages: German / French / English / Swiss-German World premiere: Visions du Réel Nyon 2016 International premiere: DOK Leipzig 2016 (Next Masters Competition) Production: maximage GmbH, Zurich SRG SSR World Rights: maximage GmbH, Zurich T +41 44 274 88 66 www.maximage.ch
The film follows the filmmaker's journey as a daughter of a mother who suffered from de‑ pression and confronts her fear of inheriting the disease. It describes her helplessness as a child, her anger as a teenager and her eventual understanding of the courage it took for her mother to even carry on breathing. The film traces the individual experience, sharing the emptiness and the eventual discovery of a sense of meaning in life. An audiovisually playful film about complex family relationships and the unexpected reconciliation that occurs when her mother dies.
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* 1961 in Zurich. Joint Swiss and French citizenship. Dominique Margot studied film at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) and graduated in 1999. She has worked as director and D.O.P on a number of documentaries in Switzerland and France. Her last film TOUMAST – GUITARS AND KALASHNIKOVS (2010) was screened and awarded at several festivals. LOOKING LIKE MY MOTHER is her second feature-length documentary film.
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Raving Iran Susanne Regina Meures
* 1977 in Germany. Susanne Regina Meures studied Photography and Art History in London 2000–06. She received a Master’s degree in Film from the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK). RAVING IRAN is her first feature film which has been shown at various international film festivals and won several awards such as the First Steps Award Berlin and Best Int. Documentary at Guanajuato International Film Festival.
Anoosh and Arash are at the centre of Tehran’s underground techno scene. Tired of hiding from the police and their stagnating career, they organize one last manic techno rave under dangerous circumstances in the desert. Back in Tehran they try their luck selling their illegally printed music album without permission. When Anoosh is arrested, there seems to be no hope left. But then they receive a phone call from the biggest techno festival in the world. Once landed in Switzerland, the haze of the instant euphoria evaporates quickly when the seriousness of the situation starts to dawn on them. www.ravingiran.com
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Switzerland 2016, 84 min. Original languages: Persian / English / Swiss-German World premiere: Visions du Réel Nyon 2016 Production: Christian Frei Filmproduktion GmbH, Zurich Zürcher Hochschule der Künste SRF Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen 3sat Zurich World Sales: Rise And Shine World Sales UG, Berlin T +49 30 47 37 29 80 www.riseandshine-berlin.com
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Spira Mirabilis Massimo D'Anolfi / Martina Parenti
Italy / Switzerland 2016, 121 min. Original languages: North American Indian / Swiss-German / English / French / Japanese World premiere: Venice 2016 (Competition) Production: Montmorency Film, Milan Lomotion AG Filmproduktion, Bern SRF Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen SRG SSR RAI Cinema World Sales: The Match Factory GmbH, Cologne T +49 221 539 70 90 www.the-match-factory.com
The filmmakers pay tribute to humankind's aspirations for immortality by showing us a portrait of our efforts to overcome our own limits. They share their discoveries in a visual symphony to the power and harmony of nature's elements: water, earth, air and fire. From Milan to Wounded Knee, USA, from Bern to Shirahama, Japan, the traces of the filmmakers' travels spiral into a symbol of perfection and infinity: Spira Mirabilis.
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Massimo D’Anolfi * 1974 in Italy Martina Parenti * 1972 in Italy Massimo D’Anolfi and Martina Parenti have been making films together for the past decade. They have shared the development, research, writing, production, filming and editing of several acclaimed documentary films such as THE CASTLE (2011) which was selected at international festivals such as Visions du Réel, Hot Docs Toronto, EIDF, Montreal and was awarded at Hot Docs with the Special Jury Prize among others.
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Stateless – Klaus Rózsa, Photographer
Staatenlos –Klaus Rozsa, Fotograf
Erich Schmid
* 1947 in Switzerland. Erich Schmid lives near Zurich and works as author, screenwriter and filmmaker. He has made several award-winning documentary features: HE CALLED HIMSELF SURAVA (1995),MEIER 19 (2001) and MAX BILL – THE MASTER'S VERSION (2008), which won a Special Mention at the Semaine de la Critique at Locarno.
Klaus Rozsa, a well-known and politically active photographer, lived in Zurich for decades as a stateless individual. All of his applications for naturalisation were refused on political grounds. In 1956 he fled Hungary, growing up in Switzerland with a Jewish father who had survived Auschwitz and Dachau. Due to the extreme proximity of such a fate, the camera led him repeatedly to places where injustice was done. It was this particular quality of his camera work that proved fateful for him.
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Switzerland 2016, 96 min. Original languages: Swiss-German / German / Hungarian World premiere: Zurich Film Festival 2016 Production: Ariadnefilm GmbH, Zumikon SRF Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen World Rights: Ariadnefilm GmbH, Zumikon T +41 44 918 13 60 www.erichschmid.ch
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The Chinese Lives Of Uli Sigg Michael Schindhelm
Switzerland 2016, 93 min. Original languages: Swiss-German / German / English / Chinese Production: T&C Film AG, Zurich SRF Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen RTS Radio Télévision Suisse RSI Radiotelevisione svizzera World Sales: Autlook Filmsales GmbH, Vienna T +43 720 34 69 34 www.autlookfilms.com
The Swiss Uli Sigg had an impact on China’s shifting economic policy after the Mao era. He has also established the world’s most significant collection of contemporary Chinese art. The majority of this collection will be transferred to Hong Kong’s M+ museum, due to open in 2019. A documentary about the entrepreneur, diplomat and art collector Uli Sigg in the tense and ongoing transformation of Chinese society from the late 1970s until today. www.ulisiggmovie.com
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* 1960 in Germany. Michael Schindhelm is a writer, filmmaker, performing arts expert and cultural advisor for international organisations. He worked also as playwright, television presenter and translator. His previous film BIRD’S NEST (2008), co-directed with Christoph Schaub, on the Swiss architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron in China was screened at several international festivals.
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The Girl Down Loch Änzi Das Mädchen vom Änziloch
Alice Schmid
* 1951 in Lucerne. Alice Schmid studied Italian and Spanish; Screenwriting at the Film Academy New York. She founded Ciné A.S. Ltd. in 1996. Her first novel THIRTEEN IS MY NUMBER made it onto the Swiss Bestseller List. She is known for her films focusing on children. Her first feature film THE CHILDREN FROM MOUNT NAPF (2011) was the Opening film for the Generation section at Berlinale. Alice Schmid lives near Loch Änzi and in Zurich.
The pivotal summer for 12-year-old Laura, who lives in a beautiful remote area in the Swiss mountains. As the only daughter in a taciturn family of farmers and mostly left to her own, she becomes obsessed with the legends told about a gorge in the area where no one dares to go. When a boy from town arrives to help on the farm she finally has a friend to share her fears and fantasies with. After he has left she takes the courage to explore the mysterious place all by herself. The portrait of a girl underestimated by all.
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Switzerland 2016, 87 min. Original languages: Swiss-German / German World premiere: IDFA 2016 (First Appearance) Production: Ciné A.S. GmbH, Zurich SRF Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen World Rights: Ciné A.S. GmbH, Zurich T +41 44 202 49 69 www.aliceschmid.ch
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The Other Half Of The Sky – Stories Of Chinese Businesswoman Patrik Soergel
Switzerland / Germany 2016, 80 min. Original languages: Chinese / English World premiere: Zurich Film Festival 2016 Production: PIC-FILM SA, Massagno Salto Film, Haan RSI Radiotelevisione svizzera SRG SSR World Sales: Magnetfilm GmbH, Berlin T +49 163 801 07 53 www.magnetfilm.de
The film explores the huge transformation taking place in China today, from the perspectives of four of the country's most powerful businesswomen. They experienced the austerity of China's Cultural Revolution, followed by the subsequent economic boom. Though growing up in a patriarchal society, they have risen from nothing and have become symbols of change, representing a forceful break with the past. Their stories reflect today's China: a country which is impatient to turn away from its rural past and become an industrialized, ultramodern economy. www.theotherhalfofthesky.ch
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* 1977 in Locarno. Patrik Soergel studied directing and editing at the European Film College in Ebeltoft and at the FAMU in Prague. He works as filmmaker in Switzerland, Germany and the USA. His film THE SOUND AFTER THE STORM (2009), which he co-directed with Ryan FensonHood and Sven O. Hill, premiered at the Zurich Film Festival, where it was awarded with the Golden Eye for Best Documentary.
C o m p leted Mid - len g t h
Appunti del passaggio
Nastinka
The Lives Of Mecca
Maria Iorio / Raphaël Cuomo
Robin Mognetti
Stefano Etter
Switzerland / Italy / Belgium | 2016 | 43 min. Original language: Italian
Switzerland | 2016 | 41 min. Original language: French
Switzerland / Italy | 2016 | 53 min. Original language: English
World premiere: Visions du Réel Nyon 2016 International premiere: DOK Leipzig 2016 (Int'l Programme) Production: Stella Maris, Carouge | Fondazione Furla per l'arte, San Lazzaro di Savena | Argos, Brussels World Sales: Argos, Brussels T +32 2 229 00 03 www.argosarts.org
Production and World Rights: Haute école d’art et de design – Genève T +41 22 388 58 89 cinema.head@hesge.ch head.hesge.ch/cinema
International premiere: DOK Leipzig 2016 (Int'l Programme) Production: PIC-FILM SA, Massagno | CISA Conservatorio Internazionale di Scienze Audiovisive, Lugano | RSI Radiotelevisione svizzera | Unafilm, Turin World Rights: PIC-FILM SA, Massagno T +41 91 966 38 71 | www.picfilm.ch and CISA, Lugano T +41 91 971 51 61 | www.cisaonline.ch There's a place where you can go for group therapy without talking about your problems. It happens on Coney Island, where the “patients” instead of sitting in a circle, are throwing a ball at a wall. The story of the Mecca's players, of their remedy for the ills of daily life, through sport and through their community.
The film reconstructs forgotten episodes related to migration from southern Italy in the 1960s and retraces the trajectories of several protagonists. Letting their accounts unfold, it manifests a counter-memory of the “economic miracle” and exposes the logics of the biopolitical control of the past as well as the effects of the current border regime.
Since the birth of his daughter Anastasia, Sébastien Guiberti has made a break with his hooligan past. Weakened by illness, he engages each day like a new battle. Permeating his own memories and those he describes to the filmmaker is his desire to give his daughter a testimony to the love that binds them.
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I n m e m o r ia m
Peter Liechti DEDICATIONS – THE FILMED READING
Peter Liechti was born in 1951 in St. Gallen, Switzerland. He studied art history and art education. From 1986, Liechti worked as a freelance writer, director, cameraman and producer. He was a visiting professor at several film academies and gave master classes worldwide. His work was screened internationally in numerous retrospectives. He was awarded the European Film Award in 2009 for THE SOUND OF INSECTS – RECORD OF A MUMMY (2009). In March 2014 his film FATHER’S GARDEN – THE LOVE OF MY PARENTS (2013) was awarded the Swiss Film Award for Best Documentary Film and Best Editing. Peter Liechti died in Zurich on April 4, 2014 after a prolonged illness.
Peter Liechti’s last film was to be dedicated to art, literature, and – in honour of humanity – to a nameless chief from southern Sudan. Critically ill, the filmmaker radically abridged what was originally planned as a trilogy. In collaboration with some of the filmmaker’s closest colleagues, Liechti’s partner, Jolanda Gsponer, has created a multimedia project in three parts to pass the unfinished DEDICATIONS on to posterity. Peter Liechti’s unvarnished encounter with his own life and death has become a posthumous homage to the artist in the form of an installation, a filmed reading and a book. The fragment Liechti left behind – a raw cut of the first 15 minutes – is shown in an accompanying DVD in the book DEDICATIONS (published by Scheidegger&Spiess, Zürich 2016). In DEDICATIONS – THE FILMED READING the director is reading from his “hospital diary” – a very personal protocol on life and death. Originally planned as a linguistic base for the film, it was filmed in his studio in January 2014. A selection of Super-8-footage from Peter Liechti’s archive completes the reading. Switzerland | 2016 | 50 min. | Original language: German DOK Leipzig 2016
www.peterliechti.ch
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C o m p leted S h o r t s
Before The Flight
Bunkers
Coincidence
Avant l'envol Laurence Bonvin
Anne-Claire Adet
Zufall Thaïs Odermatt
Switzerland / Ivory Coast | 2016 | 20 min. Original language: French
Switzerland | 2016 | 14 min. Original language: English
Switzerland / Germany | 2016 | 6 min. Original language: German
World premiere: Int’l Kurzfilmtage Winterthur 2016 Production: Laurence Bonvin, Crans-Montana Goethe Institut Côte d'Ivoire, Abidjan World Rights: Laurence Bonvin, Crans-Montana T +41 79 258 36 28 T +49 171 704 10 47 www.laurencebonvin.com
World premiere: Human Rights Festival Geneva 2016 Production and World Rights: Nouvelle Tribu, Geneva T +41 78 697 41 17 yasmine@nouvelletribu.ch
Production: Thaïs Odermatt, Lucerne Filmkollektiv Recherche, Berlin World Rights: Thaïs Odermatt, Lucerne T +41 79 457 21 65 T +49 157 87 67 76 92 www.thaisodermatt.com
An exploration of the actual state of some relevant modernist state buildings in the main Ivorian city, Abidjan. As an architectural tour as well as a tribute to the remarkable achievements of the 60s and 70s, the film pays special attention to users and passersby, to their gestures and ways of informally appropriating the spaces.
A sensorial and first-person immersion into the suffocating experience of an underground shelter where asylum seekers are stowed upon When does coincidence in every human betheir arrival in Geneva. It invites the viewer to ings life begin? An essayistic reflection on the live the anguish of a Sudanese journalist who meaning of coincidence. recalls his underground life experience. The film is based on images taken by refugees with mobile phones. www.bunkersfilm.com
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C o m p leted S h o r t s
Delta Ventura
Digital Immigrants
Ma Yan Chan –
Fulvio Balmer-Rebullida
Norbert Kottmann / Dennis Stauffer
Waves Of Transition Jonas Scheu
Switzerland | 2016 | 30 min. Original language: Catalan
Switzerland | 2016 | 21 min. Original language: Swiss-German
Switzerland | 2017 | 29 min. Original language: Burmese
World premiere: Int’l Kurzfilmtage Winterthur 2016 Production: Fortino, Geneva Haute école d’art et de design – Geneva World Rights: Fortino, Geneva T ++41 79 641 21 13 www.fortinoprod.com
World premiere: Festival del film Locarno 2016 International premiere: DOK Leipzig 2016 (Int'l Competition Short Film) Production: Zürcher Hochschule der Künste SRF Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen World Rights: Norbert Kottmann, Bern T +41 79 703 94 11 | www.norbertkottmann.com and Dennis Stauffer, Solothurn T +41 79 884 52 12 | www.zoomion.ch
Production: Haute École Spécialisée de Suisse occidentale HES-SO ECAL/HEAD, Renens Amrit Medias Sàrl, Les Thioleyres
Having come from the sea, two young sportswomen are paddling their canoe with all their strength on a vast plain. They meet some of the inhabitants, whose activities and narratives evoke a human story of its own.
1984 – The home computer arrives in our living rooms and overruns a whole generation. The computer splits society into digital natives and digital immigrants. 2016 – A group of senior citizens is trying to adapt to the speed of computerization. Their problem is ours: How long can we keep up with the rapid development? www.digital-immigrants.ch
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World Rights: Haute École Spécialisée de Suisse occidentale HES-SO ECAL/HEAD, Renens jean_guillaume.sonnier@ecal.ch www.ecal.ch
Since generations, the dockers and their families live and work at the Ayeyarwady riverbank in Mandalay, the ancient royal capital of Myanmar. In a time of great transition, their lifestyle is subdued to lasting transformations. Against their will, the authorities try to dislocate them into newly built concrete buildings.
C o m p leted S h o r t s
Progress Fortgang Otto Alder
Rakijada
Russian Salad
Nikola Ilić
Salade russe Eileen Hofer
Switzerland | 2016 | 4 min. Without dialogue
Switzerland | 2016 | 19 min. Original language: Serbian
Switzerland | 2016 | 25 min. Original language: Russian
World premiere: Fantoche Baden 2016 International premiere: DOK Leipzig 2016 (Int'l Competition Short Film) Production and World Rights: Gerd Gockell Filmproduktion, Lucerne T +41 41 370 06 75 www.anigraf.org
World premiere: Int’l Kurzfilmtage Winterthur 2016 Production and World Rights: Pixiu Films GmbH, Zurich T +41 44 500 24 68 www.pixiufilms.com
Production and World Rights: Eileen Hofer, Geneva info@eileenhofer.ch www.eileenhofer.ch Between melancholia and fights, between laughter and anger, six members of former USSR share a dinner. They are trying to remember the good days of the Soviet Union, a lost universe. They used to be unified with a common education but today they are from six different countries with six different languages.
An experimental animation in which thousands of photographs of an old building from the director's archives are brought to life in an animated document of impermanence and recommencement.
Through the schnapps-olympiad into the Serbian soul. An exhilarating film from a village of resistance fighters.
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C o m p leted S h o r t s
Whatever The Weather
Whatever We Are
Switzerland | 2016 | 11 min. Original language: German
Switzerland | 2016 | 5 min. Original language: English
Switzerland | 2016 | 15 min. Original language: Arabic
World premiere: Cannes 2016 (Cinéfondation Selection) At DOK Leipzig 2016 (Int'l Competition Shorts) At IDFA 2016 (Student Doc. Competition) Production: Zeitraum Film GmbH, Adliswil Hochschule Luzern, Design & Kunst SRF Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen | SRG SSR World Sales: Interfilm Berlin Management GmbH, Berlin T +49 30 25 94 29 04 | www.interfilm.de
Production and World Rights: Hochschule Luzern, Design & Kunst T +41 41 248 64 64 animation@hslu.ch The filmmaker joined three hunters and recorded an unexpected and personally afflicting experience. The film deals with the conflict between the two positions she experienced. One being the person behind the camera trying to catch reality without influencing it, the other as being part of that same reality.
World premiere: Short Film Festival Rio de Janeiro 2016 At Int’l Kurzfilmtage Winterthur 2016 Production and World Rights: Hochschule Luzern, Design & Kunst T +41 41 248 61 12 edith.flueckiger@hslu.ch www.video.hslu.ch
Bei Wind und Wetter Remo Scherrer
Wally’s childhood is increasingly turned upside down by her mother's alcohol addiction. She experiences the excesses and consequences of addiction first hand. Desperately, the eight-year-old tries to keep up normality in her own life and the life of her family by any means. A roller coaster ride between helplessness, excessive demands and desperation begins. A daily struggle for survival.
Where Euphrates And Sava Flow Together Wo der Euphrat in die Sava mündet
Was immer wir sind Daria Locher
Andreas Muggli
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Mid-February 2016, a few days before the closure of the Greek-Macedonian border. Along the Sava river, the last stage of a long trip on the refugee’s route through the Balkans.
C o m in g Soon
Expected Winter 2016
Double Sentence Léa Pool
* 1950 in Geneva. Léa Pool emigrated to Quebec in 1975, where she has worked as a filmmaker since 1978. Pool is known for her award-winning fiction films ANNE TRISTER (1996), A CORPS PERDU (1987), EMPORTE-MOI (SET ME FREE) (1999) as well as her last film LA PASSION D’AUGUSTINE (2015). Her last documentary PINK RIBBONS INC. (2011) on breast cancer premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Most women in prison are mothers. When a mother is imprisoned, her newborn or her young child can remain with her in prison or they can be separated and taken in by a family member or by the State. These situations aren’t without risk for the child. The film takes the child’s point of view and its goal is to cast a light on them: too often they are forgotten, invisible and bare scars for their entire life. The filmmaker follows the daily lives of some of these kids in Bolivia, Nepal, New York and Montreal.
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Switzerland / Canada 100 min. Original languages: German / English / French / Nepali Production: Catpics Ltd, Adliswil / Zurich Cinémaginaire International Inc., Montreal World Rights: Catpics Ltd, Adliswil / Zurich T +41 44 455 99 00 www.catpics.ch
C o m in g Soon
Expected Summer 2017
Eldorado Markus Imhoof
Switzerland / Germany 120 min. Original languages: Italian / English / German / Arabic / Swiss-German / Wolof Production: Thelma Film AG, Undervelier zero one film GmbH, Berlin SRF Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen BR World Rights: Thelma Film AG, Undervelier T +41 32 426 73 04 meier@thelmafilm.ch and zero one film GmbH, Berlin T +49 30 390 66 30 thomas@zeroone.de
“At the end of the war, my mother took me along to the freight yard in Winterthur to pick out a Red Cross refugee child. All of them were pallid and gaunt, with a slip of paper tied round their neck.� Markus Imhoof * 1941 in Winterthur. Markus Imhoof studied Art History, History and German studies in Zurich. Later he studied film at the Kunstgewerbeschule Zurich. He has taught at film schools in Berlin, Milan and Zurich as guest lecturer. Since 1969 Imhoof works as an independent filmmaker. In 1981 he was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Foreign Language Film for THE BOAT IS FULL (1981). In 2013 he won the Swiss Film Award for Best Documentary Film for MORE THAN HONEY (2012).
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C o m in g Soon
Expected Spring 2017
Fell In Love With A Girl Kaleo La Belle
* 1973 in Maui, USA. Joint Swiss and American citizenship. He received his BFA from the University for Electronic Arts, Alfred, New York, art and video department. From 2002-06 he attended the renowned Lucerne School of Art and Design (HSLU), video department. He has directed several experimental short films and his first feature length documentary BEYOND THIS PLACE (2010) won at Visions du RĂŠel and at Krakow Film Festival. He works internationally as an independent director and cinematographer.
A film about longstanding relationships, family, and the deep consequences of falling in love. While exploring the topic of love in music, poetry and art, the filmmaker reflects on his life and the journeys on which love has taken him. Now, a new journey will test love again, an inter-continental exodus to keep love and family together. The film is a real and intimate portrait about the complexity of love.
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Switzerland 128 min. Original languages: English / German Production: La Belle Film GmbH, Zurich SRF Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen World Rights: La Belle Film GmbH, Zurich T +41 78 790 06 49 www.labellefilm.com
C o m in g Soon
Expected Spring 2017
My Life Is a Gunshot Marcel Derek Ramsay
Switzerland 91 min. Original languages: Swiss-German / German / English / French Production and World Rights: Cinéma Copain, Zurich T +41 43 322 05 11 www.cinemacopain.com
Noise artist Joke Lanz has a loyal fan base. And a revolting image: it’s not unusual for blood to flow on stage. For most people, his music is nothing but an excruciating noise anyway. How does a person come to live that way? The film shadows a sensitive artist haunted by a decades-old trauma: when he was 13 years old, his father went up onto the roof of the house and shot himself. Ever since then, Joke has been trying to find a way of dealing with it. And also with his own role as a father, which has been affected, too.
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* 1969 in Switzerland. Marcel Derek Ramsay works as a photographer, cinematographer and film editor. In 2008 he founded the production company Cinéma Copain and has produced various short and feature length films. He made his directorial feature length debut with THE MASTER AND MAX (2015), which was screened at FICG Guadalajara, Mexico.
C o m in g Soon
Expected Spring 2017
The Congo Tribunal Das Kongo Tribunal Milo Rau
Staged as a tribunal on-location in Bukavu and Berlin, the director creates an unshrouded portrait of one of the biggest and bloodiest economic wars in human history.
* 1977 in Bern. Milo Rau studied Sociology, German and Roman studies in Paris, Zurich and Berlin. In 2007 he founded the theatre and film production company International Institute of Political Murder (IIPM). He is known for his documentary films THE LAST DAYS OF THE CEAUSESCUS (2010) and THE MOSCOW TRIALS (2014). He works as a journalist, author and lecturer and lives in Zurich and Berlin. THE CONGO TRIBUNAL is his third feature length documentary.
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Germany / Switzerland 100 min. Original languages: German / French / English Production: Fruitmarket Arts und Medien GmbH, Cologne Langfilm – Bernard Lang AG, Freienstein Int'l Institute of Political Murder IIPM, Berlin / Zurich SRF Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen RTS Radio Télévision Suisse ZDF in collaboration with ARTE World Rights: Fruitmarket Arts und Medien GmbH, Cologne T +49 221 887 55 13 www.fruitmarket.de and Langfilm – Bernard Lang AG, Freienstein T +41 44 865 66 27 www.langfilm.ch
Switzerland’s official submission for the 89th Academy Awards®
MY LIFE AS A ZUCCHINI [MA VIE DE COURGETTE] by Claude Barras Premiere at 48 th Quinzaine des Réalisateurs, Cannes 2016 WINNER Cristal du Long métrage, Festival Int'l du Film d’Animation Annecy WINNER Prix du Public, Festival Int'l du Film d’Animation Annecy WINNER Audience Award, Melbourne Int'l Film Festival WINNER Valois de Diamant, Festival du Film Francophone d’Angoulême WINNER Audience Award for Best European Film at Festival de San Sebastián WINNER Kids Jury Award for Best Children's Film at Zurich Film Festival WINNER Best Cinematography at Festival Int'l du Film Francophone Namur
November 3, 2016 – Day & Date Release LOOKING LIKE MY MOTHER by Dominique Margot on
North America Distribution: GKIDS, New York – World Sales: Indie Sales, Paris
“What Barras has achieved here is nothing short of a miracle!” Boyd Van Hoeij, The Hollywood Reporter
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I N PR O D U C T I O N
Encordés
Genesis 2.0
I Am Gentrification: Confessions Of A Scoundrel
Frédéric Favre director of Cyclique (2015)
Christian Frei director of Sleepless In New York (2014) Space Tourists (2009) The Giant Buddhas (2005) and War Photographer (2001)
Thomas Haemmerli director of Seven Dumpsters And A Corpse (2007)
(working title)
Lomotion AG Filmproduktion, Bern Planned for Spring 2017
ican films gmbh, Zurich Planned for Summer 2017
Christian Frei Filmproduktion GmbH, Zurich Planned for Spring 2018
La fureur de voir
L'Opéra de Paris
Manuel von Stürler director of Winter Nomads (2012)
Jean-Stéphane Bron director of The Blocher Experience (2013) Cleveland Versus Wall Street (2010) and Corn in Parliament (2003)
Bande à part Films, Lausanne Les Films du Tambour de Soie, Marseille Planned for Winter 2016
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Bande à part Films, Lausanne Les Films Pelléas, Paris Planned for Spring 2017
Distribution Support Get support to release a Swiss film in European cinemas
SHORT FILM LIBRARY: Have a look at Swiss shorts online
We support distribution of Swiss films in our neighbouring countries Germany, France, Italy and Austria with a new maximum amount of CHF 50'000 per theatrical release/country and with CHF 30'000 for all other European countries as of July 1, 2016. This is a support scheme by the Swiss Federal Office of Culture (FOC) in collaboration with SWISS FILMS, the promotion agency for Swiss films. Please contact us for further information or visit our website www.swissfilms.ch/distribution
Coming 2017 New Distribution Support for the release of Swiss films outside of Europe For further information please contact swillemse@swissfilms.ch
Festival delegates, curators, buyers, distributors, programmers and journalists can view a selection of Swiss shorts in our online Short Film Library.
Neugasse 6 | Postfach | CH-8031 ZĂźrich T +41 43 211 40 50 info@swissfilms.ch | www.swissfilms.ch
Visit us at our stands at: Short Film Market in Clermont-Ferrand Berlinale European Film Market EFM Cannes Village International Festival del film Locarno Toronto International Film Festival