Switzerland the Beautiful

Visiting Italy(en)

This TravelTalk short focuses on the ancient ruins in Rome, the leaning tower of Pisa, and the architecture in Florence, Italy.

Heidi in China(en)

In 1946, Heidi is entrusted to a Swiss family by her father. He will never come back for her. Today, François Yang questions his mother about her past. What follows is a journey to China, a quest to reconstruct memory. Through contact with her brothers and sister, Heidi measures the extent of the drama experienced by her family that remained in China, persecuted by the Communist Party.

Langi Ziit(de)

Stone Love(en)

The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner(de)

A study of the psychology of a champion ski-flyer, whose full-time occupation is carpentry.

Outerborough(en)

In 1899, a photographer at American Mutoscope & Biograph mounted his camera on the front of a trolley traveling over the Brooklyn Bridge. The three 90-foot rolls he created were edited together to complete the journey from Manhattan to Brooklyn, entitled Across the Brooklyn Bridge. As a commission by the Museum of Modern Art for the re-opening of their facility, American avant-garde filmmaker Bill Morrison took this remarkable footage and recombined it with itself to form a new split-screen extrapolation.

Davos(en)

Beneath its reassuring façade, Davos is each year at the heart of the Western and capitalistic world. Every chief of State and everyone who is someone in the money world meets with their peers in the Swiss village. What is really at stake in Davos ? Julia Niemann and Daniel Hoesl create a fascinating observational documentary in which judgement is never handed out and where the dialectics of conflicts matter more than easy and reassuring answers. The film asks the viewer some uncomfortable questions by focusing on challenges that the new global economy poses to the world.

Ueli Steck - Speed, Der schnellste Mann am Berg(de)

He climbed solo, without a rope, the north face of the Eigers in 2h47. Below him the rock wall steigen über 1000 Meter ab. Mehr Ueli Steck, the lone wolf, does not lose his temper. For a year, Steck has meticulously prepared this record of less than three hours. The portrait of an extraordinary man who takes us on a journey to the most beautiful and challenging peaks in the world.

The Six Great North Faces of the Alps(de)

Six big north faces of the Alps. The film consists of six films: "Die Wand der Wände" (Eger by Robert Jasper, Roger Schäli), "Das letzte Wort hat der Berg" (Matterhorn by Michael Lerjen, Jorge Ackermann), "Selig, wer in Träumen stirbt" (Grandes Jorasses by Felix Berg, Robert Steiner), "Licht und Schatten" (Piz badile by Hansjörg Auer), "Grenzen der Felskletterei" (Drei Zinnen by Alexander Huber) and "Der zerfallene Berg" (Petit Dru by Steve House, Andy Parkin).

Nemesis(de)

The film explores the destruction of a unique train station in Zurich and the construction of the new prison and police centre in its place. From the perspective of the filmmaker’s window, and with testimony from prisoners awaiting deportation, the film probes how we deal with the extinction of history and its replacement with total security.

Image Problem(de)

Tax row, bank secrecy and exploitative commodities trading companies: Switzerland has an image problem. But don’t worry. Simon and Andreas are taking care of it. The two fearless filmmakers head out on a yearlong odyssey across Switzerland in order to rebuild the battered reputation of their home country. Along the way they meet farmers and allotment gardeners, journalists and tourists, villa owners and numerous perplexed foreigners.

The Pleiadian Connection(en)

A look at the Billy Meier case

The Wonderful Fruit of the Tropics(xx)

Beautiful stencil-coloured images of collecting (and eating) the fruit of India.

Ocular(en)

Inspired by Chris Marker's Sans Soleil, a girl decides to make her own rendition of Marker's mesmerising voyage through Japan, only for it to turn awry when she encounters another girl - a recurring stranger - haunting her path.

Rudy Maxa's World Exotic Places: Turkey(en)

Join veteran travel writer and TV show host Rudy Maxa as he explores Turkey, a land of stark beauty that sits at the crossroads where Europe and Asia -- and two of the world's great religious faiths -- meet. Maxa guides you through the mysteries of Istanbul's Grand Bazaar and then into the delights of a bona fide Turkish bath. Next, he hops on a boat to explore the many Roman ruins along Turkey's southern Turquoise Coast.

White Winter Heat(en)

Turn up the heat this winter and catch fire with some of the most extreme skiers of the time as they burn up the slopes. Featuring skiers and riders like Scot Schmidt, Tom Day, Cindy Nelson, Tom Jungst, plus many more, Warren Miller's White Winter Heat takes you on an adventure to places like Kooteney National Park in Canada, Verbier Switzerland, New Zealand, and Vail. Grab your skis and find out how to scorch up the slopes even during the coldest, snowiest winter days.

The Windmill(fr)

In preparation for a feature-length film about windmills, an assistant director travels through the Vaud region to search for locations with windmills. The research leads to a serious engagement with the meaning and purpose of windmills, which has something Don Quixote-like about it in the age of nuclear power stations. The transitions between document and fiction flow constantly and result in a charming and intellectual mixture of seriousness and fun, determination and coincidence, weightlessness and the weight of meaning.

Valparaiso(fr)

In 1962 Joris Ivens was invited to Chile for teaching and filmmaking. Together with students he made …A Valparaíso, one of his most poetic films. Contrasting the prestigious history of the seaport with the present the film sketches a portrait of the city, built on 42 hills, with its wealth and poverty, its daily life on the streets, the stairs, the rack railways and in the bars. Although the port has lost its importance, the rich past is still present in the impoverished city. The film echoes this ambiguous situation in its dialectical poetic style, interweaving the daily life reality (of 1963) with the history of the city and changing from black and white to colour, finally leaving us with hopeful perspective for the children who are playing on the stairs and hills of this beautiful town.

Horikita Maki: Castella(ja)

Documentary about the photo session for the photobook "Castella", filmed in Portugal.

Nikita Kino(fr)

The film is a travelogue of sorts. Ostrovsky’s personal family footage meets the archives of Soviet propaganda footage. The result is a kind of Khruschev-era mix with a collage of Soviet music and a voice-over of my reminiscences of the Cold War era.