DOCS SPRING 2019: 27 Swiss films and Doc Market Preview at Visions du Réel, 5 Swiss films at CPH:DOX

PASSION – BETWEEN REVOLT AND RESIGNATION by Christian Labhart is the only Swiss entry selected for the International Feature Film Competition. In this essay film, the director portrays how he deals with the painful fact that today’s world is not how he imagined it would be 50 years ago. Current images collide with fragmentary recollections, poetic texts and J. S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion.

Four Swiss productions will be presented in the International Burning Lights Competition, which is dedicated to new expressions, research as well as narrative and formal experimentation: for example, MADAME by Stéphane Riethauser, an intimate family saga in which the filmmaker and his grandmother explore gender identities. In his first feature-length film LOULOU, Nathan Hofstetter takes a critical look at his paranoid schizophrenia, as he did prior to this in his two short films RADIO-ACTIVE (2012), honoured with the Pardino d’Oro, and HIM, HITLER AND ME (2013), both of which premiered at the Locarno Festival.

Moreover, four Swiss film productions will be screened in the International Competition for Medium-Length and Short Film: including INSIDE THE RUINS, Selina Weber’s graduation film produced by ECAL/HEAD, in which the filmmaker travels to ruins of Pompei to process her father’s death – a collage comprised of stories from the past and present told in a touching and direct manner.

Five debut films in National Competition

The Swiss competition comprises eleven Swiss films, for example, ISOLA by Aurelio Buchwalder who, until now, has gained a great deal of attention primarily as the cinematographer for films such as THE GIRL DOWN LOCH ÄNZI by Alice Schmid (2016) or PADRONE E SOTTO by Michele Cirigliano (2014). His short documentary DRIFTAGE was screened in the International Short Film Competition at Visions du Réel in 2016. Also screened in the National Competition are the Swiss-German coproduction A DONKEY CALLED GERONIMO by Bigna Tomschin and Arjun Talwar, which has just celebrated its premiere at DOK Leipzig, as well as FIANCÉES by Julia Bünter. All three are the directors’ first feature-length documentary films.

Three Swiss short films are selected for the Opening Scenes section, which is dedicated to first short films from film schools: for example, SWEET SALTY WIND by Genevan Laura Gabay, coproduced by the Cuban film school EICTV.

SWISS FILMS Market Preview in Nyon

In the wake of the well-attended Market Preview in Nyon in 2018, SWISS FILMS has organised the industry event for the second time in collaboration with Visions du Réel. On Tuesday, April 9, six promising Swiss documentary film projects in production will be presented to a select number of sales agents, international distributors and festival delegates in an exclusive screening, with producers and directors in attendance. On that same day SWISS FILMS will also host a networking luncheon for Swiss producers and accredited members of the international industry and participate in the festival’s Magic Hour aperitif.

Five Swiss films at CPH:DOX

Five Swiss films have been selected for the documentary film festival CPH:DOX in Copenhagen (March 20-31). Following the success of its world premiere at the Berlinale (Generation Kplus), BARACOA by Pablo Briones & The Moving Picture Boys will be presented in the Highlights section. In addition, the festival favourites BLUE NOTE RECORDS: BEYOND THE NOTES by Sophie Huber (Sound & Vision) and THE APOLLO OF GAZA by Nicolas Wadimoff (Artists & Auteurs) will be screened in Copenhagen. Furthermore, the multi-award-winning Swiss coproduction PUTIN’S WITNESSES by Vitaly Mansky will be screened in the Europe Programme, and in the Justice Programme, the coproduction ADVOCATE by Rachel Leah Jones and Philippe Bellaïche, which recently celebrated its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.

SWISS FILMS, March 11, 2019

e-booklet DOCS SPRING 2019