Peter Liechti retrospective and Swiss films in Rotterdam

Three computer-animation films by Yves Netzhammer, from Schaffhausen, await their discovery in Rotterdam, with the 28-minute loop “Furniture of Proportions” participating in the Tiger Awards Competition for short films in the festival’s “Bright Future” section. Also screened in this section, but outside the competition, will be the documentary film “Témoin indésirable” by Juan Lozano. The film is about Hollman Morris, the Columbian journalist and human rights advocate. Lionel Baier’s fiction film “Un autre homme”, which celebrated its premiere last year in Locarno, will be screened in the festival’s “Spectrum” section, as well as the short films “Monsieur Sélavy” by Peter Volkart and “Barricata” by Emmanuelle Antille.

The festival’s “Signals” section, which focuses on innovative cinematic forms of expression, will showcase twelve films by film director Peter Liechti. The retrospective comprises, together with his long-playing essay, fiction and documentary films – “Signers Koffer” (1996), “Marthas Garten” (1997) “Hans im Glück – drei Versuche das Rauchen loszuwerden” (2003), “Namibia Crossings” (2004), and “Hardcore Chambermusic” (2006) – most of his short films made since the mid-1980s. Attracting particular attention is his most recent film “The Sound of Insects – Record of a Mummy”, an adaptation of a novella based on the actual diary of a man who committed suicide by starving himself.

True to its name, the “Signals” section is signalling the future with its selection of the one-minute animation film “27 Years” by Raymond Höpflinger and the short film “Weg nach Rom”, which was made by Lukas Tiberio Klopfenstein in collaboration with his father Clemens Klopfenstein.

Zurich, January 19. 2009