Strong Swiss presence in Japanese mecca for documentary films
07.10.2009
Three Swiss film productions will participate in the competition of the 11th Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival (October 8-15, 2009). This is the most important festival for non-fiction films throughout Asia and is only held every two years. Swiss director Fernand Melgar will travel to Japan to present his multi-award winning film “La Forteresse” personally.
Participating together with “La Forteresse” in the international competition in Yamagata are the films “La mere” by Antoine Cattin and Pavel Kostomarov as well as the film “Staub” by German filmmaker Hartmut Bitomsky (coproduction: Dschoint Ventschr, Zurich). The five-member international jury is comprised of cinematographer Nurith Aviv (France/Israel), as well as directors Garin Nugroho (Indonesia), Karel Vachek (Czech Republic), Yoshimasu Gozo (Japan) and Wu Wenguang (China), all of whom will present one of their own films at the festival.
Six months prior to the festival the 1,141 entries underwent a stringent selection process, from which 15 films were chosen for the international competition. In the past 20 years only three Swiss film directors have been selected to participate in the competition of this prestigious festival: Richard Dindo in 1989 with “Dani, Michi, Renato und Max”; Peter Mettler in 1995 with “Picture of Light”; and Erich Langjahr in 1997 with “Sennenballade” and in 2003 with “Hirtenreise ins Dritte Jahrtausend”.
Zurich, October 7, 2009
Six months prior to the festival the 1,141 entries underwent a stringent selection process, from which 15 films were chosen for the international competition. In the past 20 years only three Swiss film directors have been selected to participate in the competition of this prestigious festival: Richard Dindo in 1989 with “Dani, Michi, Renato und Max”; Peter Mettler in 1995 with “Picture of Light”; and Erich Langjahr in 1997 with “Sennenballade” and in 2003 with “Hirtenreise ins Dritte Jahrtausend”.
Zurich, October 7, 2009