La conquête du temps libre
The film interweaves the stories of two generations of Palestinians. It tells the story of Elias Jubran, a music teacher and oud maker from Al Jaleel (Galilee), and his children, who live in a totally different way in Israel... or who have left the country in search of a more open way of life. The film shows what it takes for a culture - mired in the threatening environment of the State of Israel - to continue to thrive.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, tout dire
'From One Day To The Next' follows four elderly people through their everyday lives, observing how they cope with a gradual loss of autonomy.
Zelihas Hütte
Greina
Hans Josephsohn - Im Haus der Plastik
The film is the story of a musical encounter between drummers Pierre Favre, Fritz Hauser, Daniel Humair and Fredy Studer. The filmmaker brought them together in Zurich on January 6, 1997, and followed them over four days of rehearsals. The confrontation between these very different artists culminates in a concert.
Hotel Abyssinie
Amidst the chaos of modern China, where megacities spring up at a dizzying pace, Swiss photographer Andreas Seibert has chosen to document the lives of the "mingong," the migrant workers who fuel the country's economic engine. Director Villi Hermann followed him in this endeavor for several years, immersing us in the photographer's eye and capturing the essence of his work on these forgotten souls. Seibert, with his lens, and Hermann, with his camera, weave together a poignant narrative that sheds light on the often-hidden reality of China's economic growth. "From Somewhere to Nowhere" is an ode to humanity in an ever-changing world, a reflection on the individual's place in the grand scheme of things, and a celebration of the power of photography as a means to capture the spirit of an era.
Feltrinelli
The Art Foundry
Que viva Mauricio Demierre
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 camerawork that proved fateful for him.
Sixth-graders have many things on their minds. But they are confronted with an important decision: do they continue their education in secondary school A, B, or C, or do they go to grammar school after all? And what even are those things? How do children deal with the hopes and fears associated with this step?
Classe d'accueil
From August to October 1942, over 2250 Jews were deported from the internment camp of Rivesaltes to Auschwitz by way of Drancy. Among them were 110 children. Friedel Bohny-Reiter, a nurse with the Swiss Aid to Children, worked in this camp in the South of France. Like many others in the formerly unoccupied zone, it was run by the French. Once a military camp, it had been converted in 1941 into a transit camp regrouping Jewish, Gypsy and Spanish people living in the area or who had fled to the free zone as refugees. Thanks to the young nurse from Basel, many children were probably saved from certain death. The film follows the nurse on a visit to that still intact site as well as through the pages of the journal she wrote in those dark days, published by Editions Zoë, Geneva in 1993.
Switzerland is presently the only country in the world where suicide assistance is legal. Exit: The Right to Die profiles that nation's EXIT organization, which for over twenty years has provided volunteers who counsel and accompany the terminally-ill and severely handicapped towards a death of their choice.
Remue-ménage
The Making of a Dream is a cinematic essay on stories of dancers. It shows joys and pains from the first steps in an amateur school to the goal to become a principal dancer in a world known ballet company.