A Different History

Switzerland still carries out special flights, where passengers, dressed in diapers and helmets, are chained to their seats for 40 hours at worst. They are accompanied by police officers and immigration officials. The passengers are flown to their native countries, where they haven't set foot in in up to twenty years, and where their lives might be in danger. Children, wives and work are left behind in Switzerland. Near Geneva, in Frambois prison, live 25 illegal immigrants waiting for deportation. They are offered an opportunity to say goodbye to their families and return to their native countries on a regular flight, escorted by plain-clothes police officers. If they refuse this offer, the special flight is arranged fast and unexpectedly. The stories behind the locked cells are truly heartbreaking.

In 1966, John Harlin II died while attempting Europe's most difficult climb, the North Face of the Eiger in Switzerland. 40 years later, his son John Harlin III, an expert mountaineer and the editor of the American Alpine Journal, returns to attempt the same climb.

Documentary to mark the WI's centenary. Lucy Worsley goes beyond the stereotypes of jam and Jerusalem to reveal the surprisingly radical side of this Great British institution.

Switzerland! A culturally diverse nation with three language regions - French, German and Italian. A country known internationally for its neutrality, but maintaining a high level of military preparedness. Enjoy an outstanding trip with traveloguers Frank and Kay Nichols through this spectacular alpine country. Experience Switzerland, a small country of exquisite and varied beauty.

A tour of the mountains, valleys and cities of this beautiful country. Visit Neuchatel, then shop in elegant Lausanne. The dungeon of the Chateau de Chillon, the city of Geneva and Zermatt's magnificent Matterhorn.

In this Traveltalk series short we learn that four million ethnic French, German and Italian people live in Switzerland. The Alps and their important part in the country's history is noted. We view vividly-coloured alpine wildflowers which cover the mountain meadows in the spring. We see rushing mountain streams, fed by melting snows, and then learn of colourful alpine chalets and traditional wood-carving amongst other highlights.

The story of the road to women's suffrage in Sweden featuring interviews with relatives of the main characters.

Bounty

With his vivid oil paintings, Albert Anker captured Swiss folk life like no other. Together with musician Endo Anaconda we discover the "Anker-House", Anker's old studio.

A documentary about experimental drummer Fritz Hauser.

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.

A cinematic time capsule with over 1,400 hours of submitted material from all regions of Switzerland gives unknown insights about the life of Swiss people in the politically and socially turbulent summer of 2019.

Langi Ziit

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.

A documentary about homeless people living in Switzerland.

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.

Through the testimonies of some Italian women, the documentary evokes the day of 2 June 1946, when they were called upon to cast their vote for the first time. The battles conducted by Italian women in the years leading up to 1946 to demand recognition of the right to vote. The approval of the right to vote for women by the Italian Parliament on 1 February 1945, at the proposal of the Italian Communist Party Secretary Palmiro Togliatti and statesman and founder of the Christian Democratic Party De Gasperi. The role of the first 21 women elected to the Constituent Assembly on 2 June 1946, and their contribution to the writing of the Italian Constitution.

Award-winning director Langjahr returns to his beloved Alps to document a group of people continuing the legacy of their forefathers. Every year on Swiss National day, August 1, the Wildheuer climb up the steep mountain of the «Hinteren Heubrig», fitted out with scythes and wearing wooden shoes with spikes, just as their ancestors did before them. They are part of a generation who have lived with the challenges of nature and survived it. In his film, Langjahr's poetic realism gives an insight into these people's experience of the simple life, the very foundation of human existence.

It's 1892 and Kate Sheppard tells the story of the suffrage campaign - a pursuit that will continue until September 1893.

An intimate documentary about the life and times of Swiss poet and folk singer Mani Matter (1936-1972), seen from his friends' perspective.