Ahimsa - Die Stärke von Gewaltfreiheit (2012)

The Paris Opera

A behind-the-scenes look at the of how the Paris Opera is run under the direction of Stephane Lissner.

Exit: The Right to Die

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

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Max Frisch, Citoyen

Max Frisch was the last big Swiss intellectual widely respected as a “voice” in its own right – a character hardly found today. The film retells Frisch’s story as a witness of the unfolding 20th century, wondering if such “voices” are needed at all, or if we could do without them.

The Making of a Dream

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.

Oltre il confine - La storia di Ettore Castiglioni

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Salecina

The Salecine meeting place, founded near Maloja in 1971 by Zurich communist bookseller Theo Pinkus, quickly became a socio-cultural and political Mecca for the left-wing intelligentsia. The film provides an overview of the chronicle of this Alpine melting pot of ideas, and also shows the changes in the zeitgeist since 1968. It is also a gentle, sentimental (sometimes self-ironic) tribute to the men and women of three generations of Salecina, who, at 1800 above sea level, are creating utopias for a fairer world.

Wer sind wir?

How do you cope if things turn out differently than you'd imagined? Helena (19) and Jonas (11) are people in great need of support, putting their parents, families, schools and society to the test. The film breaks down the wall that separates them from our world, shows how language and community develop - and asks the question of who we are.

Shake the Devil Off

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Isa Hesse-Rabinovitch - Das grosse Spiel Film

A true pioneer of Swiss cinema, Isa Hesse-Rabinovitch (1917-2003) followed an unusual path throughout her life. The daughter of Judeo-Russian immigrants, she grew up in Zurich. She married a son of Hermann Hesse, with whom she had three children. Influenced by the artistic work of her parents, she worked as an illustrator, then as a reporter and photographer, always mindful of her independence. At the age of fifty, she began making films. Her first experimental shorts immediately earned her invitations to various film festivals and a resounding response abroad.

I Am Mariam Binladen

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Pausenlos

The film portrays people with different time consciousness. A computer scientist works non-stop. Only when she gets home can she relax. A young employee suffers from sleep disorders and stress at work, and sinks into a state of decompensation. Ski trainer Didier Plaschy looks at the effects of slowing down and speeding up. Time historian Karlheinz Geissler takes a piquantly humorous look at our fast-paced society.

Mutiara, légende d'une perle

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Into Great Silence

An intimate portrayal of the everyday lives of Carthusian monks of the Grande Chartreuse, high in the French Alps (Chartreuse Mountains). The idea for the film was proposed to the monks in 1984, but the Carthusians said they wanted time to think about it. The Carthusians finally contacted Gröning 16 years later to say they were now willing to permit Gröning to shoot the movie, if he was still interested.

Soeurs

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Magic Radio

Radios echo across Niger, connecting lives through news, music, and debate. This gripping doc explores how this everyday device becomes a lifeline in a changing nation.

Toumast - Entre Guitare et Kalashnikov

In 1996, Kalashnikovs were publicly burnt in Timbuktu. At the time, the "Flame of Peace" symbolized the end of the Touareg rebellion, which had been suppressed in bloody massacres. That year, the rebels laid down their arms. That year, with the government having made promises, the families who had fled abroad left Mauritania, Algeria and Burkina Faso to return home. In the fight for rights and survival waged by this people, who for centuries had found their freedom in one of the world's most inhospitable regions, the Sahara, culture and arms have been in direct competition ever since.

Le crépuscule des Celtes

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Un petit coin de paradis

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Urs Fischer

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Vibrato

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Feltrinelli

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Fenster zum Jenseits

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The Art Foundry

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Iraqi Odyssey

Tracing the emigrations of his family over more than half a century, this riveting documentary epic from acclaimed expatriate Iraqi filmmaker Samir pays moving homage to the frustrated democratic dreams of a people successively plagued by the horrors of dictatorship, war and foreign occupation of Iraq.

Le souffle du désert

A disturbing exploration of what it means to be a man Desert Wind unveils the innermost thoughts of 13 men about their lives and male identity, making a clean sweep of clichés. Their revelations -- a glimpse of the hidden side that few men spontaneously reveal -- are of equal interest for women.

Miriam Goldschmidt – Creator of the In-between

Nearing the end of a long and successful stage career, Miriam Goldschmidt finds her prowess as an actress increasingly on the wane. She struggles to memorize her lines and as her last project with lifelong collaborator, the legendary director Peter Brook, threatens to fall apart, Miriam looks back. Referencing Brook’s ground-breaking book «The Empty Space», she uses an empty rehearsal room in Berlin to invoke her archetypal life journey that took an orphaned black child from post-war Germany to the world’s biggest stages. We «Call Her Miriam» is a bewitching and moving portrait of a great artist living between dream and reality, truth and fction and life and death.

From Somewhere To Nowhere

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.

Geysir und Goliath

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Glückspilze

More than 10,000 street children live in magical, bustling St. Petersburg. But here's Larissa, with her Cirque Upsala: she takes these outcasts and catapults them to unsuspected heights. From the Streets to the Stars takes us on a fascinating journey, from the depths of the Russian slums to the limelight of the circus world, via the adventures of a Swiss tour. It follows 6-year-old Danja, the rising star of the circus; Mischa, who is taking on responsibility for the first time in her life; the enigmatic street child Nastja; and the troubled Igor, whose single mother is completely overwhelmed by her 4 children.

Offshore: Elmer and the Swiss Bank Secrecy

While managers of Swiss banks in the USA ruefully apologize for their tax evasions practices and customer data is disclosed to the American authorities, Rudolf Elmer, former auditor at bank Julius Bär, is indicted for violating the Swiss banking secrecy law on the Cayman Islands. Rudolf Elmer: from insider to critic.

Cher Monsieur, cher papa

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D'une rive à l'autre

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Hans Josephsohn - Im Haus der Plastik

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Ce cher musée

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Family Fragments

The film reconstructs the memories of a divorced family with empathy yet merciless precision. An intimate family story emerges during the investigation into the reasons for the separation. Hinging on the subtle and touching testimonies of the family members, the film delves into complex interrelationships. Actors bring the family's memories alive as if they were their own. The result is a chronicle of a family drama, which the real protagonists complement and comment on – a reflection on the mechanisms and dynamics shaping and directing their family life over the years.

Staatenlos - Klaus Rózsa, Fotograf

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.

The Fortress

The personal stories of the people from all around the world waiting for a decision in an asylum-seekers centre in one of most restrictive countries in the world, Switzerland.

Sounds and Silence - Travels with Manfred Eicher

On the way through a world of sounds and noise – with Manfred Eicher, the oustanding discoverer and mediator of contemporary music and founder of the music label ECM. On this journey we are meeting musicians and composers, but also people and places which are connected with him and with each other. We are encountering stories, landscapes, cities, disputes and hugs, tranquillity, hectic pace, work, self-doubt, joy, passion.

Sira wenn der Halbmond spricht

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Meerdolen

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Ho und Überall

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