WHY SLUGS HAVE NO LEGS

Animated movie, director: Aline Höchli

Slugs have a hard time keeping up with the pace of life in the city of insects. When a financial crisis hits, the industrious bees only see one solution…

 


 

MY LIFE IS A GUNSHOT

Documentary movie, director: Marcel Derek Ramsay

Noise musician Joke Lanz has a loyal fan base. And a dreadful image: his stage performances see him taking a beating, emitting deafening screams or exhausting himself till the blood flows. For the privilege, he denies himself all luxury in his personal life. How does someone end up living this way? This movie explores the life a sensitive artist haunted for decades by a trauma: when he was 12, his father shot himself on the roof of their house. Joke has been trying to come to terms with it ever since. This also affects his own role as a father, which is equally fraught with problems for him. The shock of becoming a father himself following the birth of his son became the trigger for his life’s project “Sudden Infant”, in which he has involved his son Céleste, now an adult, since his earliest childhood. This is a movie about fathers, sons, and what happens when traumatized sons become fathers. And become musicians whose art is, in some measure, a form of self-therapy.

 


 

CIRCUIT

Animated movie (2018), 8 min., director: Delia Hess

Teaser

Festivals and awards: Coup de coeur Benshi, Festival Silhouette, Paris (France); Fantastic Swiss Award, Fantoche International Animation Festival, Baden (Switzerland); Special mention at the Animatou International Animation Festival, Geneva (Switzerland); participated in numerous festivals (including International Film Festival Locarno; London International Animation Festival; Taichung International Animation Festival; Milano Film Festival; Warsaw Film Festival; Tehran International Shortfilm Festival; Interfilm Shortfilm Festival, Berlin; International Environmental Film Festival FICMA, Barcelona; Green Screen Environmental Film Festival, Port of Spain; Visionaria Shortfilm Festival, Siena; Bosphorus International Film Festival, Istanbul; Animation Marathon, Athen; Animateka International Animation Festival, Ljubljana i.a.)

Synopsis: A fish farmer, a melon collector, two synchronized swimmers, a thinker, and two cyclists live on a small planet whose only human inhabitants they are. Yet most of them have never met. Caught up in their own private universe, they perform their poetically surreal actions, which repeat themselves in an endless loop. They are oblivious to the fact that they are part of a complex little ecosystem, which can only function if each of them plays his or her role – a fact which the audience gradually comes to realize.

World Sales: Ouat Media


 

MIRR

Documentary movie (2016), 90 min., director: Mehdi Sahebi

Trailer

Festivals and awards: Best Feature Film, Best Documentary, Best Director, Best Music at the Lisbon International Film Awards; Förderpreis Stadt Duisburg at the Duisburg Film Week; Dokumentarfilmpreis Internationales Filmfestival Cinematograph Innsbruck; Prix Bartok and Prix monde en regards at the Festival International Jean Rouch, Paris; Publikumspreis Dokumentarfilm at the Provinziale, Filmfest Eberswalde; Special Mention at Filmkunstfest Mecklenburg-Vorpommern; Nomination Prix de Soleure at the Solothurn Film Festival; Dokumentarfilmwoche Hamburg; Iran International Documentary Film Festival

Press reviews: “Unexpected and totally thrilling” Michael Krogerus, Das Magazin / “Very disturbing and very, very strong” Marcy Goldberg, SRF / “Like an unexpected gulp of medicine” Giorgia Del Don, Cineuropa

Synopsis: In the heart of a huge rubber plantation in north-eastern Cambodia, Binchey, a father of five children, cultivates his last field. He knows it’s only a matter of time before the big landowners, who are dispossessing everyone around him, take this one as well. An existential question therefore arises: what will his family live on in the future? Their precarious prospects strike at their inmost being and become a crucial test. Unlike his sons, however, Binchey hopes to find a new piece of land. He goes in search of one – and returns a changed man.


 

OS LOVE

Animated movie (2016), 6 min., director: Luc Gut

Trailer

Festivals and awards: Animated Grand Prix Award, Special Mention, at Encounters Short Film and Animation Festival Bristol; participated in numerous festivals (including Fantoche, Animation Film Festival Tallinn, Animatou Geneva, NIFFF, The Short Film Festival of Switzerland, Flickerfest i.a.)

Press reviews: “A cleverly produced art movie that satirizes electronic communication media with a great deal of humor” Denis Marquard, Tages-Anzeiger / “With extremely creative resources and a lot of profound humor” Ruth Baettig, Filmexplorer / “'OS Love' is happiness with one click. My favorite short movie at this year’s Film Festival!” Seraina Rohrer, Director of the Solothurn Film Festival, Basler Zeitung

Synopsis: A young woman, a computer. In the far reaches of the Internet she seeks relaxation, vacation, meditation. However, something keeps putting a spanner in the works: the computer itself wanting to update a program, new Facebook notifications, or the “ping” indicating that there are eight new e-mails in the in-box. With wry humor and a wonderful sense of rhythm, OS Love presents a modern-day tête-à-tête between a human being and her computer.

 

       

THE MASTER AND MAX

Feature movie (2015), 83 min., director: Marcel Derek Ramsay

Trailer

VOD

Festivals and awards: Platinum Award at the International Film Festival Jakarta, Swiss representative at the Festival Internacional de Cine de Guadalajara, Mexico, Solothurner Filmtage i.a.

Press reviews: “Captivating! An original, enchanting work of cinematic poetry of astounding beauty” Sandrine Marques, Le Monde / “A highly talented director who has come up with a completely new idea.” Herbert Spaich, SWR /“Intelligently, indeed in masterly fashion, Klopfenstein’s life work is made to fit a new narrative framework.” Andreas Kilb, FAZ / “A cinematic bravura piece that makes you want to (re-)discover Klopfenstein’s cult movies” Christian Jungen, NZZ am Sonntag / “An amusing reflection on the Swiss mentality” Charlotte Garson, Cahiers du Cinéma / “Cause for celebration: ‘The Master and Max’ is intelligent movie recycling, a clever and at the same time affectionate mosaic of movies by the Old Master Clemens Klopfenstein” Till Brockmann, NZZ

Synopsis: Max is a fictitious character – a product of the imagination of the movie-maker Klopfenstein, who also created Max’s beloved Christine. However, the director has long been plagued by a creative crisis. His fictitious figures therefore wander aimlessly through their creator’s movie world, trapped on an eternally changeless treadmill. When Max once again falls in love with the fun-loving Christine, only for his advances to be rejected by her, he comes to a decision: he will seek out his “master” in the hope that the movie-maker will finally free him from being condemned to play the same role forever. And he receives very special permission…

This compilation movie, put together from the works of Clemens Klopfenstein, dares to attempt something unique in movie history: based on the works of one single director, it tells a new, completely original story that at the same time reveals the very essence of the movie-maker’s universe.

 

IN PRODUCTION

 

 

IN DEVELOPMENT

SCHWARZER PETER (BLACK CLOUDS)

Mockumentary, director: Antoine Jaccoud 

Two fictional characters, a black journalist and a translator, set out to uncover the truth behind the unsolved case of a frozen black corpse found in the Diemtig Valley – and clash with very real protagonists who were directly or indirectly involved in the story. A documentary satire with deeply bitter undertones.

 

CHIKLY TIMES

Documentary movie, director: Mariann Lewinsky

The whole world has heard of the Lumière brothers and Georges Méliès. Now, there’s a new movie pioneer to discover: Albert Samama Chikly, the first ever movie-maker from the continent of Africa, a flamboyant, thoroughly charming personality whose legacy is a collection of unique cinematic documents.