| Thursday,
August 10 – Saturday, August 12
Swiss
Roots Documentaries
Presented
by Swiss
Films, Pro Helvetia, Swiss Roots and the Consulate General of
Switzerland and International House
Philadelphia
 Surrounded
on all sides by world cinema giants, Switzerland has long produced
films in the considerable shadows cast by its neighbors France,
Germany and Italy. Switzerland’s proximity to the well-established
film industries of these countries has led many of its finest
talents to seek work outside. Likewise, Switzerland was seen
as a
fertile potential market for these industries to export their
own films.
But
the Swiss have developed a quirky and diverse national cinema
that reflects the changing ambitions and contradictions of the
country as a whole. Despite the numerous pressures from their
neighbors, Switzerland has managed to support continuous film
productions since the silent period. The documentary has played
a vital role in this tradition, providing a flexible and expressive
form for the depiction of complex social realities. Swiss cinema
today reveals a wide range of influences, styles and subjects,
yet continues to serve as a vital introduction to how the Swiss
see the world and how the world might see the Swiss.
Thursday,
August 10 at 7:00pm
Elisabeth
Kìbler-Ross: Facing Death
dir.
Stefan Haupt, Switzerland, 2002, 35mm, 98 mins, color, German
and Swiss German w/ English subtitles
 A
straightforward portrait of the trailblazing medical researcher
and author of On Death and Dying, this film interweaves
archival footage with interviews that Kìbler-Ross gave from
her compound in the Arizona desert shortly before her own death.
Director Stefan Haupt traces his subject's remarkable life from
her beginnings as a prodigious student in postwar Zurich through
emigration with her American husband, her early breakthroughs
in an underexplored and often stigmatized field, and finally
her widely influential published work and consequent rise to
international prominence. Thought-provoking, informative and
ultimately poignant, Facing Death pays tribute to
a courageous woman's profound intellectual achievement.
Friday,
August 11 at 7:00pm
Thomas
Pynchon: A Journey Into The Mind Of P.
dir.
Donatello and Fosco Dubini, Switzerland, 2001, 35mm, 90 mins,
color
and
b/w
 This
teasing, suggestive semi-biographical film about bestselling
American novelist Thomas Pynchon (or "P.”, as the filmmakers
would have it) obsessively circles its legendarily reclusive
subject while offering a myriad of offhand insights about the
turbulent times that shaped his work (and, presumably, his psyche).
Sharp archival footage provides historical context, talking
heads fill in the scant details regarding Pynchon's actual but
enigmatic life, and the novels themselves—postmodern literature
par excellence—are held up as both products of his inimitable
artistic genius as well as overdetermined symptoms of the conspiracy-choked
postwar world order in which he rose to myth-enshrouded fame.
Saturday,
August 12 at 7:00pm
Storm
In A C-Cup (Remue-mÙnage)
dir.
Fernard Melgar, Switzerland, 2002, BetaSP, 53 mins, color, French
w/
English subtitles
 Demolition
man by day, a compassionate husband and doting father of four,
Pascale is also a headstrong, unabashedly outspoken cross-dresser
in a quiet provincial village outside Lausanne. Perhaps unsurprisingly
his flamboyant drag persona and dreams of becoming a cabaret
chanteuse provoke only ill-will and outrage among his more provincial
neighbors. This vÙritÙ character study from director Fernand
Melgar shines a sympathetic light on an unconventional Swiss
family stubbornly facing down social prejudice and ostracism
to live life on their own uncompromising terms.
preceded
by
Point
Of View (augen blicke N)
dir.
Gitta Gsell, Switzerland, 2005, DigiBeta, 48 mins, color, English
and German w/ English subtitles
 Gitta
Gsell's taut, unsentimental featurette profiles five European
dancers and performance artists from Germany, Belgium, England,
Austria and Holland who explore the vulnerable body as an aesthetic
figure on stage as well as in daily life. Deviations from the
idealized dancer's physique—by way of size, age or disability—presents
various performance styles that question our culturally mediated
(and mandated) concepts of our bodies. The artists are spotlighted
through extensive recordings of their performances only briefly
supplemented by explanatory interviews. The film speaks for
itself, more visual—or rather corporeal—than verbal and grounded
in the limitations, not to mention the possibilities, of the
human form.
About
Swiss Roots
Swiss Roots brings the United
States and Switzerland
closer together through communities that foster dialogue, understanding,
and both online and offline exchanges. The program's centerpiece
is a state-of-the-art website that serves as a gateway for the
one million Americans of Swiss descent to discover their ancestral
roots and for those with Swiss affinity to discover and communicate
with people in Switzerland. Additionally, Swiss Roots nationwide
events for 2006 will showcase the best in Swiss innovation,
culture, art, education and history. Visit them at www.swissroots.org.
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