Social & External
Zurich-born Hugo Koblet was the first international cycling star of the post-war period. He was a stylist on the bicycle and in life, and a huge heartthrob. Koblet had a meteoric rise and won the Giro d'Italia in 1950. Once he had reached the zenith of his career, Koblet was put under pressure by overly ambitious officials and ended up ruining his health with drugs. In 1954, he married a well-known model and they became a celebrity dream couple. After his athletic career ended, Koblet began to lose his footing. Threatened by bankruptcy, he crashed his Alfa into a tree.
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.
A behind-the-scenes look at the of how the Paris Opera is run under the direction of Stephane Lissner.
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.
Documentary account of a man’s life in the face of imminent death – Francisco Varela's story told affectionately and gently, touchingly and astutely. Varela spent his life building bridges: between Western science and Eastern wisdom, neurobiology and philosophy, abstract theory and practical life. This film seeks to deconstructs the prevailing division between science and art.
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.
What becomes history, what feeds memory, what shapes an era? Images found in the dustbins of history. Taken out of context, fragments, testimonies and unpublished documents intermingle, interweave and collide. They take on a new meaning, a dimension of authentic proximity. The peregrination touches on the advent of the atomic bomb, the military trials at the end of the war, the lie detector, the discovery of the Majdanek camp; Einstein, Lenin's embalmer, the KGB agent, the American spy rebuilding his life in Russia, the Yugoslav war sniper all have their say.
Thirty female prisoners share the convicts’ ward of Tuilière Prison at Lonay. More than half of them have one or more children being raised elsewhere: with a sister, in a foster family, or – further away still – in their countries of origin. In portraying some of these women, the film sheds light on these mothers and the bond that ties them to their children.
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.
The Jean Tinguely Museum in Basel, Switzerland, designed by Mario Botta, opened in 1996, five years after the Swiss sculptor's death. META MECANO is a poetic depiction of the genesis of this mono-graphic museum, from the builders' first plans and Mario Botta's designs to its construction and the assembly of Tinguely's fragile mobile sculptures. In interviews with Mario Botta, Tinguely's wife Niki de Saint Phalle, museum director Pontus Hultén and Tinguely himself, the film goes on to explore the mission of museums and of art in general today. META MECANO is a unique document on the significance of the artist Jean Tinguely and on the role that museums play in our day and age.
One day the snow left the forest and went to the city. At the same time, his leadership was the Snow Law, which says that if you fall out for the first time, you can get up and walk again, if you fall out a second time, you can also get up and go further. And if you fall out for the third time, then you will remain lying until you turn into a puddle.
At a nightclub, the crowd demands Goopy Geer, and he doesn't disappoint them. He gives a zany performance on the piano, but the employees and the customers are just as wacky. A gorilla waiter dances while serving. Three identical cats display a peculiar way of eating. A chicken has a nauseating way of making chicken soup. The nightclub singer tells corny jokes. Even the hat racks come to life and dance. A drunk horse imbibing a too-strong drink provides the show-stopper.
Local Bhojpuri politicians fight each other and unleash terror on villages in order to grab land from poor farmers after Pramod, a righteous young leader, dies.
As nuclear war looms, a woman must make a final phone call.
The lives of a nightclub owner, a crime boss, a stripper, a bartender, two hitmen, a prostitute and a psychic take a turn for the worse when they are trapped in an escaped mental patient's sinister path of madness and destruction.
A social comedy play that shows what some young people do when traveling to some countries, where Saleh traveled with his owner - Bo Obaid to Bangkok, lying to his father Bousaleh on the pretext of searching for his son, but the son comes from London as soon as the father goes to the airport Bou Saleh and his grandson travel with the family of Sahib Saleh - Bou Obeid. Upon their arrival, the police in Bangkok arrest the grandson of Abu Saleh, why did the Bangkok police arrest the grandson of Bou Saleh? Is what Saleh said is true?
A cowboy is hired by a stagecoach boss to stop the railroad reaching his territory and putting him out of business. He uses everything from Indians to dancehall girls to try to thwart the plan. But the railroad workers, led by a female sharpshooter and an ambitious salesman, prove tough customers.
People entering an arena on horseback.
A groups of kids have a reckless party ignoring that their parent´s sins will fall over them
This short documentary follows director Hayao Miyazaki and producer Toshio Suzuki as they attend two film festivals showing the film Princess Mononoke and answer questions. Miyazaki discusses his experience in LA before founding Studio Ghibli.
A loop of edgeless bend. You were its doom, he was its bloom. You were its tomb, he was its womb. You were its gloom, he was its loom. For Heaven and Hell, were words made of fume.
After a man murders his wealthy father, mysterious things begin to occur in the house where the man must live in order to claim the dead man's inheritance.
Chris decides to retire from the police but his friend Mac needs his help on a final mission.
Directed by Patrick Gramm, 'The Pigeon People' (2023) takes you deep into Arizona's underground pigeon racing scene as racing rivals prepare for and compete in the Grand Canyon Classic - a 350-mile pigeon race from Utah to Arizona that crosses over the Grand Canyon.
Explores Anand Dighe's life, tracing his political journey and capturing the essence of his impactful legacy as a prominent figure.