Thursday 4 April 2019

19:00

Kino Labo

Venue: Théâtre de Marens

Accessibility: Open to the public – free admission

Kino Labo: open all day, until the start of the last screening of the day at Théâtre de Marens

Join us to discover the filmmaking projects linked to cultural participation and throughout the Festival vote for your favourite films at the Théâtre de Marens! There, you will find: the intergenerational workshop, the Klik! Festival, the REFLEX Festival and the Web Series Doc winners.

When Tomatoes Met Wagner (Greece)
19:30

When the organic tomatoes of Christos and Alexandros meet the music of Wagner out in the fields, an incredible energy fills the outskirts of the small...

  • Marianna Economou
2019, Greece, 73′
Swiss premiere
When Tomatoes Met Wagner (Greece)
20:00

When the organic tomatoes of Christos and Alexandros meet the music of Wagner out in the fields, an incredible energy fills the outskirts of the small...

  • Marianna Economou
2019, Greece, 73′
Swiss premiere
When Tomatoes Met Wagner (Greece)
20:00

When the organic tomatoes of Christos and Alexandros meet the music of Wagner out in the fields, an incredible energy fills the outskirts of the small...

  • Marianna Economou
2019, Greece, 73′
Swiss premiere

Friday 5 April 2019

14:00

Media Library

Duration : until 20:00

 

A selection of about 400 creative documentary films from 2018/2019 will be available. The Media Library includes all films from the official selection, as well as +150 titles recommended by the VdR/Industry Selection Committee and our partners.

No Nos Representan (Switzerland)
14:00

We enter a living painting: actors demonstrating to the cries of “They don't represent us!”, the rallying slogan of the Anti-austerity movement in the...

  • Irene Muñoz Martin
2019, Switzerland, 40′
World premiere
Resilienza (Switzerland)

What is happening in Nuria's head? While doctors carefully examine her brain, thoroughly scrutinised by an MRI, Anna Hungerbühler endeavours to show us...

  • Anna Hungerbühler
2019, Switzerland, 33′
World premiere
Doel (Denmark, Belgium)
14:15

In urban exploration guidebooks, Doel ranks high in the “ghost town” category. Caught between a nuclear plant and the industrial port of Antwerp, it is...

  • Frederik Sølberg
2018, Denmark, Belgium, 67′
Swiss premiere
Nofinofy (France, Jordan, Madagascar)
14:30

When his barber shop is torn down by the municipality, Romeo needs to find another outlet for his business. He settles for an extremely shabby hut, but...

  • Michaël Andrianaly
2019, France, Jordan, Madagascar, 72′
Swiss premiere
Grizzly Man (United States)
14:30

Timothy Treadwell lived among bears in a natural park in Alaska. Over 13 summers, until his fatal encounter with an aggressive grizzly, he filmed his...

  • Werner Herzog
2005, United States, 104′
Notes for a Heist Film (Spain)
16:30

León Siminiani has always dreamed of making a heist film. One day, in the papers, he reads the story of Flako aka “The Robin Hood of Vallecas”, the...

  • León Siminiani
2018, Spain, 89′
Swiss premiere
I promessi sposi (Italy)
16:30

Couples prepare for their imminent weddings. Municipal employees listen to their statements and their intentions. A provincial priest gives a...

  • Massimo D'Anolfi, Martina Parenti
2007, Italy, 73′
Toni and Bleri (Kosovo, Netherlands)
16:45

In Kosovo, two young men walk in the ghostly space of an abandoned construction worksite. Toni and Bleri evoke memories of a scarcely joyful past, as...

  • Katja Verheul
2019, Kosovo, Netherlands, 20′
World premiere
The Outer Space Forest (France)

On the Moon, a group of men await the arrival of inhabitants of Planet Earth. In the meantime, they look after the idyllic forest that they have...

  • Victor Missud
2019, France, 30′
World premiere
Fog World (United Kingdom)

Iceland is a country marked by its frozen nature and extreme temperatures, which give it a certain touristic appeal. The harshness of the climatic...

  • Ruaidhri Ryan
2019, United Kingdom, 22′
World premiere
Last Night I Saw You Smiling (Cambodia, France)
17:00

The White Building, an emblematic apartment block home to 493 families in Phnom Penh, is going to be destroyed soon. Kavich Neang intimately chronicles...

  • Kavich Neang
2019, Cambodia, France, 77′
Swiss premiere
18:30

Kino Labo

Venue: Théâtre de Marens

Accessibility: Open to the public – free admission

Duration: open all day, until the start of the last screening of the day at Théâtre de Marens

Join us to discover the filmmaking projects linked to cultural participation and throughout the Festival vote for your favourite films at the Théâtre de Marens! There, you will find: the intergenerational workshop, the Klik! Festival, the REFLEX Festival and the Web Series Doc winners.

Gods of Molenbeek (Finland, Belgium, Germany)
19:00

Aatos is a six-year-old boy. His mother is Finnish, his father is Chilean, and they live in Brussels in the district of Molenbeek. At this age full of...

  • Reetta Huhtanen
2019, Finland, Belgium, Germany, 73′
Swiss premiere
Gods of Molenbeek (Finland, Belgium, Germany)
19:30

Aatos is a six-year-old boy. His mother is Finnish, his father is Chilean, and they live in Brussels in the district of Molenbeek. At this age full of...

  • Reetta Huhtanen
2019, Finland, Belgium, Germany, 73′
Swiss premiere
22:00

Party Party

RAMIN & REDA (Oriental Groove) and OBERTONSTRUKTUR DER KAULQUAPPE (Experimental Electronic Street Music Performance)

22:00

Party Party

SMALL FEET (Alternative Indie Folk)

Saturday 6 April 2019

09:00

Media Library

Duration : until 20:00

A selection of about 400 creative documentary films from 2018/2019 will be available. The Media Library includes all films from the official selection, as well as +150 titles recommended by the VdR/Industry Selection Committee and our partners.

09:00

PRIX RTS: PERSPECTIVES D'UN DOC

Duration : until 12:15

Initiated by RADIO TELEVISION SUISSE (RTS) this pitching session aims to promote a documentary project in its development stage. Producers and filmmakers present their selected projects in front of a Jury of professionals and the audience. The choice of the award-winning project is based on its necessity for financing, in the prospect of a long and complicated development, as well as our usual selection criteria, such as: the team’s potential and whether or not the project’s topic and creativity are interesting. The awarded project will be announced at the Soirée RTS. The prize amounts to CHF 10’000.

Event in French

09:00

Kino Labo

Venue: Théâtre de Marens

Accessibility: Open to the public – free admission

Duration: open all day, until the start of the last screening of the day at Théâtre de Marens

Join us to discover the filmmaking projects linked to cultural participation and throughout the Festival vote for your favourite films at the Théâtre de Marens! There, you will find: the intergenerational workshop, the Klik! Festival, the REFLEX Festival and the Web Series Doc winners.

10:30

Morning Talks

Every morning, come and meet the filmmakers who presented a film the previous day. The members of the selection committee of Visions du Réel animate these daily encounters; informal debates where everyone is invited to share their experiences and film practices.

Century of Smoke (Belgium, France)
11:00

Laosan stares at the lush vegetation that surrounds the village of the Akha­–an ethnic group from China–where he lives with his family in the north of...

  • Nicolas Graux
2019, Belgium, France, 85′
World premiere
Nofinofy (France, Jordan, Madagascar)
11:00

When his barber shop is torn down by the municipality, Romeo needs to find another outlet for his business. He settles for an extremely shabby hut, but...

  • Michaël Andrianaly
2019, France, Jordan, Madagascar, 72′
Swiss premiere
Little Dieter Needs to Fly (Germany, France, United Kingdom)
11:30

German-American pilot Dieter Dengler—a Vietnam war veteran—lives with a constant desire to fly. Today retired, secluded in his house, facing the...

  • Werner Herzog
1997, Germany, France, United Kingdom, 77′
12:30

ROMANDIE LUNCH

Duration : until 14:00

Come and share a meal with your fellow production colleagues from different parts of Switzerland and from the international community: networking and exchange. Romandie Lunch is offered by Radio Télévision Suisse.

That Which Does Not Kill (Belgium, France)
13:45

Ada is 19. She agrees to have dinner at the home of a boy she knows. It all happens very quickly, she does not defend herself. It is in 2013, after a...

  • Alexe Poukine
2019, Belgium, France, 83′
World premiere
Taste of Hope (Switzerland, Germany)
13:45

The workers of a self-managed tea factory decide to go against the grain and play by their own rules. The problem is, how can you plan, work and...

  • Laura Coppens
2019, Switzerland, Germany, 70′
World premiere
I Have Seen Nothing, I Have Seen All (Myanmar, Lebanon, Syria)
13:45

After over six years out of his country, the Syrian filmmaker Yaser Kassab continues to attempt to recount the war from the sad and soulless scenery of...

  • Yaser Kassab
2019, Myanmar, Lebanon, Syria, 19′
World premiere
In Mansourah You Separated Us (France, Algeria, Denmark)

Originally there was a silence. That of Malek, the filmmaker's father, who for years said nothing of his childhood in Algeria. And then, the need to...

  • Dorothee Myriam Kellou
2019, France, Algeria, Denmark, 62′
World premiere
Sheep Hero (Netherlands)
14:00

In the hazy peace of the heathland in the early morning, Stijn leads his flock of sheep. With a determined blue-eyed gaze and the appearance of a...

  • Ton Van Zantvoort
2018, Netherlands, 81′
Swiss premiere
No Nos Representan (Switzerland)
14:00

We enter a living painting: actors demonstrating to the cries of “They don't represent us!”, the rallying slogan of the Anti-austerity movement in the...

  • Irene Muñoz Martin
2019, Switzerland, 40′
World premiere
Resilienza (Switzerland)

What is happening in Nuria's head? While doctors carefully examine her brain, thoroughly scrutinised by an MRI, Anna Hungerbühler endeavours to show us...

  • Anna Hungerbühler
2019, Switzerland, 33′
World premiere
Loulou (Switzerland)
16:00

“Crazy people are the unlucky explorers of the invisible”. This is precisely what Nathan Hofstetter, diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic, has...

  • Nathan Hofstetter
2019, Switzerland, 70′
World premiere
Gods of Molenbeek (Finland, Belgium, Germany)
16:00

Aatos is a six-year-old boy. His mother is Finnish, his father is Chilean, and they live in Brussels in the district of Molenbeek. At this age full of...

  • Reetta Huhtanen
2019, Finland, Belgium, Germany, 73′
Swiss premiere
Last Night I Saw You Smiling (Cambodia, France)
16:15

The White Building, an emblematic apartment block home to 493 families in Phnom Penh, is going to be destroyed soon. Kavich Neang intimately chronicles...

  • Kavich Neang
2019, Cambodia, France, 77′
Swiss premiere
Isola (Switzerland)
16:15

We enter the film, like we access Gorgona, by the sea. A rock bristling with greenery, surrounded by the dark blue waves of the Mediterranean. On this...

  • Aurelio Buchwalder
2019, Switzerland, 70′
World premiere
Under the Dress (Belgium, Russia)
16:15

As a child, Aleksandr Vinogradov had his grandmother as an accomplice. In her home, he could dress up as a woman, explore his desires and identities,...

  • Aleksandr M. Vinogradov
2019, Belgium, Russia, 23′
World premiere
I Can Change, but Not 100% (France)

The film begins with an amorous promise: I can change. A promise heard too often, a promise we know to be false in advance. Amie-Sarah has fallen...

  • Amie-Sarah Barouh
2019, France, 40′
World premiere
Hommage à Yves Yersin (Switzerland)
16:30

A few months after the passing of Yves Yersin, an essential figure of Swiss cinema, the Festival proposes a (re)discovery of two of his films in order...

Switzerland, 65′
J'veux du soleil ! (France)
16:45

After Merci Patron!, which won the César Award for Best Documentary Film in 2017 and was a resounding success in French cinemas and elsewhere, François...

  • François Ruffin, Gilles Perret
2019, France, 75′
International premiere
17:30

CINÉFOROM / ZÜRCHER FILMSTIFTUNG

Duration : until 19:00

The two most important regional film funds in Switzerland, Cinéforom (the regional film support of the Frenchspeaking part of Switzerland) and the Zürich Film Fund, are gathering to present the sphere of their operation in the field of the regional support of audiovisual works.

Event in English

18:00

Photo exhibition "Conseiller fédéral" by Nicolas Brodard

Swiss premiere of the photo exhibition "Conseiller fédéral" by Nicolas Brodard: Vernissage open to the public in the hall of the Théâtre de Grand Champ. The project just won the first prize of the Swiss Press Photo Award 2019 in the "Reportages suisses" category. The exhibition will be open during the Festival.

Notes for a Heist Film (Spain)
18:00

León Siminiani has always dreamed of making a heist film. One day, in the papers, he reads the story of Flako aka “The Robin Hood of Vallecas”, the...

  • León Siminiani
2018, Spain, 89′
Swiss premiere
Midnight Traveler (United States, Qatar, Canada, United Kingdom)
18:15

When the Taliban put a price on his head, the Afghan director Hassan Fazili, his wife and their two daughters are forced to flee their country. What...

  • Hassan Fazili, Emelie Mahdavian
2019, United States, Qatar, Canada, United Kingdom, 87′
Swiss premiere
Alba (Switzerland)
18:15

A black screen. A bottle breaks on the bitumen. A few insults are flung. The decor of an industrial area, first thing in the morning, after a busy...

  • Lucia Martinez, Hugo Radi
2019, Switzerland, 26′
World premiere
Passing Time (Belgium)

Lou Colpé has been filming her grandparents since she was 15. In the process of this intense relationship, she notices some disconcerting signs in her...

  • Lou Colpé
2019, Belgium, 40′
World premiere
Dreams from the Outback (Denmark)
18:30

Australia recognised Aboriginals as full citizens in 1967. Until then, they were assimilated with the wildlife of the Outback, the arid back-country,...

  • Jannik Splidsboel
2019, Denmark, 79′
World premiere
Gasherbrum - The Dark Glow of the Mountains (Germany)
18:30

In his quest to understand what motivates humans to surpass themselves, Werner Herzog accompanies two legendary climbers for a dual ascent in the...

  • Werner Herzog
1984, Germany, 45′
Madame (Switzerland)
19:30

Madame is Caroline, the grandmother of Stéphane Riethauser. An old lady who, from the very first images, we sense hides a rare strength of character...

  • Stéphane Riethauser
2019, Switzerland, 93′
World premiere
Buddy (Netherlands)
19:30

Walking in the forest without being able to see, coming down the stairs or going shopping when one is paralysed, falling asleep with post-traumatic...

  • Heddy Honigmann
2018, Netherlands, 86′
Swiss premiere
Toni and Bleri (Kosovo, Netherlands)
20:00

In Kosovo, two young men walk in the ghostly space of an abandoned construction worksite. Toni and Bleri evoke memories of a scarcely joyful past, as...

  • Katja Verheul
2019, Kosovo, Netherlands, 20′
World premiere
The Outer Space Forest (France)

On the Moon, a group of men await the arrival of inhabitants of Planet Earth. In the meantime, they look after the idyllic forest that they have...

  • Victor Missud
2019, France, 30′
World premiere
Fog World (United Kingdom)

Iceland is a country marked by its frozen nature and extreme temperatures, which give it a certain touristic appeal. The harshness of the climatic...

  • Ruaidhri Ryan
2019, United Kingdom, 22′
World premiere
Transnistra (Sweden, Denmark, Belgium)
20:15

Anna Eborn follows the lives of a group of teenagers in Transnistria, a country where the shadow of Soviet legacy looms large. An extremely precise and...

  • Anna Eborn
2019, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, 93′
Swiss premiere
More films