A Long Way Home · 2018
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Documentary
A Long Way Home
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Luc Schaedler | go between films
CH 2018 | 73 | EN, DE, FR, Chin
The documentary « A Long Way Home» centers around five of the most significant representatives of contemporary Chinese counterculture: the visual artists the Gao Brothers, the choreographer and dancer Wen Hui, the animation artist Pi San and the poet Ye Fu.
With bravery and subversive wit, they each shed light on the social problems in their country from their unique perspective. What they share is a struggle to come to terms with their respective pasts, all scarred by violence and oppression. Their vision is of a democratic, supportive and humane civil society.
A Long Way Home takes us on a fascinating journey into both the grim days of recent Chinese history and the dazzling cultural scene in present-day China. In doing so, the film poses universal questions that ultimately concern us all: which values determine our cultural identity and in what kind of world do we want to live? A Long Way Home is an entertaining and moving plea for human solidarity.
«My exploration of China and Chinese culture goes back more than 25 years now. Since the brutal suppression of the Democracy Movement in 1989, I’ve traveled through China several times. I have followed its economic development and subsequent political and social upheaval with both amazement and bewilderment: What do external events, ruptures and changes trigger in people, and how does it impact their daily lives?»
Luc Schaedler
→ INTERVIEW with Luc Schaedler (04:30)
→ Statement director (alwh)
→ The protagonists (alwh)
→ Background (alwh)
→ Downloads (alwh)
(photos & presskit)
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Video On Demand
A Long Way Home (2018)
en, de, fr
→ click here
→ Available in Switzerland
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For international sales
of «A Long Way Home» → click here
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FESTIVALS
– Solothurner Filmtage (Switzerland)
Nomination Prix de Soleure
Nomination für Swiss Film Award
– Montréal, Festival des films du monde (Canada)
– Dharamshala Intl. Filmfestival (India)
– Cracking the Frame (Netherlands)
– International Filmfestival Innsbruck (Austria)
– Fünf Seen Filmfestival, Starnberg (Deutschland)
– EPOS Intl. Art Filmfestival (2020), Tel Aviv (Israel)
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LINKS
→ Wen Hui performing «Red» (Clip)
→ Nomination Swiss Film Award 2018
→ Swiss Films – A Long Way Home
→ IMDb.com – A Long Way Home
→ Facebook – A Long Way Home
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PLAYLIST (10 Clips):
Gao Brothers, Wen Hui, Pi San, Ye Fu, original Kuang Kuang Clip etc.
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Luc Schaedler with the Gao Brothers in Beijing 2015
go between films
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Film Production
go-be•tween | gō biˈtwēn |
to mediate, to intervene
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go between films
A Swiss film production company, engaged in making documentaries for cinematic and TV release. The company’s topics have an historical, social and political background with a strong focus on cross-cultural dialogue. It aims to produce both artistically and intellectually challenging films.
Luc Schaedler of «go between films» also defines himself at the interface of film and science. In addition to mentoring students in documentary filmmaking, he is engaged in research projects in the field of visual anthropology.
go between films was founded by Luc Schaedler in 2009. In 2010 he was joined by scriptwriter and script consultant Josy Meier.
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FILMOGRAPHY
2021 • LOBA LOBA
Release: Spring 2021
Producer
Director: Anka Schmid
Music: Corin Curschellas
Short Documentary, 5 mins.
2018 • A LONG WAY HOME
Producer, writer, director, camera
Documentary, 75 mins.
Nomination for Swiss Film Award 2018
2013 • WATERMARKS
Producer, writer, director, camera
Documentary, 80 mins.
Invitation to Semaine de la critique (Locarno)
2005 • ANGRY MONK
Producer, writer, director
Documentary, 97 mins.
Invitation to Sundance (competition), nomination for the “Grand Jury Prize”.
1997 • MADE IN HONG KONG
Producer, writer, director, camera
Documentary, 75 mins.
Invitation to Leipzig (competition), Study Award 1997 (BAK)
2011 · NAGA IDENTITIES (draft)
Director, Camera
Ethno-Documentary, 60 mins.
2007 · BURIAL RITES
Producer
TV-Documentary, Sternstunde, 30 mins.
Directors: Mehdi Sahebi, Aya Domenig
Film Still of LOBA LOBA, 2020
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LINKS:
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Luc Schaedler by © Iocco Cappellari, 2014
Luc Schaedler
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Filmmaker &
Producer
Short Biography
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– Luc Schaedler | *1963 in Zurich, Switzerland
– Independent Swiss filmmaker and producer
– Founder of «go between films»
– Director and producer of «A Long Way Home» (2018); «Watermarks» (2013); «Angry Monk» (2005), «Made in Hong Kong» (1997) and «Loba Loba» (2021).
– Invitations to international film festivals (selection): Sundance; Busan; Leipzig; Montreal; Locarno; Munich; Tel Aviv
→ INTERVIEW with Luc Schaedler – 04:30
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CURRICULUM
– 1985-2002 collaboration as program coordinator, film projectionist and barkeeper in the Off-Cinema Xenix in Zurich
– 1988-92 travelled and worked in Asia | Barkeeper in Hong Kong and Tokyo
– 1994-97 studied Visual Anthropology at the University of Zurich
– Graduated with two documentary features: «Made in Hong Kong» (Master thesis, 1998) and «Angry Monk» (Ph.D. thesis, 2005)
– 1998-2001 collaboration in setting up the children’s film club «Magic Lantern» in Zurich
– Since 2001 various teaching positions in Visual Anthropology and documentary filmmaking at the Universities in Zurich, Bern and Fribourg
– From 2006-08 head of the department of Visual Anthropology at the Anthropological Museum of Zurich University.
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→ FILMOGRAPHY of Luc Schaedler
→ Luc Schaedler’s thoughts on films about Tibet
(German only)
→ IMDb.com – Luc Schaedler
→ Facebook – go between films
→ Wikipedia – Luc Schaedler (german)
→ Wikipedia – Luc Schaedler (français)
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→ go between films – contact
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→ INTERVIEW with Luc Schaedler – 04:30
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Luc Schaedler by © Thomas Krempke, 2021
A LONG WAY HOME – materials
Additional materials
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In the section «A Long Way Home – materials» you will find additional information about this documentary of Luc Schaedler.
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LONG WAY HOME (2018)
→ Statement Director
→ Protagonists
→ Background
→ Downloads
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· Statement Director (alwh)
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A Long Way Home
Statement Director –
Luc Schaedler
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«My exploration of China and Chinese culture goes back more than 25 years now. Since the brutal suppression of the Democracy Movement in 1989, I’ve traveled through China several times. I have followed its economic development and subsequent political and social upheaval with both amazement and bewilderment.»
«The deeper I delved into the country the more I learned about its grim history, the effects of which can still be felt in China today. Along the way one question has arisen time and time again: What do external events, ruptures and changes trigger in people, and how does it impact their daily lives?»
«China also always inspired me to think about my own world. Taking a close look at another culture can cause you to see your own in a new light. This was a view also held by French ethnologist and philosopher Claude Lévi-Strauss who felt both encounters and confrontations with a foreign culture give us an opportunity, or stronger yet, a responsibility to look at and question one’s own society.»
«In «A Long Way Home» I ask myself from the perspective of a Swiss filmmaker, where the protagonists find the courage to expose themselves. How would I behave in their situation? How are we each shaped by our past? And finally: How is it possible that the essence of many of the existential problems they are confronted with seem surprisingly familiar to me, despite our vast cultural differences?»
Statement director – Luc Schaedler
Interview with Luc Schaedler in Dharamshala, India
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© go between films – Luc Schaedler filming the Gao Brothers in their home in Beijing, 2016
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Filmtalk with Luc Schaedler in «Landbote» (by Irene Genhart)
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· Protagonists (alwh)
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A Long Way Home
Protagonists
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In A Long Way Home (alwh), the connecting element and main theme of the artistic works of the protagonists Wen Hui, Pi San, Ye Fu and the Gao Brothers is a demand for the reconstruction of humanity throughout Chinese society. Looking back at their personal family histories, and thus recent Chinese history, takes on greater significance within the backdrop of their unease toward present-day Chinese society. Actively remembering is an important part of their work as they try to fathom the roots of present-day problems. Like researchers, they explore the possibilities of collective healing in their work. Luc Schaedler
WEN HUI – choreographer | dancer
In China, Wen Hui is considered the mother of modern dance. For years she has explored the topic of memory. In her current piece «Red», based on the propagandist ballet of the same name from the Cultural Revolution (1966-76), she processes the physical impact of this traumatic era.
PI SAN – animation artist
Pi San is known to millions in China for his subversive animated film series, which have caused a sensation on the Internet. Through his mischievous cartoon character «Kuang Kuang» he exposes the injustices and absurdities of everyday life in China. In doing so he must constantly gauge how far he can go with his criticism.
YE FU – writer | poet
The former police officer, who resigned in 1989 in protest against the suppression of the Democracy Movement, has made a name for himself in recent years with his autobiographical essays and blog articles which loudly demand political change.
GAO BROTHERS – visual artists | painters
Gao Zhen and Gao Qiang, known internationally as the Gao Brothers, have been around since the birth of the modern Chinese art scene in 1985. They belong to the group of critical avant-garde artists whose work reflects the complexity of recent Chinese history and the «human condition» in a globalised world.
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· Background (alwh)
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A Long Way Home
Historical Background
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The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.
Milan Kundera
The Heart of Darkness
The historical background of A Long Way Home is made up of two defining phases in recent Chinese history: the Democracy Movement of 1989 and the Cultural Revolution of 1966-1976. Beginning with present-day China, «A Long Way Home» moves deeper into the «heart of darkness» of Chinese history. The focus is on how people handle historical and biographical ruptures and how they process traumatic experiences.
Cultural Revolution
During the Cultural Revolution (1966-76), systematic violence was employed to eliminate everything private and to destroy social relationships. Mao Zedong and the Party relied on betrayal, public humiliation, self-incrimination, and re-education in everyday life. Mistrust and deep insecurity continue to shape relationships among people in China today.
Top Party officials are denounced during rally in Red Guard Square, Harbin 1966
Tiananmen, 1989
In the film, the Democracy Movement of 1989 stands in direct opposition to the Cultural Revolution. What began as a student protest in Beijing soon grew into a sweeping movement uniting people of diverse social backgrounds. The first spontaneous mass movement outside party structures, it showed initial signs of a possible civil society that would not be able to germinate until after Mao’s death.
© Gao Brothers, Beijing: The Tankman, 1989
Outlook
The violent suppression by the People’s Army was a clear sign from the regime that the protest was not welcome and that public criticism of the Party would not be tolerated – a condition that continues to this day.
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· Downloads (alwh)
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A Long Way Home
Downloads
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↓ Presskit (english)
↓ Dossier de presse (français)
↓ Presseheft (deutsch)
↓ Filmstills
→ Click on image
→ Image opens in browser
→ Choose «Save as»
→ Select downloads location
→ Save
Gao Brothers – artists
Pi San – animation artist
Wen Hui – dancer
Ye Fu – writer
Gao Zhen – cooks
Gao Zhen – Interview
Gao Zhen
Gao Brothers – Hitler
Pi San – models
Wen Hui
Wen Hui – screen
Wen Hui – Interview
Ye Fu – lakeside
Ye Fu – Interview
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↓ ARTIKEL: Ethik im Dokumentarfilm (deutsch)
Kaleo La Belle (Fell in Love with a Girl) und Luc Schaedler (A Long Way Home) discuss the question of ethics and responsability in documentary filmmaking with Till Brockmann.
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Intro and Publications
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Visual Anthropology
Between the arts and science
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(Short) Intro
Visual Anthropology is a discipline of practice and theory. As a subfield of Cultural Anthropology it is concerned with the production of ethnographic images and the analysis of visual representations as well as its relationship to other fields of society and culture.
The reversal of the gaze, Eastern Tibet 1930’s
Since his Master- and Ph.D thesis Luc Schaedler of «go between films» is involved in Visual Anthropology, both as part of his teaching at Universities and film schools, and as deep influence for his documentary films.
«The relationship between verbal and visual forms of expression in the field of ethnography (science) are manyfold. How they be mixed, can not be categorically decided. Each situation needs its own assesment and an experimental attitude towards both. Which dosis may be prescribed, is solely a question of art».
MICHAEL OPPITZ
→ «Das kleine Zürcher Filmwunder» – Visuelle Anthropologie an der Universität Zürich
→ «Der Film ist auch ein Showcase für die Universität» – Gespräch mit Luc Schaedler
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Publications
Below you will find the Master- and the Ph.D. thesis of Luc Schaedler and a selection of previous articles:
↓ Ph.D.: ANGRY MONK: Literary, Historical, and Oral Sources for a Documentary Film (2007)
↓ Master: Arbeitsbericht zur Entstehung von MADE IN HONG KONG (1998)
↓ The little differences: cross-cultural exchange in filmschools (2011)
↓ Über die Wissenschaftlichkeit von Dokumentarfilmen (2009)
↓ Westliche Okkupation und östliche Selbstreflexion: Buddhismus im Spielfilm (2002)
↓ Tibet: Ein Projektionsfeld Westlicher Phantasien (1994)
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Angry Monk
A critical discussion of the documentary film «Angry Monk» as a hybrid between the arts and science:
↓ History & Anthropology (2008) – A critical review of «Angry Monk»
↓ Visual Anthropology (2008) – A critical review of «Angry Monk»
↓ American Anthropologist (2010) – Angry Monk: Reflections on Tibet
↓ IIAS Newsletter (2008) – Rebel with a cause: debunking the mythical & mystical Tibet
↓ AEMS Review (2008) – A critical review of «Angry Monk»
↓ Himal Southasian (2006) – The new reasoning of Gendun Choephel
↓ Revue de l’Inde (2006) – Réflexions sur le Tibet
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research-at-doc
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Anthropology
Visual Research
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Luc Schaedler of go between films sees himself at the interface of art, film and Visual Anthropology. Since 1996 he has been involved in various projects that conduct artistic, cinematic and scientific research using exclusively visual means (research-at-doc).
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Angry Monk (2001-07)
Doctoral Thesis
This visual research into Tibetan history and the biography of the radical monk Gendun Choephel had been designed as a bastard between art and science from the very beginning. The documentary film (90 mins.) is accompanied by a written thesis (2) critically discussing and contextualizing the research materials. It was the first film to be accepted as the main part of a Ph.D at the University of Zurich.
→ «Angry Monk» – a scientific discourse
Made in Hong Kong (1995-97)
Master Thesis
A visual research project in the fields of urban anthropology, migration and oral history. The documentary film (75 mins.) is accompanied by a written text, that critically discusses the making of the film and the working process in the form of a handbook for students (3). It was the first film to be accepted as the main part of a MA at the University of Zurich.
→ To the film «Made in Hong Kong»
→ Made in Hong Kong – A Handbook for Students (3)
Naga Identities (2009-11)
as part of an exhibition
The twelve hours of footage were shot in March 2009 as part of a large research project on Naga culture in India’s Northeastern border regions. Other products of the same research were the exhibtion “Naga: Ornaments and Ashes”, as well as the publication “Naga Identities: Changing Local Cultures in the Northeast of India”. It contains a collection of articles by various authors spanning an enlightening ark from the warring past, to an equally problematic present, to a very uncertain future.
→ to the project «Naga Identities»
Shamans of the Blind Country (2007-08)
Digitalising a classic of Visual Anthropology
Historical footage is mostly analog, the cinema of tomorrow digital: with color corrections, adaptions of the sound tracks as well as the reconstruction of the original order of the sequences Michael Oppitz’ ethnographic classic from 1978 was brought into the digital age. With Thomas Bochet.
Poster/flyer of “Made in Hong Kong”, 1997
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Teaching – Mentoring
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University
Between the arts and science
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Luc Schaedler
is teaching and mentoring as freelance lecturer since 2001. In addition to workshops and lectures at international Universities – among them Vancouver, New York, Vienna and Berlin – he is regularly working at Zurich University and the University of the Arts (film department).
His emphasis in teaching and mentoring lies in the fields of documentary filmmaking (theory and practice), cultural anthropology, with a special focus on visual anthropology, as well as Tibet (history and Buddhism).
Teaching
His last Seminars took place at the Institute of Social Anthropology at the University of Berne (Switzerland) – Introduction to Visual Anthropology (The Classics of Ethnographic Filmmaking), The Ethnographic Interview (Theory and Exercise) and most recently Smartphone Anthropology at the Université de Fribourg.
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2009/10 Luc Schaedler has been involved in the Triangle Project, a cross-cultural exchange workshop between the film departments of the University of the Arts (Zurich), the Dramatiska Institutet (Stockholm) and the Theatre Academy of Shanghai. My paper ↓ The little differences about the workshop can be downloaded from here.
A film by Yun Long Song
(CH 2011, 10 Min., English)
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Mentoring
In his position as lecturer at the University of Zurich, Luc Schaedler has been mentoring the visual degrees (MA) of the students in the department of Visual Anthropolgy since 2006. The mentoring included the critical discussion of each proposal, productional and technical support as well as support during the editing, postproduction and promotion of the films.
Luc Schaedler also initiated a colloquium for anthropology students in which they present and discuss their visual projects in different stages of the making (ongoing).
The films were screened at the ethnographic student film festival Regard Bleu in Zurich and/or were invited to the Solothurner Filmtage in Switzerland (2007-2010):
• Promised Land (Balz Alter, CH 2010, 35 mins., MA, UniBa) • Chokora – Surviving on the Street (Lea Furrer, CH 2010, 50 mins., MA, UZH) • Arranged Love (Sarah Bregy, CH 2010, MA, UZH) • Por Amor (Isabelle Stüssi, CH 2009, 68 mins., MA, UZH) • Life in Bubbles (Nadine Lüchinger, CH 2009, 50 Min., Lizentiat, UZH) • Put Mira (Gian-Reto Gredig, CH 2008, 87 mins. MA, UZH) • The Cave of Justin (Mélanie Pitteloud, CH 2008, 52 mins., MA, UZH) • In A Whiteman’s Kontry (Balz Arter, CH 2008, 25 Min., Seminar, UniBa) • The Achuar (Elsner/Bissegger, CH 2008, 52 Min., MA, UZH) • Shanghai Manners (Claudia Jucker, CH 2007, 19 mins., Diploma, HSLU).
In A Whiteman’s Kontry – German
(Balz Alter, CH 2008)
Chokora – Surviving on the Street (Filmstill)
(Lea Furrer, CH 2010)
Filmstill from “Chokora”, Kenya 2009
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