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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 | DE, EN, FR, Chin
→ Video On Demand

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.

«The beginning of my engagement with China is now more than 25 years ago. Since the brutal suppression of the democracy movement in 1989, I have repeatedly travelled through China. I have followed China’s economic development and the associated political and social upheaval with both amazement and irritation: What do external events, ruptures and changes trigger in people’s lives, and what does this mean for them in their everyday lives?»
Luc Schaedler

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→ INTERVIEW with Luc Schaedler (04:30)
→ Statement director (alwh)
→ The protagonists (alwh)
→ Background (alwh)
→ Downloads (alwh)
(Photos & Presskit)

→ «A Long Way Home» & Visual Anthropology

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Video On Demand

A Long Way Home · 2018
de, en, fr, chin

→ 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 for Swiss Film Award
– Montréal, Festival des films du monde (Canada)
– Dharamshala Intl. Filmfestival (India)
– Cracking the Frame (The Netherlands)
– International Filmfestival Innsbruck (Austria)
– Fünf Seen Filmfestival, Starnberg (Germany)
– EPOS Intl. Art Filmfestival (2020), Tel Aviv (Israel)

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LINKS to «A Long Way Home»

→ Nomination Swiss Film Award
→ Swiss Films 
→ IMDb.com 
→ Facebook – 
→ The Movie Database

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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

Feb 10, 2019 | films | Comments Off on A Long Way Home · 2018

Watermarks · 2013

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Documentary

Watermarks – Three Letters from China

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Luc Schaedler | go between films gmbh
CH 2013 | 80 | EN, DE, FR, Chin
→ Video On Demand

Based on three different places, «Watermarks» portrays the infractions to which people living in modern day China are subjected due to rapid developments.

We learn of the deceptively idyllic Jiuxiancun in the rainy south; of the apocalyptic coal mining site of Minqin and Wusutu in the parched north; and of Chongqing, the megacity on the Yangtze River.

The protagonists give their moving accounts of an unresolved past, an uncertain present and their tentative steps into the future. The film thus paints a complex image of the mental state of the people in this complicated country. “Watermarks” is a subjective snapshot in time that takes a poetic look at the changing everyday life in China.

«Since the crushing of the democracy movement in 1989, I have followed the upheaval in China with equal parts amazement and irritation: the country looks like a huge construction site and seems to be involved in a precipitous search for itself. In this unstable present the protagonists are taking tentative but courageous steps into the future.»
Luc Schaedler

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→ Statement director (wama)
→ Locations China (wama)
→ Downloads (wama) 
(photos & presskit)

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Video On Demand

Watermarks (2013)
en, de, fr

→ click here  

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→ FESTIVALS (selection):

– Locarno, Semaine de la critique (Competition)
– Warszawa, Planete + Doc (Competition)
– Istanbul, TRT Awards (Best Documentary)
– Dublin, Silk Road Film Festival (Best Documentary)
– München DOK.fest competition
– San Francisco, Golden Gate Awards
– Solothurner Filmtage official selection

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LINKS to «Watermarks»:

→ The Funeral (Video Clip)
→ Swiss Films 
→ IMDb.com
→ Facebook
→ Cinema of the World
→ The Movie Database

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PLAYLIST (10 Clips):

Unpublished scenes from Watermarks · 2013

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Luc Schaedler while shooting in Inner Mongolia, 2011

Feb 09, 2019 | films | Comments Off on Watermarks · 2013

Angry Monk · 2005

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Documentary

Angry Monk – Reflections on Tibet

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Luc Schaedler | go between films
CH 2005 | 97  | EN, DE, FR, Tib
→ Video On Demand

→ Statement Director (am)
→ Interview Director (am)
→ Bio of Gendun Choephel (am)
→ Texts of Gendun Choephel (am)
→ Downloads (am)
(Photos & Presskit)

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Video On Demand

Angry Monk (2005)
en, de, fr, tib

→ click here  

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Playlist (9 Clips):

Unpublished scenes · 2005

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Interview with Luc Schaedler about his film «Angry Monk» and its making on YouTube (part 1 – 4):

(German with English subtitles)

⋅ About «Angry Monk» 1 (7:12)

⋅ About «Angry Monk» 2 (7:31) → watch on YouTube

⋅ The making 1 (7:46) → watch on YouTube

⋅ The making 2 (5:48) → watch on YouTube

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→ FESTIVALS (selection)

– Sundance, Nomination Grand Jury Award
→ Talk on «Sundance TV» with Luc Schaedler (YouTube)
– Busan (competition)
– Vancouver (competition)
– Montréal, Festival Nouveau Cinema (competition)
– München DOK.fest (competition)
– Melbourne (competition)
– Auckland (competition)
– Solothurner Filmtage Official Selection

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ARTICLES on «Angry Monk»:
→ History & Anthropology (2008) 
→ Visual Anthropology (2008) 
→ American Anthropologist (2010)
→ IIAS Newsletter (2008) – Rebel with a cause
→ AEMS Review (2008) – A review 
→ Himal Southasian (2006) – The new reasoning

LINKS to «Angry Monk»:
→ Swiss Films 
→ IMDb.com 
→ The Movie Database 
→ More on Gendun Choephel
 → Gendun Choephel (Wiki)
(Wiki)

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Luc Schaedler while shooting in Tibet, 2002

Feb 08, 2019 | films | Comments Off on Angry Monk · 2005

Made in Hong Kong · 1997

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Documentary

Made in Hong Kong

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Luc Schaedler | go between films
CH 1997 | 75 | 4:3 Letterbox | EN, DE, FR
→ Video On Demand

The documentary allows glimpses on a Hong Kong shortly before the handover to China in 1997…

But rather than attempting to paint the portrait of a «city in panic», it takes an in-depth look based on interviews with a broad spectrum of inhabitants.

These include Peter – a British civil servant in the former colony, Nicole – a South African journalist, Eric Lye – a Chinese architect, Guo – a Chinese musician, Afzal – a Pakistani actor and Mohan – an Indian businessman. Their stories reveal the different stages of migration to this Asian metropolis, and are blended with images that capture Hong Kong’s many contrasting architectural faces.

There are poetic moments, when the camera lingers in the labyrinthine passages of the legendary Chungking Mansions. Other essayistic images explore the multi-layered daily life and give the viewer the feeling of what it must be like to live in such a vast city, seen through the eyes of illegal immigrants, typical HK TV ads and other imag

The restrictions of physical space, the architectural chaos, its celebrated booming economy, its untarnished attraction to immigrants, and the political and social uncertainties that stretch beyond 1997, all these are revealed in this very personal interpretation of Hong Kong today.

Article «Filmbulletin»: Made in Hong Kong (1997)

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Video On Demand

Made in Hong Kong (1997)
en, de, fr

→ click here 

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→ FESTIVALS (selection)

– Dok Leipzig (competition)
– Busan Intl. Filmfestival (Wide Angle competition)
– Vancouver International Filmfestival (competition)
– Solothurner Filmtage official selection

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LINKS:

→ Swiss Films – Made in Hong Kong
→ IMDb.com – Made in Hong Kong
→ Facebook – go between films
→ The Movie Database – Made in Hong Kong

The documentary «Made in Hong Kong» was also the main part of my Master Thesis in Visual Anthropology at the University of Zurich

→ Master Thesis: Arbeitsbericht zur Entstehung von «Made in Hong Kong» (German only)

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PLAYLIST (5 Clips):

Unpublished scenes from Made in Hong Kong · 1997

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Director Luc Schaedler in 1997

Feb 07, 2019 | films | Comments Off on Made in Hong Kong · 1997

Loba Loba · 2021

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A filmic hymn

Loba Loba (praise)

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A filmic hymn of praise resounds in a modern concrete sculpture in the Grisons Alps.

In the experimental short documentary LOBA LOBA (2021) the singer Corin Curschellas respectfully brings the old mountain tradition of alpine blessing into the present day. Her funnel call resounds in Matias Spesha’s modern concrete sculpture OGNA, which in its rawness fits provocatively into the Grisons landscape. The song resounds as an echo on an alp in Vals, becomes a hymn of praise, a contemporary evocation of nature.

→ Chiayi Intl. Art Doc Film Festival, Taiwan (March 2022)
Section: Swiss Arts At Heights

→ Videoex – Experimental Film & Video Festival, Zurich (May 2022)
Section: Swiss Fokus Anka Schmid

→ Forthcoming:
Filmfest Malans 2022, Switzerland (August 2022)

Statement Anka Schmid (director)

«In Curschellas’ funnel call I sense a strong archaic power and at the same time a current urgency. Especially today, when tens of thousands of young people take to the streets and fight for a resource-saving future, this praise is very topical. It is important to me to locate the call of nature locally and to give it a modern face.

In this respect, my filmic translation is neither an ethnographic documentation nor is it folk kitsch, but an independent audio-visual work, which wants to transfer the urgency of this “natural evocation” to the audience and encourages them to think and participate.»

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→ IMDb – Loba Loba
→ Swiss Films – Loba Loba
→ Corin Curschellas – Song
→ Anka Schmid – Director

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Loba Loba – Trailer

Release: Spring | Summer 2021

French Trailer → click here

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Loba Loba · 2021 – Filmstills
↓ download

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LOBA Poster (Peter Volkart)

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© Anka Schmid, 2021

Apr 15, 2018 | films | Comments Off on Loba Loba · 2021

Burial Rites · 2007

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TV Documentary

Burial Rites in change

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CH 2007 | 32 | TV doc | German only
Writers & directors: Mehdi Sahebi, Aya Domenig
Camera: Mehdi Sahebi 
Editing: Aya Domenig
Production: go between films | Luc Schaedler

Are cemeteries outdated? Are new burial rites needed?

Certainly the demand for rectangular graves in straight lines is declining. To slowly decompose in the ground has a growing negative connotation.

More and more people seem to ask for communal graves or wish their ashes to be scattered in special places.

The city of Zurich had these tendencies investigated in a scientific study and made the results accessible in a touching TV documentary film.

With surprising openness both young and old people discuss their attitude towards dying and how they would want to be buried – and thus develop new burial rites.

«On the level of grave forms, a strong tendency towards community graves can be observed. Rational, aesthetic and ideological considerations play a role in the individual decision for a community grave. Changing family structures and the increasing mobility of society have meant that family members often live far apart. This makes grave visits difficult in many cases.

In this context, the community graves offers a simpler and less individual solution than a traditional row grave: the relatives can visit the community grave, but do not have to, and they always know that the buried family member is not alone».
Aya Domenig (Director)

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Burial Rites – Trailer
German only

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Sep 04, 2017 | films | Comments Off on Burial Rites · 2007

Naga Identities · 2009

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Ethno documentary

Naga Identities

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Camera, director: Luc Schaedler
Production: go between films
CH 2009 | raw footage | not completed

The village of Zanghkam in the Nagaland region of the Northeastern frontier in India certainly has a great potential for a long documentary film. But not as a remote mountain village untouched by civilisation with an intact indigenous culture. Rather the opposite: Zanghkam is a tragic example of being suspended between a lost tradition, a confusing and sad present and an unpromising future. The documentary Naga Identities tries to grasp this dilemma and make it comprehensible.

A mythical song from Nagaland · 2009

«The existing twelve hours of raw footage for this Ethno documentary were shot in March 2009 as part of a large research project on Nagaculture 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.»
Luc Schaedler

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Sep 03, 2017 | films | Comments Off on Naga Identities · 2009

A LONG WAY HOME – materials

Additional documents

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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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→ Buy/rent on Vimeo On Demand

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→ Statement Director

→ Protagonists

→ Background

→ Downloads

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––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

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.

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Oct 24, 2016 | materials | Comments Off on A LONG WAY HOME – materials

· 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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Oct 24, 2016 | materials | Comments Off on · Statement Director – alwh

· 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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Aug 24, 2016 | materials | Comments Off on · Protagonists – alwh

· 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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Jan 31, 2016 | materials | Comments Off on · Background – alwh

· Downloads – alwh

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A Long Way Home

Downloads – Promotion

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The press kit in three languages (de, en, fr) and the film stills from «A Long Way Home» can be downloaded here.

↓ Presskit (english)
↓ Dossier de presse (français)
↓ Presseheft (deutsch)

↓ Filmstills

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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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Jan 06, 2016 | materials | Comments Off on · Downloads – alwh

WATERMARKS – materials

Additional documents

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In the section «Watermarks – materials» you will find additional information about this documentary of Luc Schaedler (go between films).

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

→ Rent/buy on Vimeo On Demand

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

→ Statements Director

→ Shooting Locations

→ Downloads

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

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Based on three different places, «Watermarks» portrays the infractions to which people living in modern day China are subjected due to rapid developments.

We learn of the deceptively idyllic Jiuxiancun in the rainy south; of the apocalyptic coal mining site of Minqin and Wusutu in the parched north; and of Chongqing, the megacity on the Yangtze River.

The protagonists give their moving accounts of an unresolved past, an uncertain present and their tentative steps into the future. The film thus paints a complex image of the mental state of the people in this complicated country. “Watermarks” is a subjective snapshot in time that takes a poetic look at the changing everyday life in China.

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LINKS to «Watermarks»:

→ The Funeral (Video Clip)

→ Swiss Films 
→ IMDb.com
→ Facebook
→ Cinema of the World
→ The Movie Database

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Jul 20, 2013 | materials | Comments Off on WATERMARKS – materials

· Statement Director – wama

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Watermarks

Some thoughts

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«Since the crushing of the democracy movement in 1989, I have followed the upheaval in China with equal parts amazement and irritation: the country looks like a huge construction site and seems to be involved in a precipitous search for itself. In this unstable present the protagonists are taking tentative but courageous steps into the future.»
Luc Schaedler

Statement director

During the research for «Watermarks» and the subsequent filming in China I kept returning to a topic that had preoccupied me in my earlier films: namely, how people respond to external events, ruptures and life changes, and what this means to them in their daily lives. I took this question to heart in my new film and continued my search for answers. After Made in Hong Kong (1997) and Angry Monk (2005), the current film Watermarks · 2013 also marks the end of my Asian Trilogy.

My relationship to China

My relationship with China began over 20 years ago. Since the crushing of the democracy movement in 1989, I have travelled repeatedly through China. I have followed China’s economic development and the associated political and social upheavals with equal parts amazement and irritation.

The social changes triggered by fast-paced economic development unsettled the people. They registered the growing pollution of the environment and water with concern. Entire landscapes as well as a part of their own family history and the cultural history of China were punctiliously ‘flooded’ by progress. My love-hate relationship with China is reflected in the ambivalence of many Chinese, who are simultaneously proud of and disconcerted by developments in their country. These are the contradictory feelings that I have attempted to capture in my film.

The collaboration with Markus Schiesser

In the project Markus Schiesser was responsible for the interviews with the protagonists as well as sound. To complete the research (2009/2010) and filming (2011), we travelled together for months through China and shared in the everyday lives of the protagonists. Markus and I made a good team. His relationship to the people grew out of his quiet ease and the fact that he speaks fluent Chinese. This brought him a great deal of respect. He was simultaneously an insider and an outsider. I was the stranger, as well as being more extroverted and louder. I had to build my relationship with the people through non-verbal means, by gestures and looks.

In a cultural and political situation which treats the spoken word with caution and relegates most things to the deeper level of trust, we complemented each other ideally. Markus Schiesser studied Sinology and ethnology in Zurich and China. For over 12 years he has lived and worked in Beijing and Shanghai. He is married to a Chinese woman. We have been friends since the Zurich youth riots of the early 1980s.

Our working method

Water is the visually binding element in the film. Like a river, it flows through the individual scenes, stories and interviews. In China it makes sense to comport oneself like water. Wherever it flows, one lets it go, and wherever it is dammed, one gives way to it and finds another route. In this sense, time and patience are very important factors. What appears to be obvious whenever one works with people in a film turns out to be doubly important in China, for cultural and political reasons.

In China, if you want to get close to the people, you have to give yourself a lot of time. It is a complicated but not unpleasant ritual, during which you spend weeks building up trust, step by step: a first conversation, a second one, drinking tea, smoking, chatting, eating together, slowly getting to the point and always coming back to another toast. The first contact, and how you behave at that point, is crucial.

Statements director – Luc Schaedler

Markus Schiesser, Chongqing

Luc Schaedler, Wusutu

→ Facebook.com/watermarksthefilm

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Jul 20, 2013 | materials | Comments Off on · Statement Director – wama

· Shooting Locations – wama

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Watermarks

Shooting Locations

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Minqin (Gansu Province)
Wusutu (Inner Mongolia)

Both cities feature in Watermarks. They lie in the gigantic coal and industry belt that stretches for over 1000 kilometres west to east across northern China. In addition to the destructive exploitation of the landscape this region suffers from severe pollution and water scarcity. Despite all that – or because of it – both places were one of the most fascinating shooting locations I have ever worked at.

Jiuxiancun (Guangxi Province)

A small rice-growing village that dates back to the time of the Qing Dynasty (1616-1912). It is situated in the south of China, not far from the tourist-centre of Yangshuo, where rain is plentiful. The region is known for its iconographic landscape, consisting of innumerable karst hills rising above the rice fields. In no other province did the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) rage with such devastating force as in Guangxi.

Chongqing (independent administrative unit)

A booming mega-city on the Yangtze, the largest river in China. With over 30 million inhabitants, it is currently one of the most populous cities in the world. In recent years, it has grown with greater intensity and the city is in a constant state of upheaval.

→ Watermarks · 2013

→ Facebook.com/watermarksthefilm

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Jul 20, 2013 | materials | Comments Off on · Shooting Locations – wama

· Downloads – wama

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Watermarks

Downloads – Promotion

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The press kit in three languages (de, en, fr) and the film stills from «Watermarks» can be downloaded here.

↓ Presskit (english)
↓ Dossier de Presse (français)
↓ Presseheft (deutsch)

↓ Filmstills

→ Click on image
→ Image opens in browser
→ Choose «Save as»
→ Select downloads location
→ Save

→ Watermarks · 2013

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ANGRY MONK – materials

Additional Materials

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In the section «Angry Monk – Material» you can find additional information about this documentary by Luc Schaedler (go between films).

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→ Buy/rent on Vimeo On Demand 

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→ Statement Director

→ Interview Director

→ Bio Gendun Choephel

→ Poems of Gendun Choephel

→ Downloads

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Interview with Luc Schaedler about his film «Angry Monk» and its making on YouTube (part 1 – 4):

(German with English subtitles)

⋅ About «Angry Monk» 1 (7:12)

→ About «Angry Monk» 2 (7:31) 

→ The making 1 (7:46) 

→ The making 2 (5:48) 

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Tibet, the mysterious roof of the world, the seat of enlightened monks – only one of them is against it: Gendun Choephel is the name of the pugnacious monk who turned his back on monastic life in 1934 and set out for the modern age.

He is a rebel who heats up the minds of the Tibetan authorities. A reincarnated lama who also loves women and alcohol. A free spirit who is far ahead of his time and today has become a beacon of hope for a free Tibet.

This cinematic journey through time takes the life story of this unorthodox monk as an opportunity to uncover an image of Tibet that runs counter to common clichés. Numerous astonishing and rare historical photographs are made accessible to the general public here for the first time.

Elegantly and surprisingly, the film interweaves then and now: archival images of magnificent caravans and monasteries alternate with scenes of discos and images of multi-lane expressways in Lhasa, where pilgrims prostrate themselves to walk around their shrine. “Angry Monk” provides a timely and fascinating glimpse into a country whose fateful past is reflected in today’s everyday life – diverse and contradictory.

The documentary “Angry Monk” tells the story of a man who travels extensively in search of something that might release ancient Tibet from its torpor. The lateral thinker Gendun Choephel always remains open to the new. He is a stranger in his homeland and homeless in a foreign land — a wanderer between worlds.

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Dec 29, 2011 | materials | Comments Off on ANGRY MONK – materials

· Statement Director – am

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Angry Monk

Luc Schaedler

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Why Gendun Choephel

«The idea for the film «Angry Monk» originated during several trips to China, Tibet and India between 1988 and 1999. Without being aware of it, I travelled to the same places that the protagonist of the movie visited 50 years before. Since 1988 I have been studying the country of Tibet and how the western world perceives it. And I repeatedly came across the name of Gendun Choephel.»

A wanderer between worlds

«Gendun Choephel (1903-51) was a wanderer between worlds — at once a dreamer, a rebel and a researcher. He lived in a time that was decisive for the future of his country, between the British colonial invasion of 1903 and the occupation by the Chinese army in 1951. At that time Tibet wasn’t the inaccessible Shangri-La that people often claim, but a torn country on the verge of big changes. Tibet’s attempts to introduce a new social structure and to find its own way into the twentieth century failed because of the resistance of the conservative nobility and the monasteries.»

Breaking the isolation

«As Tibet moved towards isolation, Gendun Choephel was open to new experiences. We can trace his path through his writings, articles, pictures and sketches. He looked at his own society in a critical way, was interested in political issues and tried to apply them to everyday life; he was, therefore, the initiator of critical and intellectual thought within Tibetan society.»

Becoming a role model

«During his last years, Gendun Choephel became a role model for many young Tibetans in Chinese-occupied Tibet and also for those in exile in India. While their parents lost Tibet, the younger generation looked for role models that would allow a critical view of their own society. But the western world only slowly became aware of Choephel because his life story doesn’t mesh with our rigid image of Tibet, which prefers to portray Tibetans as victims rather than the makers of their own history.»
Luc Schaedler

→ Article: Buddhism and Film (German only)
(Luc Schaedler)

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Luc Schaedler, 2018

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Dec 29, 2011 | materials | Comments Off on · Statement Director – am

· Interview Director – am

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Angry Monk

Luc Schaedler

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Interview director by Till Brockmann, 2005

Why did you chose the title «Angry Monk»?

A monk is not supposed to be angry. The title is thus contradictory and provocative and that’s intentional; this contradiction is part of what the movie is about. The way the West sees Tibet has more to do with our own projections than with reality. Interestingly, in German and English there is a note of irony in the title which gets completely lost in the Tibetan translation. I found out that the title cannot really be translated into Tibetan. Apparently the combination of «angry» and «monk» is not planned…

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Interview with Luc Schaedler about his film «Angry Monk» and its making on YouTube (part 1 – 4):

(German with English subtitles)

⋅ About «Angry Monk» 1 (7:12)

⋅ About «Angry Monk» 2 (7:31) → watch on YouTube

⋅ The making 1 (7:46) → watch on YouTube

⋅ The making 2 (5:48) → watch on YouTube

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Why a film about Tibet?

I travelled a lot in Asia and I often passed through Tibet. I first went to Tibet in 1989, shortly after the Tiananmen massacre in Bejing – during the time of the Lhasa uprisings. I also worked on Tibetan issues during my anthropology studies at university. A part of me is always on the road, seeking an encounter with all things foreign. My film is surely also the result of this personal interest, a way to give it a shape. But it also has purpose to actively participate in a specific discourse, the discussion that the West had long been having about Tibet.

Why a road movie?

It was the idea from the beginning. Somehow that’s the point of the whole story. Because in a broader sense the whole life of Gendun Choephel, the central figure, was a journey. A journey from the border provinces to the city of Lhasa. From there he went abroad and came back again. Apart from this outer journey, there was the inner journey of a man who, agile-minded as he was, always remained «on the road».

And furthermore, as already mentioned, the film is structured like that because I got to know Tibet as a traveller, too. Finally, a last aspect, the film is a dialogue with the past which is also a kind of travelling, time-travelling so to speak: the film moves back and forth between present and past that mirror each other…

What about a permission to film?

I was aware from the beginning that the authorities would have informants and therefore always knew what was going on. Thus, shooting secretly and getting an official permit for a bigger project were out of question. For that reason I had the idea to work with a small and unobtrusive team; actually, just the cameraman Filip Zumbrunn and me. We behaved like tourists, like teachers who wanted to show the video material to their students back home.

Partly we were shooting the usual stuff: markets, monasteries, like all tourists do… (smiling), but we were really lucky, too; if we had been searched at some point and they would have found all the many videocassettes, who knows… But even if the film is critical of China, I clearly never meant to make a film against China. What I am interested in is the inner dynamics of Tibet and in this regard China is just one of the factors. After all I’m critical of Tibetan culture as well.

What do you mean by that?

First of all, I’m very critical of the one-sided way the West looks at Tibet: as a spiritual refuge, an inspiration for the mind… some managers even go to Buddhist monasteries to prepare for the next round of globalization debates. A lot of damage is done by reducing Tibet to a peace-loving pseudo-paradise, perceiving it as «Shangri-la» with all the Tibetans having a spiritual message ready for us. I believe this harms the struggle for Tibetan indepence. Furthermore, I find the romanticizing of the past rather problematic, though Tibet gets idealized not only in the West but by Tibetans as well.

For instance, hardly 5% of the people controlled the whole country and the mingling of religion and politics developed into an unholy alliance of the aristocracy and the monastic establishment. This prevented necessary reforms and a policy of openness. Such things are often forgotten. Gendun Choephel and many others as well, such as the predecessor of the present Dalai Lama, were open for change but they failed time and again with their ideas because of the opposition of conservative forces who of course defend their privileges.

Was your critical approach intentional?

Yes, of course. There are so many films full of admiration for the monasteries, for the lamaism and also for the nomadic society which has been celebrated as a remnant of an age-old, intact culture. Similarly, I dislike political reports that make us believe that Tibet is a destroyed culture and that any resistance against the Chinese is defeated or futile in the end.

But the situation is more complex and indeed a paradox: on the one hand so much has been destroyed since the invasion in 1950, especially during the cultural revolution it was done with meticulous precision. On the other hand, the Tibetans prove every day that there is a life under the Chinese. They have preserved their culture and language, they have kept alive more than one thinks. For instance, many of Gendun Choephel’s writings and paintings featured in my film, have been preserved in Tibet. In this sense Gendun Choephel becomes part of this «survival».

What I mean to say is that the Tibetans shouldn’t be perceived just as victims but as a people who have managed very cleverly to resist the Chinese and who will go on showing their subversive spirit. I never intended to make a purely biographical film on Gendun Choephel, but he serves as a key to the understanding of the history and the complex present of Tibet. Choephel was a man with many sides who had fought for change and at the same time remained a Buddhist all his life. He never turned his back to his own culture.

I deliberately chose to have only Tibetans speak about Gendun Choephel in my film: old people who knew him and other Tibetans of a later generation. At the end I cut out all the Western scholars and Tibet experts whom I had interviewed as well…

Why is the Dalai Lama missing?

I did this on purpose. Probably it would have been easy enough to get an interview with him. But I didn’t want his presence to dominate the film and the other interview partners to be pushed to the background. No matter what he would have said about Gendun Choephel, it would have been a confirmation for many that the film is justified. I didn’t want that, I didn’t want to have this «offical stamp». In my view it is very important that there is a parallel discussion on Tibet which doesn’t rely exclusively on the voice of the Dalai Lama.

Interview with Luc Schaedler

Luc Schaedler, shooting of «Angry Monk», 2001

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· Bio Gendun Choephel – am

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Angry Monk

Bio of Gendun Choephel

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Gendun Choephel’s Childhood in Eastern Tibet
(1903-1927)

Gendun Choephel (Chopel, Chöphel) was born 1903 in a small village in eastern Tibet, near the silk road, at the Chinese border, in a remote region populated by nomads. This region was inhabited by Muslims, Chinese and Tibetans that were constantly fighting each other. The villages often were attacked and looted by warlords. In this explosive and mixed cultural climate Gendun Choephel started to be interested in his Tibetan identity early on.

He received a traditional education as a monk in the most important monastery of the region, where he developped a friendship with an American missionary that the other monks and his family resented. In 1927 he left the monastery and moved to Lhasa with a caravan of merchants.

Monastery education in Lhasa
(1927-34)

In Lhasa Gendun Choephel studied in Drepung, the biggest monastery in the world. His rebellious attempts to bypass the monastery’s rules annoyed the other monks. Ultimately, monastic life suffocated him too much in Lhasa as well and he left the monastery. Afterwards he survived as a portrait painter and artist for rich aristocrats in Lhasa. In 1934 he met Rahul Sankrityayan, an Indian researcher of Buddhist teachings who also was a communist activist for the Indian struggle for independence from British colonialists.

Journey across Tibet (1934-1938)

Rahul Sankrityayan and Gendun Choephel travelled together across Tibet searching for old texts that were destroyed in India centuries earlier but had survived in remote monasteries in Tibet. For Rahul, historical research is part of his political fight; for him researching history is the key to the present. Gendun Choephel was Rahuls translator as well as his mediator for Tibetan culture. At the same time the fascinating stories about India awoke his curiosity.

Journey across India (1938-1946)

In India, Gendun Choephel was confronted with a foreign world. For the first time he saw a railway and other technological achievements. India was then undergoing radical changes and, contrary to Tibet, the Indians took their destiny into their own hands. The fight for independece was at its peak. Gendun Choephel’s view of his own culture started to change; in India he experienced the most creative phase of his life.

He travelled across the country as a Buddhist pilgrim, lived in the crowded city of Calcutta, saw the ocean, visited brothels and libraries, wrote his first newspaper articles and translated the Kamasutra in Tibetan, enriching it with his own experiences. He sent many of his writings, notes and sketches back to Tibet in order to convey his impressions of a foreign world.

Return to Tibet (1946-51)

In 1946 Gendun Choephel returned to Tibet passing through the Indian-Tibetan border town of Kalimpong which, next to British and Chinese agents, was a nest of radical Tibetans who fell out of grace with Lhasa’s government. In 1939 they founded the Tibetan Revolutionary Party. Choephel got acquainted with the party and designed their logo: a sickle crossed by a sword. The Tibetan Revolutionary Party’s goal was to overthrow the tyrannical regime in Lhasa.

In Lhasa (1946-51)

When Gendun Choephel arrived in Lhasa the Tibetan government was already informed about his political activities. He began to write the political history of Tibet but this attempt was abruptly stopped by his arrest. He was accused of insurrection and thrown in jail for three years.

In 1949 he was freed. But his heart was broken and he drowned his desperation in alcohol. Soon afterwards the Chinese army overran the Tibetan troops in eastern Tibet and, in 1951, shortly after the occupation of Lhasa by the Chinese army, Gendun Choephel died. Supposedly he commented on the political events of his era in this way: «Now we are in deep shit!»

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More on Gendun Choephel:

Gendun Choephel by Donald Lopez Jr.
(Chicago University Press)

Gendun Choephel (Chopel, Chöphel) 1
(Shambala.com)

Gendun Choephel (Chopel, Chöphel) 2
Treasury of Lives

Gendun Choephel (Chopel, Chöphel) 3
Wikipedia

Gendun Choephel (Chopel, Chöphel) 4
(Rigpa Wiki)

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Gendun Choephel shortly before his death, 1951

Gendun Choephel, 1940’s

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· Poems Gendun Choephel – am

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Angry Monk

Poems of Gendun Choephel

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On British colonialism
Calcutta 1941

Sponsored by kings and ministers
the colonialists sent out
a great army of bandits,
calling them traders.

They introduced
new forms of living,
but their laws
were only good
for the educated and wealthy.

As for the poor,
their small livelihoods
are sucked like blood
from all their orifices.

It is in this way
that the so-called wonders
of the world were built,
such as railroads and high buildings.

I am an astute beggar,
who spent his life listening.
I know what I’m talking about.

From his Notebook
Tibet 1946

In Tibet
Everything that is old
Is a work of Buddha
And everything that is new
Is a work of the Devil
This is the sad tradition of our country

The World is flat
Tibet Mirror Press, 1938

In olden days,
even in Europe,
the world was thought to be flat.

And when some intelligent people
claimed the opposite,
they were exposed to various difficulties,
such as being burnt alive.

Today, even in Buddhist countries
everybody knows,
that the world is round.

However in Tibet,
we still stubbornly state
that the world is flat.

Foreword of his Kamasutra translation
Calcutta 1939

As for me
I have little shame
I love women.

Every man has a woman
Every woman has a man
Both in their mind
Desire sexual union

What chance is the for clean behaviour?
If natural passions are openly banned
Unnatural passions will grow in secrecy

No law of religion
No law of morality
Can suppress the natural passion of mankind

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Gendun Choephel’s Poems
translated by Donald Lopez Jr.
(University of Chicago Press)

Gendun Choephel, 1940’s

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· Downloads – am

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Angry Monk

Downloads – Promotion

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The press kit in three languages (de, en, fr) and the film stills of “Angry Monk” can be downloaded here.

↓ Presskit (english)
↓ Presseheft (deutsch)
↓ Dossier de presse (français)

↓ Filmstills

→ Click on image
→ Image opens in browser
→ Choose «safe as»
→ Choose download location
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Novices, Yama Tashi Kyil

Monk, Yama Tashi Kyil

On the Road, Tibet

Monk, Yama Tashi Kyil

Hindu Pilgrim, Varanasi, Indien

Filip Zumbrunn, DoP

Luc Schaedler, Director

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Intro and Publications

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Visual Anthropology

Between the arts and science
Intro & publications

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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

→ Visual Anthropology (Wikipedia)

→ «A Long Way Home» & Visual Anthropology

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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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Sep 20, 2008 | visual anthropology | Comments Off on Intro and Publications

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 audio-visual projects that conduct artistic, cinematic and scientific research using exclusively visual means.

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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.

→ To the film «Angry Monk»

→ «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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Sep 19, 2008 | visual anthropology | Comments Off on research-at-doc