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
→ 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.
«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
→ The Movie Database – 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
Watermarks · 2013
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Documentary
Watermarks
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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
→ 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:
→ The Funeral (Video Clip)
→ Swiss Films – Watermarks
→ IMDb.com – Watermarks
→ Facebook – Watermarks
→ Cinema of the World
→ The Movie Database – Watermarks
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PLAYLIST (10 Clips):
Unpublished scenes from Watermarks · 2013
Angry Monk · 2005
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Documentary
Angry Monk
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Luc Schaedler | go between films
CH 2005 | 97 | EN, DE, FR, Tib
→ Video On Demand
Tibet — the mystical roof of the world, peopled with enlightened monks? Only one of them wouldn’t toe the line: Gendun Choephel, the errant monk who left the monastic life in 1934 in search of a new challenge.
As a free spirit and multifaceted individual, he was far ahead of his time and has since become a seminal figure, a symbol of hope for a free Tibet. A rebel and voluble critic of the establishment, Gendun Choephel kindled the anger of the Tibetan authorities.
The cinematic journey through time portrays the life of this unorthodox monk, revealing a face of old Tibet that goes against popular clichés. The film makes an abundance of unique and rare historical footage available to the general public for the first time.
But it does not dwell on the past; rather it skilfully oscillates between tradition and modernity. Archival images of ancient caravans and monasteries give way to scenes of discos and multi-lane highways in Lhasa, where pilgrims pros- trate themselves as they circle the holy temple. ANGRY MONK offers a fascinating insight into a country whose eventful past is refracted in the multiplicity and contradictions of everyday life.
Ultimately, the documentary «Angry Monk» also tells the story of a man who left home to search for something that could have liberated traditional Tibet from its rigidity. An outsider who was always open to new things, he eventually became a stranger in his homeland and homeless in foreign lands — a wanderer between worlds.
(The documentary «Angry Monk» was also the main part of my Ph.D. in Visual Anthropology at the University of Zurich)
→ Ph.D.: ANGRY MONK: Literary, Historical, and Oral Sources for a Documentary Film (2007)
→ Gendun Choephel Conference at the Latse Library, New York
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→ 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
→ click here
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PLAYLIST (9 Clips):
Unpublished scenes from Angry Monk · 2005
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→ FESTIVALS (selection)
– Sundance, Nomination Grand Jury Award
– 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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LINKS:
→ Film Review – San Francisco Chronicle
→ Film Review – Indiewire
→ Film Review – Phayul
→ More on Gendun Choephel
→ Swiss Films – Angry Monk
→ IMDb.com – Angry Monk
→ The Movie Database – Angry Monk
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Luc Schaedler while shooting in Central Tibet, 2002
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
Video On Demand
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go between films
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→ Link to the Video On Demand Website where the documentaries and videos of «go between films» can be bought or rented in different language versions.
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· A Long Way Home (2018)
→ Available in Switzerland
Rent from USD 5 | CHF 5 | € 4.50
Buy from USD 12 | CHF 12 | € 11
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A Long Way Home (2018)
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VIMEO ON DEMAND
Available worldwide are… ↓
Watermarks (2013)
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→ click here
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Angry Monk (2005)
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→ click here
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Made in Hong Kong (1997)
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The documentaries of «go between films» (Luc Schaedler) can also be bought as DVD in different language versions.
Each DVD: USD 25 + USD 5 (shipping)
Total: USD 30 | CHF 30 | € 25
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DVDs – Selection
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DVDs
go between films
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A selection of documentaries and videos of «go between films» can be bought as DVDs in different language versions (all territories):
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· A Long Way Home (2018)
→ Available in Switzerland
Each DVD: USD 25 + USD 5 (shipping)
Total: USD 30 (appr. € 25 | CHF 30)
→ Credit Card or PayPal needed
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A Long Way Home (2018)
→ English
→ German
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→ Available in Switzerland
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→ For international sales
of «A Long Way Home»
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DVDs
Available worldwide are… ↓
Watermarks (2013)
en, de, fr, chin
60 mins. Bonus
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Angry Monk (2005)
en, de, fr, tib
60 mins. Bonus
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Made in Hong Kong (1997)
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Video On Demand
Link to the Vimeo On Demand Page of «go between films» where the documentaries and videos can be bought and rented in different language versions:
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Buy from USD 12 (approx. CHF 12 | € 12)
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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.
→ Video On Demand
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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
→ Video On Demand
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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
· 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
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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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· 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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· Downloads (wama)
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Watermarks
Downloads
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↓ Presskit (english)
↓ Dossier de Presse (français)
↓ Presseheft (deutsch)
↓ Filmstills
→ Click on image
→ Image opens in browser
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Wastewater, Chongqing
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Wei Jihua, Minqin
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Flood, Jiuxiancun
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Chen Chaomei, Chongqing
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Bordertown, Wusutu
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Li Yuming, Jiuxiancun
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Wu Dengming, Chongqing
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Li Yunchuang, Jiuxiancun
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Rice Growing, Jiuxiancun
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Fishrestaurant, Chongqing
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Wei Guancai, Minqin
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Fishing, Jiuxiancun
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Fishingboat on the Yangtse, Chongqing
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· Teaching Materials (wama)
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Watermarks
Teaching materials
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only available in German!
→ Click «Deutsch»
above to your right ↑
→ auf «Deutsch» klicken
oben rechts ↑
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Teaching materials for «Watermarks»
Here you will find the materials for school lessons in thematic order for download (German only)
The organization ACHAOS (Kinokultur in der Schule) has compiled a pedagogically valuable dossier for interested teachers with questions, suggestions for discussion and information material for school lessons.
↓ Dossier to WATERMARKS for school lessons (© ACHAOS)
Additional materials to download ↓
in German only!
↓ Dossier of Film (.pdf )
Synopsis, statement of the director, information about the film locations and persons, as well as a list of the topics addressed in the film
↓ Geschichte Chinas (.zip)
↓ Karten & Texte zur Geographie (.zip)
↓ Wirtschaft & Entwicklung (.zip)
↓ Umwelt & Ökologie (.zip)
↓ Menschenrechte & Rebellion (.zip)
↓ PHOTOS der Protagonisten (.zip)
↓ PHOTOS vom Film (.zip)
↓ PHOTOS der Dreharbeiten (.zip)
↓ PHOTOS zur Umweltproblematik (.zip)
Download the .zip files. Open with double click. In the respective folder you will find the .pdf documents of the texts and maps, as well as the photos as .jpg)
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· 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…
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.
Luc Schaedler, shooting of «Angry Monk», 2001
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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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↓ Presskit (english)
↓ Presseheft (deutsch)
↓ Dossier de presse (français)
↓ Filmstills
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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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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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