Edwin Beeler

Edwin Beeler (born April 19, 1958 in Rothenthurm ; from Lucerne ) is a Swiss film director , writer -producer , cameraman and DVD producer.

Life

Between 1984 and 2000 Beeler wrote articles and reports for print media ( Das Magazin , Die Weltwoche , Schweizer Familie , Luzerner Zeitung and others).

The trained historian (Licentiate in General History, University of Zurich , 1986) has been making documentary films in Switzerland since 1984 . His works are produced by his company Calypso Film AG (founded in 1988). The material and themes of his film stories are often based on the story. "His trademark are understandable stories thanks to authentic actors" (Herbert Fischer, Kulturmagazin, February 2005). Beeler made his first cinema documentary in 1984 with “Rothenthurm - We still rule the people”. His cinematic observations and stories about the citizens' movement against the then planned arsenal in the middle of the high moor marked him as a leftist; Right-wing politicians such as Ernst Cincera , Otto Fischer and Alois Graf protested against the film funding contributions from the federal government and the canton of Lucerne.

In 1991 and 1998 Beeler brought his films "Brother Klaus" and "Grenzgang - Eine cinematic research on the Sonderbund War 1847" - the latter realized and produced together with theater director Louis Naef - to the cinema, and in 2005 a documentary film about the upheavals in the workplaces of railway workers ("Gramper and bosses - railway stories »). In 2011, his film “Arme Seelen - Les Revenants” was released in German-speaking Switzerland. With around 25,000 cinema admissions, it is one of the most successful Swiss films of 2011. Beeler was awarded the Central Switzerland Film Prize 2017 from the Albert Koechlin Foundation for his film “Die weisse Arche”. In the same year he was awarded the Central Switzerland Culture Prize for his overall work. The award ceremony took place in the film theater of the Swiss Museum of Transport.

Beeler has two daughters and lives in Lucerne, Switzerland. Since 1985 Beeler has been a member of the professional association of Swiss film directors and screenwriters arf / fds.

Filmography

• 2016: The White Ark
• 2011: Poor Souls - Les Revenants (English: The Souls - Tales of Ghostly Encounters )
• 2005: Gramper and Bosses - Railway Stories
• 2004: Nazis en Suisse (part of the series «L'histoire c'est moi»)
• 2004: De l'homme au soldat (part of the series «L'histoire c'est moi»)
• 1999: The forgotten war - 150 years after the Sonderbund (realized together with Louis Naef)
• 1998: Crossing borders. A filmic research on the Sonderbund War of 1847 (realized together with Louis Naef)
• 1991: Brother Klaus
• 1984: Rothenthurm - The people still rule here

Awards

• 1992: Recognition award from the city of Lucerne
• 2017: Central Switzerland Film Award
• 2017: Central Switzerland Culture Prize

literature

• Cinema yearbook (various years from 1984/85, Stroemfeld / Roter Stern)
• Reviews by Franz Ulrich, in: Zoom Filmberater (born 1984/85, 1991/92, 1998/99).
• Film Bulletin, No. 3, April 2005.

Web links

• Edwin Beeler at Vimeo
• The film «Poor Souls» - Interview with the director Edwin Beeler. (YouTube video, 5:59 min) kath.ch , accessed on June 23, 2011 . 
• Central Switzerland Culture Prize 2017: Report on arttv.ch
• Central Switzerland Culture Prize 2017: Report on SRF, Schweiz aktuell
• Central Switzerland Film Prize 2017 of the Albert Koechlin Foundation, impressions :