Stefan Schwietert

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Stefan Schwietert (born January 29, 1961 in Eßlingen am Neckar , Germany) is a film director and documentary filmmaker . He has German and Swiss citizenship . He has been professor for documentary film directing at the Babelsberg Film University since 2014 .

Life

Stefan Schwietert was born in Eßlingen am Neckar (spelling at the time) and grew up in Therwil , Canton Basel-Landschaft (Switzerland). Schwietert made his first film experiences immediately after graduating from high school (1979) in the Basel video cooperative with experimental videos and films on the Swiss youth riots .

In 1980/81 Schwietert traveled to Brazil, where he worked as an assistant director for TV Globo in the field of music film. In 1981 he completed a guest semester at the California Art Institute in San Francisco. After an interlude at the Free University of Berlin, Schwietert studied at the German Film and Television Academy in Berlin from 1984 to 1990 . His thesis, the feature film Leap Out of the Clouds (1991), premiered in the competition at the Locarno Film Festival and was invited to various international festivals. After graduating, Schwietert founded the production company Neapel Film . Since then he has mainly worked as a documentary, both for cinema and television. The thematic focus of his work lies in the areas of music and society.

In 1994 Schwietert presented his first long documentary film: Der Schatten ist lang , a portrait of the Viennese playwright Jura Soyfer that emerged from encounters with his acquaintances and friends in red Vienna . Two years later, A Tickle in the Heart followed , a black and white movie about the Jewish Klezmer trio Epstein Brothers . Schwietert made his international breakthrough with the award-winning film.

Other documentary music films followed. El Acordéon del Diablo (2000) is a film inspired by Gabriel Garcia Márquez's magical realism about music and legends on the Colombian Caribbean coast. In Voyage Oriental (2001) he accompanies the George Gruntz Concert Jazz Band to Turkey. Liebeslieder (2001) combines original versions of songs by the French composer Gabriel Fauré interpreted by soprano Barbara Hendricks with jazz versions by the Treya Quartet.

In Black Madonna (2004) Schwietert accompanies the French tuba player Michel Godard in setting the music manuscript Codex 121 in Einsiedeln Abbey . In Big Band Poesie (2007) he traces the eventful history of the Vienna Art Orchestra . In 2011 he created Balkan Melodie (2012), in which Schwietert delves into the musical Romania and Bulgaria before the fall of the Wall, following in the footsteps of the Swiss music expert Marcel Cellier and once again lets the audience participate in his discoveries: the music of pan flutist Gheorghe Zamfir and the voices of the Bulgarian women's choir Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares .

In his films, Schwietert repeatedly grapples with the role music and tradition play in a changing society. In Das Alphorn (2003), for example, the history of the instrument leads through the preoccupation with Swiss customs and traditions up to today's jazz scene. In Accordion Tribe (2004) Schwietert accompanies the international accordion group Accordion Tribe during rehearsals and concerts, but also traces the origins of modern accordion music from folklore in the encounter with the individual band members. In Heimatklänge (2007), his most successful film to date, he deals with the oldest instrument, the human voice, based on the non-verbal chants of the Alps - such as cheering and yodelling - and presents a few with Erika Stucky , Christian Zehnder and Noldi Alder of the most innovative Swiss performance artists and vocal artists of the present.

Stefan Schwietert lives and works in Berlin and Therwil (Switzerland). He makes his own films, supervises documentary film projects for young colleagues and teaches at various film schools, namely the Zurich University of the Arts and the German Film and Television Academy in Berlin .

Filmography

Feature films

  • 1986: The Topolino Project (short film, 40 minutes)
  • 1987: Tapez 36-15 Code Gobra (short film, 14 minutes)
  • 1991: Jump out of the clouds (79 minutes)

Documentaries

  • 1994: The Shadow is Long (TV film, 67 minutes)
  • 1996: A Tickle in the Heart (83 minutes)
  • 1998: In God's Waiting Room (TV film, 65 minutes)
  • 2000: El Acordeón del Diablo (90 minutes)
  • 2000: Voyage Oriental (TV film, 60 minutes)
  • 2001: Love songs (TV film, 60 minutes)
  • 2003: The Alphorn (76 minutes)
  • 2004: Black Madonna (TV movie, 45 minutes)
  • 2005: Accordion Tribe (87 minutes)
  • 2007: Heimatklänge (90 minutes)
  • 2007: Big Band Poetry (TV film, 59 minutes)
  • 2010: 24 hours Berlin (segment Daniel Barenboim, TV film)
  • 2012: Balkan Melody
  • 2015: Imagine Waking Up Tomorrow and All Music Has Disappeared

Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ page about Schwietert at filmuniversitaet.de accessed September 28, 2019
  2. ↑ www.swissfilms.ch
  3. ↑ Laura Daniel: Black Madonna. In: Cinemabuch, (p347)
  4. ↑ Th. Winkler: Squeeze the chest of drawers. In: Die Zeit, April 14, 2005 No. 16
  5. ↑ www.arsenal-berlin.de
  6. ↑ Andreas Stock: To cheer. In: Tagblatt Online, October 18, 2007
  7. ^ Alfred Zimmerlin: Home and its musical expression. In: NZZ, October 25, 2007
personal data
SURNAME Schwietert, Stefan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss documentary filmmaker
DATE OF BIRTH January 29, 1961
PLACE OF BIRTH Esslingen am Neckar