A Different History

The Untold Story

January 1999 •English

The Untold Story of the Suffragists of Newfoundland (1999) is a docu-drama celebrating the thirty year struggle by the women of Newfoundland to win the right to vote.

Citoyennes !

June 2024 •French

Mein Leben und der Notenschnitt

May 2021 •German

Sixth-graders have many things on their minds. But they are confronted with an important decision: do they continue their education in secondary school A, B, or C, or do they go to grammar school after all? And what even are those things? How do children deal with the hopes and fears associated with this step?

Alpine Train at Christmas

December 2024 •English

Climb aboard the illustrious Bernina Express for a festive ride through spectacular Alpine landscapes, taking in snow-covered peaks, architectural wonders, and majestic glaciers.

The Alps - Climb of Your Life

March 2007 •English

In 1966, John Harlin II died while attempting Europe's most difficult climb, the North Face of the Eiger in Switzerland. 40 years later, his son John Harlin III, an expert mountaineer and the editor of the American Alpine Journal, returns to attempt the same climb.

Die Affäre Meili

Invalid date •German

Cake Bakers & Trouble Makers: Lucy Worsley's 100 Years of the WI

July 2015 •English

Documentary to mark the WI's centenary. Lucy Worsley goes beyond the stereotypes of jam and Jerusalem to reveal the surprisingly radical side of this Great British institution.

Matt Shepard Is a Friend of Mine

October 2014 •English

An intimate portrait of Matthew Shepard, the gay young man murdered in one of the most notorious hate crimes in U.S. history. Framed through a personal lens, it's the story of loss, love, and courage in the face of unspeakable tragedy.

Alpine Hotel at Christmas

December 2024 •English

Lap up the luxury and opulence of the festive season at Switzerland's Gstaad Palace hotel, as we discover one of the most exclusive hotels in the world, where staff and management work hard to ensure their guests enjoy the ultimate 5-star festive experience. Run by third generation hotelier Andrea Scherz, whose family have owned the hotel since 1938, the hotel is one of the last in Switzerland to close between the summer season and winter. When it reopens in mid-December, with rooms costing up to £18,000 per night, the pressure is on to provide a truly first class Christmas.

The Blocher Experience

February 2014 •French

The Blocher Experience tells the story of Switzerland’s most controversial political leader. It also chronicles the face-to-face encounter between a film-maker and a man of power, through a year of exclusive, up-close interviews and access to his private life.

Der grosse Kanton

May 2013 •German

Is the solution to Switzerland's future to integrate Germany into the confederation? After all, like Michael Ringier, CEO of the Ringier media group, says, blithely ignoring all minorities, we're very close in culture and language. Oskar Freysinger takes out his guitar and sings his answer. Politicians from French-speaking Switzerland and Ticino think expanding will help the country survive. The former German foreign minister thinks the two countries' traditions are too different. The banker Oswald Grübel is worried about Germany's debts, although he'd be prepared to take over its assets. With serious interviews interspersed with gags (boat people on Lake Constance, the last Habsburger as a peasant), Giaccobbo gathers off-the-cuff reactions which reveal a lot about the different mentalities. The movie laughs at preconceived notions, redefines neutrality and reflects on what designates a nation. Switzerland, which loves to teach the world a lesson, will soon helvetize the planet, oder?

Wolves Return

November 2019 •German

Wolves divide and fascinate us. 150 years after they were driven to extinction in Central Europe, they are returning slowly but inexorably. Are they dangerous to humans? Is it possible to coexist? Using Switzerland as a point of departure, where wolves have returned in the very recent past, this documentary sheds light on the wolf situation in Austria, eastern Germany, Poland, Bulgaria, and even Minnesota, where freely roaming packs of wolves are more common sight.

She's Beautiful When She's Angry

December 2014 •English

A documentary that resurrects the buried history of the outrageous, often brilliant women who founded the modern women's movement from 1966 to 1971.

Jolly Roger

November 2003 •German

"Jolly Roger" could mean Roger Schawinski. But by definition, a "Jolly Roger" is the classic black pirate flag with skull and crossbones. This documentary tells the unvarnished story of the Swiss radio pirates who emerged in the 1970s. The focus is on Radio 24 in its wild years, when Schawinski's team broadcast from Italy, with the strongest FM station in the world at the time, straight down from Pizzo Groppera, 130 kilometers all the way to the Zurich area. Supported by numerous original documents from private filmmakers and from the SRG archives, the viewer relives the absurd radio war between David and Goliath that lasted almost four years, 24 years after this war between the radio pirates and the state power began on November 13, 1979. The many known and unknown fighters, who rallied behind their Radio Winkelried Schawinski in 1979 to help usher Switzerland into a new media age, remember the good and bad times, the demonstrations and the numerous threatened and actual closures.

Special Flight

August 2011 •French

Switzerland still carries out special flights, where passengers, dressed in diapers and helmets, are chained to their seats for 40 hours at worst. They are accompanied by police officers and immigration officials. The passengers are flown to their native countries, where they haven't set foot in in up to twenty years, and where their lives might be in danger. Children, wives and work are left behind in Switzerland. Near Geneva, in Frambois prison, live 25 illegal immigrants waiting for deportation. They are offered an opportunity to say goodbye to their families and return to their native countries on a regular flight, escorted by plain-clothes police officers. If they refuse this offer, the special flight is arranged fast and unexpectedly. The stories behind the locked cells are truly heartbreaking.

Suffragettes, with Lucy Worsley

June 2018 •English

The story of the struggle for the women's vote is much more than just the account of the exploits of Emmeline Pankhurst or the tragic fate of Emily Davidson. Lucy Worsley puts herself at the heart of the drama, alongside a group of astonishing young working class suffragettes who decided to go against every rule and expectation that British Edwardian society (1901-1910) had about them…

Four Votes

June 2012 •Norwegian

11 JUNE 2013 is one hundred years since Norwegian women got full voting rights on an equal basis with men. Norway was among the first countries in the world to introduce universal suffrage for both women and men. The work for universal suffrage for women went on for many years and was an issue that many people got involved in. The Voting Rights Committee has chosen to highlight four women who played a decisive role in the suffrage issue.

Nemesis

August 2020 •German

The film explores the destruction of a unique train station in Zurich and the construction of the new prison and police centre in its place. From the perspective of the filmmaker’s window, and with testimony from prisoners awaiting deportation, the film probes how we deal with the extinction of history and its replacement with total security.

The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner

January 1974 •German

A study of the psychology of a champion ski-flyer, whose full-time occupation is carpentry.

Paul Nizon: Der Nagel im Kopf

January 2020 •German

The film tells of the radical life-search by the Swiss writer Paul Nizon, born 1929 in Bern, Switzerland, who became what “he was meant to be” in Paris. Now 90-year-old, Paul Nizon grants insights into his life and work in a self-ironic, direct manner. The intimate portrait of a great literary outsider emerges, for whom the risk of life and the risk of writing merge into one and the same work of art.