Documentary Educational Resources - Geography / Europe / West / Switzerland / All Films

François Pernet, Carpenter and Sculptor
Joseph Doutaz & Olivier Veuve, Shingle-makers

Armand Rouiller, Sledge-maker
Arnold Golay, Toy-maker

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Claude Lebet, Luthier

Thu, 30 Aug 2018 08:16:00 GMT

Claude Lebet, Luthier
Buy Now: $295.00

Claude Lebet, luthier, had originally wanted to be a parson, like his father before him. However, after one year in theological school, he left to study violin making in Cremona, Italy. Later, he returned to Switzerland, where he founded his workshop at La Chaux-de-Fonds in the Jura mountains. The "Musici di Roma" launched his career by buying the first violin he made, then helping him acquire his house. For Lebet, a violin takes a month and a half to make, and requires the smoothest maple and spruce, which he selects himself, along with the finest shellacs. In the film, we watch as he makes a violin for a musician who comes to try it out and to choose from various woods. It takes but six weeks for Lebet to fashion the violin, but the relationship of musician and luthier lasts a lifetime.

Films in the Wood Crafts series

François Pernet, Carpenter and Sculptor
Joseph Doutaz & Olivier Veuve, Shingle-makers

Armand Rouiller, Sledge-maker
Arnold Golay, Toy-maker

Visit Switzerland to see additional products in this category.

Death of the Grandfather or: the Sleep of the Just

Thu, 30 Aug 2018 07:04:00 GMT

Death of the Grandfather or: the Sleep of the Just
Buy Now: $320.00

A tale, told by his five daughters, of the life and death of a man very representative of a Protestant Switzerland in the early 20th century where life was conditioned by the work ethic. He was first a farmer, then a factory worker, then the head of a small family affair where his daughters became his workers. The business grew into an large factory that would be eventually taken over by the only son. The five stories show us the family and professional context of the first half of the 20th century. They are also five different versions of the serene death of a man who felt he had done his duty. The film illustrates the ideas of Max Weber, known for their importance in understanding the Western civilization that emerged from the Reformation.

Jacqueline Veuve has become known primarily as the chronicler of the ordinary. She has been called "la grande dame des humbles", the great lady of the humble, because she allows time for the unspectacular, patiently depicting little everyday tasks and giving meaning and magnitude

to these minor gestures. There is hardly a detail she does not deem worthy of the keen and benevolent interest that allows its uniqueness and value to be brought to light. She does so with the perseverance of an experienced chronicler and film-maker who has often joined in the battle for the independence of Swiss documentary-film production.

–Susanna Kumschick, 2000

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François Pernet, Carpenter and Sculptor

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 14:53:00 GMT

François Pernet, Carpenter and Sculptor
Buy Now: $295.00

Like his grandfather and his father before him, François Pernet is a mountain peasant and works with wood. He trained as a carpenter and cabinet maker and owns the last water-powered sawmill still operating in French-speaking Switzerland. He and his wife have five children, two of their own, and three nephews adopted after the death of their parents in a car accident. So, to earn a living, he makes and carves cupboards and turns bannisters. In addition to his work, Pernet has become a sculptor as well. His bas-relief carvings, which have decorated local cafés, show various aspects of mountain life, including hunters, poachers, chamois and other animals.

Films in the Wood Crafts series

François Pernet, Carpenter and Sculptor
Joseph Doutaz & Olivier Veuve, Shingle-makers

Armand Rouiller, Sledge-maker
Arnold Golay, Toy-maker

Visit Switzerland to see additional products in this category.

Joseph Doutaz & Olivier Veuve, Shingle-makers

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 11:12:00 GMT

Joseph Doutaz & Olivier Veuve, Shingle-makers
Buy Now: $295.00

The "tavillonneur" or shingle-maker cuts out and fits shingles or wood tiles into place. Shingles (called "tavillons" in Switzerland), are one of the oldest methods of roofing or covering an outside wall. There are no longer any official apprenticeships. The film follows two shingle-makers, Joseph Doutaz and Olivier Veuve, who have very different techniques of cutting and placing their shingles. Joseph Doutaz uses only the traditional "tavillons" while Olivier Veuve works with these, as well as with "anseilles," larger and thicker wood tiles. We see both men at work in Winter and in Summer, and see some of their finished buildings.

Films in the Wood Crafts series

François Pernet, Carpenter and Sculptor
Joseph Doutaz & Olivier Veuve, Shingle-makers

Armand Rouiller, Sledge-maker
Arnold Golay, Toy-maker

Visit Switzerland to see additional products in this category.

Juliette of the Herbs

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 11:12:00 GMT

Juliette of the Herbs
Buy Now: $320.00

Juliette of the Herbs is a beautifully filmed lyrical portrait of the life and work of Juliette de Bairacli Levy: world renowned herbalist, author, breeder of Afghan hounds, friend of the Roma, traveller in search of herbal wisdom and the pioneer of holistic veterinary medicine.

For more than 60 years Juliette lived with the Roma, nomads and peasants of the world, learning the healing arts from these peoples who live close to nature. Juliette's well-loved and now classic herbals for animals and for children have been a vital inspiration for the present day herbal renaissance and holistic animal care community. Juliette's extraordinary life story is as colourful and as exciting as her tremendous wealth of herbal knowledge.

Filmed on location with Juliette and her Afghan hound in Greece, Spain, France, Portugal, Switzerland, England and America, and interwoven with Juliette's vast collection of archival photographs, together with scenes of Roma people dancing and Bedouins with their herds, Juliette of the Herbs is an inspiring portrait of a remarkable healer.

“This video lifted my heart and made me grateful for all that Juliette has done to help the animals.”
— Helen McKinnon, author, It's For The Animals

“[Juliette of the Herbs] made me look at how my life is now, still close to the earth, but not close enough... I'm happy to have seen a glimpse into her life. It encourages me to live as radically as I want. Tish's film is a grand one.”
— Janisse Ray, author, The Ecology of a Cracker Childhood

“This film is magnificient. It was fascinating to watch our six year old daughter Lillian's responses as well. She said, “Daddy this is so beautiful I think I could cry a little bit.”
— Jim Schley, editor-in-chief, Chelsea Green Publishing

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

Feature Award Nominee, International Documentary Association, 1998

Best Documentary, Seattle Intn'l Film Festival - Women in Cinema, 1999

Merit Award for Storytelling, International Wildlife Film Festival, 1999

Honorable Mention, Green Extreme Film Festival, 1999

Artist's Award, Laguna Beach Film Festival, 1999

Winner, EarthVision Film Festival, 1999

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A Little Corner of Paradise

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 06:41:00 GMT

A Little Corner of Paradise
Buy Now: $320.00

This is the story of the rebirth of Ossona, a hamlet in Val d'Herens in the Valais canton, which was abandoned in the sixties and has now become the pilot project for an agro-tourism site. From 2005 to 2008, we followed the restoration of this site, listed as a sustainable development zone, and those involved in the project.

Some of them are aged between 14 and 16 years old and were born in Haiti, Morocco and Sion. These youth attend an institution for teenagers in difficulty. Can their minds be transformed by tiring work in the mountains? Once a week, through building and farming work, they completely put themselves into restoring this ghost hamlet. The other participants are between 75 and 90 years old. After having spent their childhood in self-sufficiency here in Ossona they left to discover "modern" life when the dams were being built. As witnesses, they have returned to tell their stories... What can representatives of the valley's old folks and multicultural youth have in common? What do they have to talk about, what can they pass on to each other?

The film retraces this adventure up to the end of the first stage with rural self-catering cottages and an inn, but it also recounts the financial, administrative, political and ecological obstacle course faced equally by the commune of St-Martin and the peasant on his land. Yesterday, today and tomorrow. Chronicle of a rebirth. The power of hope.

Reviews

"(Jacqueline Veuve) has filmed, better than anyone, the world of country folk and their disappearing trades. A Little Corner of Paradise takes a deeper look at these themes and transmits a forgotten knowledge to youth." — Presse Locarno

"A Little Corner of Paradise dazzles like a fairy tale and invokes a melancholy for things that no longer exist." — Presse Locarno

"In cinema, there's nothing more difficult than imparting a sense of spontaneity ... to take the viewer to a place as if for the first time, to give her the illusion of experiencing what she sees as if it were a direct transmission. Here Mme. Veuve creates a direct line to paradise!" — Thierry Jobin, Le Temps

Films in the Wood Crafts series

François Pernet, Carpenter and Sculptor
Joseph Doutaz & Olivier Veuve, Shingle-makers

Armand Rouiller, Sledge-maker
Arnold Golay, Toy-maker

Visit Switzerland to see additional products in this category.

Little Lady of The Capitole

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 06:41:00 GMT

Little Lady of The Capitole
Buy Now: $320.00

Lucienne Schnegg is a little woman brimming with energy. At 80, she remains at the helm of the cinema Capitole. Hired as a secretary in 1949, she has become the heir of the movie house and its very soul. Cashier, cleaning woman and manager all in one, she tells us about her cinema, the grandest, the largest and the oldest of Lausanne, Switzerland. Right after the war, 25 people, including six ushers in uniform, worked here and audiences packed in to see movies like The Longest Day.

Movie clips, posters, and film stills carry us back in time. The tiny lady, taking us through the magnificent hall in a thousand anecdotes, distills a whiff of the magic perfume of great stars she met like Audrey Hepburn, Roger Moore, or even the Queen of Spain...

Today, the Capitole can no longer break even. Distributors far prefer multiplexes to launch important movies. But, despite the inevitable end of cinemas like this, the tiny lady keeps on smiling, as she comes and goes, from top to bottom of her ship.

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

Namur, Belgium, 2006

Sheffield Doc/Fest, England, 2006

Tübingen, Denmark, 2006

Zagreb, Croatia

Isola (Slovénie), 2007

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Marcellin Babey, Turner

Tue, 28 Aug 2018 14:49:00 GMT

Marcellin Babey, Turner
Buy Now: $295.00

Marcellin Babey, from the Swiss Jura, is thirty-five years old. He works in an old workshop in the heart of Lausanne, concious that building speculators will oust him some day. As there are no longer any apprenticeships in wood turning in Switzerland, Babey learned his craft from the former owner of his Lausanne workshop, and by going, on foot, to visit old turners in France and Spain. When he learned from old documents that the inhabitants of the Swiss canton of Vaud used to play bagpipes on holidays before the Bernese Protestants forbade it in belief that it was an instrument of the devil, Babey decided to build the instrument as it used to be. In the film, we see him make and play the bagpipes.

Films in the Wood Crafts series

François Pernet, Carpenter and Sculptor
Joseph Doutaz & Olivier Veuve, Shingle-makers