Projects 

IN PRODUCTION

To do the work of 18th century potassium nitrate collectors in Toggenburg. To be an electrician on a film set. Mix the two together and bring to a slow boil. What film will we see when all the water has evaporated? To be explosive, potassium nitrate would have to be mixed with some coal and sulphur. What else do we need to see the power of black powder?

A metaphorical journey through a fragile, fading world where ecosystems, marked by disease and extinction, reflect humanity's impact on nature—while also showing how landscapes, night birds, and sled dogs, in turn, shape us.

Bild Titel: Basilisk emerging from retreat in the verandah of the hut, Cape Denison / Frank Hurley
Source: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales

«Past, Encapsulated» is a doomed fight against change - a digital time capsule attempting to preserve the living spaces as they are through objects and conversations about memories. 
 
Uliana’s grandparents’ bookshelves and cupboards are filled with little trinkets, statuettes, souvenirs, gifts and decor objects. In each – a multitude of memories and stories, hidden and often untold. As we explore the shelves, the grandparents are sharing the memories embedded into decor pieces placed in the bedrooms, kitchens and
living rooms.

What happens if I imagine the space as a body, and what if this space is in constant change? Working space (WT) is a research for an installation containing audio-visual and physical elements, like a three-dimensional collage. A dark environment where video projections are the only light sources. It invites viewers to step inside a world where everything—identity, perception, and space—is in flux. It explores the way we relate to the body, to space, and to our (digital) image.

What is the price of a forest? An encounter between Amazonian Indigenous communities and senior executives trading a promise to save nature and the economic system. 
 
Under the shadow of climate change, commodity companies in Europe race to create new environmental products. Meanwhile, a group of Kapohn Indigenous people receives its first revenue from a carbon credit sale in the Amazon rainforest. The film stages an encounter between these two worlds, uniting Indigenous leaders and senior executives in the same boardroom. What scars, hopes, and beliefs collide when transforming nature into a financial asset?

2. GRADUATION PROJECTS

In the experimental short film WHAT IF WE WANT IT ALL?, three women and three actresses explore the concept of "motherhood" within a stylized film set. Whose lives, desires, and inner conflicts do we hear? The boundaries between documentary and staging blur, as reenactments and personal commentary create a multi-layered narrative.
Driven by her personal experience as a woman with children, the filmmaker places reflection at the center and seeks dialogue with people from her surroundings. The film questions role models and societal structures—opening up space for collective exploration.

Format: 16mm, b&w and/or color
Length: max. 20 minutes
Camera: Arriflex 16s, Bolex H16 Rex 5
Sound: mono, recorded on 1/4" tape w/NAGRA

As the new radical right is gaining acting power in Italy, Antonio Gramsci’s Theory of Cultural Hegemony is offering us a possible explanation and solution.

For the first time since World War II, a post-fascist party has acting and policy-making power in Italy. To find a possible explanation on how conservative narratives -- constantly triggered by societal, cultural, and economic events: such as a possible economic crisis (Frank 2012; Hochschild 2016), the fear of the other (Stichweh 2010), and the threat of losing the identity of our imagined community (Anderson 2006) -- keep on reproducing, Antonio Gramsci’s Theory of Cultural Hegemony (1971) is offering us a way to understand how social movements come to be and how a hegemonial class tries to keep its power. It does so through the establishment of a common sense, making the lower, subaltern class believe to find itself in the best possible of worlds. Gramsci’s fragmented theory explains us, how narratives get created, where to find them, and how they’ll end up into such a common sense, that will continue to repeat them. But Gramsci also offers a way out, by telling how this common sense can be changed through the emergence of new, organic intellectuals and by creating new forms of knowledge. Populist right-wing parties often like to describe themselves as such: as outsider social grassroots movements, like the American Tea Party -- or like Giorgia Meloni from Fratelli d’Italia, who calls herself an underdog. But very often they are orchestrated from neoliberal and big business friendly parties, and are therefore doing nothing else than just repeating the same kind of conservative narratives (Crehan 2016) -- through tax cuts; dismantling of the welfare state; privatizations,...

This is a reflexive and essayistic documentary film about Gramsci’s theory and the emergence of the new Radical Right in Italy. 

Jolanda Cordero desperately wants to return to the Dominican Republic. Thirty years ago, she came to Switzerland to escape poverty. Her husband and two sons were supposed to follow, but it never happened. She works seven days a week as a cleaner—for the Lake Lucerne shipping company, in residential homes, private households, and businesses. At the end of the month, there is little left, as her family depends on her income. Jolanda fights hard to pay rent and bills while saving for her return.

Now, she wants to put an end to it—by 2024, she hopes to be home. But an early termination of her lease by her landlord brings new financial challenges. Between a disillusioning work routine, joyful gatherings with friends, alcoholism, and the struggle to maintain an image of herself back home, I accompany her.

Joli—a charismatic everyday heroine, a woman whose story reflects the experiences of many migrants who came in search of a better life but couldn’t realize all their dreams.

Director Fabian Biasio is stuck in a dilemma: as an urban cyclist, he has a latent hatred of cars. He compensates for his vulnerability with a generous interpretation of the traffic rules. But as soon as he sits behind the wheel of a car, he becomes a driver with heart and soul. He asks himself where this desire comes from and discovers worlds previously hidden from him: "Automania" deals with these worlds - on this side and on the other side of the windscreen. The inner conflict drives the director to search for strategies for safer and more sustainable traffic participation for all.

To do the work of 18th century potassium nitrate collectors in Toggenburg. To be an electrician on a film set. Mix the two together and bring to a slow boil. What film will we see when all the water has evaporated? To be explosive, potassium nitrate would have to be mixed with some coal and sulphur. What else do we need to see the power of black powder?

The homelessness crisis in Ireland is the worst in the history of the state. At the same time Ireland has evolved to become one of the most powerful economies in the world per capita. 
Known to Services started out as a documentary short exploring homelessness on the streets of Dublin City. However, getting to know the the people and the situation it became a documentation of my personal struggle with what I saw. More about the series

A carpet of dark, spheric sounds in a nocturnal forest. Abstract projections turn it into a shining universe. This piece shows an experimental live music video with Swiss duo mischgewebe and an insider’s view of director Noemi Müller’s intensely personal and emotional journey. “stuckinmymind” delves into an entangled dream world full of melodies, shining structures and internal conflict. More about Noemi Müller 

The project is a cooperation between artist Aramis Navarro and filmmaker Marco Egger. Their respective works come together in an exhibition on dataism (big data). The exhibition “Manifest: Dataismus WIP” can be viewed both in-person and digitally. Each (analogous) exhibit comes with a commentary that explores the artefact on a virtual plane. More about Marco Egger

Layer after Layer after Layer is the result of an artistic exploration of materials and a reflection about how we humans handle them. Vaseline: this transparent material appears as a substance in the installation, but also forms the basis of the sound track that features computer-generated voices reading fragments of texts on the subject of provenance and history found on the internet. Vaseline covers the body, protects it without concealing it. Vaseline makes the skin soft while at the same time suffocating it. More about Victoria Holdt

Carl Karton, the unexpected witness of an incredible story, has a truly unique experience in the Bad Bonn music club. He is playing cards when his fellow player Patron is suddenly interrupted by the barmaid Olivia on account of a mysterious object. Thanks to his spiderlike eyes, Carl can record everything in 360º vision and 3D sound. The viewer has a choice of viewing the chaotic proceedings from one of the seven angles provided by the seven eyes and ears of Carl Karton. More about Christophe Merkle - «Voll im Film» - «Virtuelle Welten im Bourbaki» - «Filmemacher Christophe Merkle produziert 360-Grad Filme»