settima

Switzerland

Grauzone [Zones] (Fredi M. Murer, 1979)

May

29

Mount Everest Day

Grauzone (1979)

Julia (Olga Piazza) waking from a unusually deep sleep. DP: Hans Liechti.

Grauzone takes place in one of the three spaces documented in Murer's beautifully titled documentary Wir Bergler in den Bergen sind eigentlich nicht schuld, daß wir da sind [We, the mountain people, who live in the mountains are not really to blame for being there] (1974). One valley lives in tune with its natural rhythm, the second experiences a transition to modernity.

Sie fallen unerwartet in einem traumlosen Schlaf.

The third space, the “grey zone” – both this film's title and a descriptive term for an undefined neutral zone – is where the Bergler have become technology dwellers, where they live on summits made of concrete instead of rock. Where rumours about a #pandemic stir an ancient, unnamed fear. And symptoms: the sudden urge to wander out in nature, an acute melancholy, an overall hyper awareness. A young, prosperous couple become infected and pick up secret radio transmissions. What they believed was concrete, solid, immovable, suddenly shows signs of a shift.

Fetish & Dreams (Steff Gruber, 1985)

Jan

16

National Boston Day

Fetish & Dreams (1985)

Michèle (Michèle Rusconi) and S. (Steff Gruber) in front of a mirror. While she combs her long dark hair, he films the reflection of the both of them. DP: Rainer Klausmann.

Swiss documentary maker S. (Steff Gruber) explores New York's high-tech dating market when he slowly comes to the realisation that he himself is lonely. Trying to track down the woman he saw on the plane en route to America, S. and his crew find themselves in Boston.

“Fifty ways to meet your lover”

– computer dating ad