synopsis

Film theorist, sociologist and writer Siegfried Kracauer and his wife Elisabeth emigrated from Germany to the United States during World War II. While digitizing their estate, a historian is visited by “Friedel” and “Lili,” the couple‘s restless spirits. They want to prevent important documents from their lifetimes passing into oblivion due to sketchy links in the database.
How does one interpret a person‘s legacy? What is important for posterity? Visitors accompany the historian, Friedel and Lili to New York, Venice, and the Swiss Alps of the 1950s. On these travels they get to know the Kracauers and begin to comprehend the inconsistencies in the records they left behind, while the character of Elisabeth Kracauer makes the misrepresented role of women and wives evident to them.
Visitors‘ personal interests and affinities determine whether the interactive story focuses more on private or public themes; in doing so, visitors take up a position within Kracauer‘s circle of philosopher friends.

production

Susanne Guggenberger, Mira Film GmbH, Zürich https://mirafilm.ch/en/the-true-film/
Sönke Kirchhof, INVR.SPACE, Berlin https://invr.space/

crew

script & creative director: Christina Zimmermann
art director: Juan Garcia
character development: Oliver Stephan, Sandro Lochau, Alexandro Holler, Shweta Gadkari, Yume Tanaka
motion capture actors: Corinne Soland, Suramira Vos, Jonas Götzinger, Susanne Guggenberger, Stephanie Constantin
motion capture: Valentin Huber (Immersive Arts Space, ZHdK)
level design: Jony Margelist, Timo (INVR.SPACE)
sound: Thomas Baumgartner

supported by Fachausschuss Film/Medienkunst, Basel-Stadt/Baselland, Zürcher Filmstiftung, BAK (Development), Migros Kulturprozent, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg

presentation at IDFA 2020 (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, Forum)
https://www.swissfilms.ch/de/news/idfa-2020

GIFF 2021 (Geneva International Film Festival, Digital Market)
https://www.giff.ch/archives/2021/en/film/the-true-film/index.html

Annecy International Animation Film Festival, Mifa 2022
https://www.giff.ch/en/giff-unlimited-mifa/

DOKfest Munich, DOKforum DOK.digital Award for New Narrative Formats 2024
https://www.dokfest-muenchen.de/DOKdigital-Preis-Nominierte-2024?lang=en

Synopsis

What does climate change have to do with us? Do we have to do anything about climate change? In June 2021, during the Corona pandemic, we filmed a play with pupils from the Rudolf Steiner School Mayenfels, Pratteln, which they had devised, written and rehearsed together with their class teacher and director Peter Meyer.

Production

Christina Zimmermann

Team

director: Peter Meyer
camera: Christina Zimmermann, Benedikt German, Finian Landes
interviews: Dominique Turzer
sound: Thomas Baumgartner
editing: Christina Zimmermann

supported by Kulturelles BL

supported by Fachausschuss Film/Medienkunst, Basel-Stadt/Baselland

The melt is on the left (2012) - music clip, video intervention

Music clip for a site-specific intervention at a multi-site art exhibition (Regionale 13). The video was shown on a shuttle bus crossing the German-Swiss border. A song about the paradoxies of residential restrictions.

crew
lyrics, director, producer, editing: Christina Zimmermann
director of photography: Fatmir Gashi
sound: Florian Niekamp
camera and set assistant: Nina Stefanka

Switzerland | music clip | 3 min | FullHD | color | Dolby SR

Shifting ground (2011-2012) - multi-channel video-installation

Experimental investigations of the people’s subjection to climate in Japan. In July and August 2010, together with a dancer from Tokyo we collected clips of the rain and the latent risk of earthquakes. In the light of the natural and human-made disasters in march 2011 and their aftermath the light-heartedness of our performances turns dubious: It mirrors a calm and affirmative attitude towards the waywardness of nature, which through the recent tragic events will probably disappear for a long time.

dancer: Airi Suzuki
actor: Masahiko Suda, Dominique Turzer
concept, director and filming: Christina Zimmermann
translation: Airi Suzuki, Kozue Kinoshita

Japan/Germany | multi-channel video installation | FullHD | color | Dolby SR

Since the 18th century the protestant cemetery is a burial place for non-catholic foreigners. The cemetery is a memorial place, a workplace, a touristic site – and it is also one of the few green spots left in the city. On this heterotopian island of peace amidst the roman traffic noise 70 abandoned cats spend their lives. A day out there reveals more about life than death.

script, director, producer, editor: Christina Zimmermann
director of photography: Stefanie Gaus
sound, translation: Raphaëlle de Germiny
sounddesign: Olaf Hochherz
supported by Bauhaus-University Weimar and Ministery for Building, Regional Development and Traffic of the Free State of Thuringia, Germany

documentary | 50 min | MiniDV | color | Dolby SR

A painful heart, never drying tears and twisted heads are difficult to treat, but fortunately not incurable...

Idea, design and director: Spela Cadez | Animation: Spela Cadez, Matej Lavrencic, Oliver Throm | Screenplay: Christina Zimmermann | Light: Michael Jörg | Edit: Eli Cortinas Hidalgo | Postproduction: Thomas Schmidl | Music: Mateja Staric | Sound Design: Johanna Herr | Tutors: Prof. Raimund Krumme, Prof. Thomas Bauermeister, Lutz Garmsen | Production: Academy of Media Arts Cologne | Foundation: Filmstiftung NRW

Germany / Slovenia | 2007 | puppet animation | 35 mm | 8:30 min | color | 1:1,85 | 25 FR | Dolby SR

read more and watch the film at https://vimeo.com/30754492

A young woman is translating a book and a young telegraphist would like to understand the secret encoded messages he is passing through day by day. Centred around the dark pole of the optical telegraph somewhere in no man's land "Long-distance writing" is a parable about people with difficulties to communicate directly with each other.

cast
Anna: Agnieszka Piwowarska
Johann: Robert Neumann
old telegraphist: Harald Warmbrunn
woman at post office: Veronika Nowag-Jones
land surveyor: Dietrich Schulz
crew
script, director, producer, editing: Christina Zimmermann
director of photography: Dirk Lütter
sound: Achim Strommenger
set design: Susanne Joachim
music: Manuel Schmitt
sound mixing: Ralf Schipke

supported by Filmstiftung NRW and local film funding Saxonia-Anhalt

Germany | 2004 | Short film | fiction | 16 mm | 27 min | color | Dolby SR

watch the film at https://vimeo.com/223511574