• The True Film (2018-) – VR, currently in production Open or Close

    TrueFilm Band kl3

     

    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.idfa.nl/en/film/2ec313c7-edaa-4de5-b648-032227106c79/the-true-film/idfa-forum

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

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

  • Freeze (2021-2022) - Educational Theatre Project Open or Close

    Dreharbeiten TheaterImBus kl

    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

  • Between Lightning and Thunder (2014-) – script development, feature Open or Close

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

  • Video Installations (2010-2012) Open or Close

    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

  • Alpha Omega (2008) – documentary Open or Close

     

    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

  • Lovesick (2007) – screenplay for puppet animation Open or Close

    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

  • Long-distance-writing (2004) – short film, fiction Open or Close

    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