Filmmaking

 
 

Leaving Syria : long live the youth

حيو الشباب

After a few years of war in their country, a group of young Syrian friends decide to leave the Middle East and hit the road together to come to Europe. Through every step, their music and their friendship help them hold on.

33’ documentary (2017)

Festivals :

  • 44th Telluride Film Festival (USA, Sept. 1-4 2017)

  • 53rd Solothurner Filmtage (Switzerland, Jan. 25 - Feb. 1 2017)

  • 32nd FIPADOC (Biarritz, France, 22-27 Jan 2019)

And also Great Lakes International Film Festival (USA, Sept. 21-30 2017) ; Ouchy Film Awards (Switzerland, 2018) ; 4th Bahia Independant Cinema Festival (Brazil, 1-4 Nov 2018) ; Beyond Earth Film Festival (India, 23-25 Dec 2018) ; 3rd Chhatrapati Shivaji International Film Festival (26-28 Dec 2018) ; 5th Mérida y Yucatan film festival (Mérida, Mexico, 7-10 feb. 2019) ; 16th Al Ard Film Festival (Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy, March) ; Moscow Shorts Film Festival (Moscow, Russia, March 2019) ; LISFE (Leiden International Short Film Experience, May 2019)

La guerre en elle

The war inside her

Can she forget ? How can she go on living when the present keeps reminding her of the traumas of the past ? Nour meets Alice on the lakeshore in Switzerland, but it’s Syria that keeps haunting her, Syria she cannot get rid of.

15’ fiction (2019)

It is now being distributed by Lights On

Ici, les avions (ou comment je vis la guerre)

Here, the planes (or how I experience war)

Here or there, war... the vulnerability while facing the undefinable, hovering, almost inevitable threat. And human beings in all this.

4’ fiction (2014)

Festivals :

  • 12th In the Palace Film Festival (2015)

Can be found on Sofy.tv

CURRENT PROJECTS

odetolife.jpg

Ode to Life

“Life can be overwhelming sometimes… it can feel like a never ending merry-go-round of darkness of all kinds ; luckily, friends exist. They support and love each other no matter what, laugh through the hardship. It’s the most amazing blessing ; until one of them suddenly, unexpectedly decides to die. Then what ?”

Why ? The most difficult part of life is often the accumulation of tough experiences. But if we’re lucky enough, having a great, crazy support network can make all the difference between suffering from it and still managing to find beauty in what surrounds us. This is a story of love and surrendering. We’re at a point in history when sharing love while not denying the difficulty is a matter of life and death.

CURRENT STATE :

This is a serie called “Ode to life” or “Ode à la vie”. I’ve written the pilot in both French and English and am currently looking for the best way to produce it ; I already have a few team members and actors interested in the project. If you think you can help with this, feel free to contact me. More to come very soon.

 

INFRARED - la forteresse enchantée

I am also working on a documentary-essay about the relationship to the body through infrared images and bodypainting. It’s both a photography and a film project, and started because of my weird relationship to my own body. I used to be very dissociated, and after I got raped it got so bad that I had to find ways to connect again, while keeping sexualisation of my body at a distance, and bodypainting was a big part of it. Through both infrared and bodypainting I am hoping to address how different people relate to their body. Infrared, allowing us to see under the skin, is more of a scientific approach, and bodypainting makes the body a living, breathing piece of art, away from the pressure of being good-looking or hot. This exploration is under process ; if you want to be part of it, feel free to contact me !

By Raphaël Frauenfelder

By Raphaël Frauenfelder

PAST WORK

Past projects include various things, including some work with archives (Wave Warning, 2013 - Locarno 2013 in the programme “Répondre à la commande, détourner, remonter”), some work with 16mm film (ON, 2013), an essay about rape and the grey zone of consent (Au revers des choses, 2014 - In The Palace 2015), a video clip (2015) and a few exercises of animation. Some can be found on my vimeo account : https://vimeo.com/jyzas

I have studied filmmaking from 2012 to 2017 at the HEAD (Geneva University of Art and Design) ; I started filming and editing when I was 12 and acting and writing when I was 9. During my studies, I have been lucky enough to work with Yervant Gianikian and Angela Ricci Luchhi, which deeply shaped my views on ethics in film. I also was Vasco Pimentel’s sound assistant on a short film and learnt a lot from this experience. I co-created the production association JoY, based in Lausanne, Switzerland, together with Julie Sando.

ABOUT ME