Skip to main content

Stefan Schwietert

Director
Stefan Schwietert is a Swiss filmmaker known for his documentary work. He has directed several acclaimed films including "Echoes of Home" and "Accordion Tribe." Schwietert's films often focus on music and culture, showcasing his unique storytelling style. While there is limited information available about awards he has won, his work has been well-received by audiences and critics alike.

Films

Echoes of Home

Echoes of Home

By Stefan Schwietert

2007 | 81 min | Independent

Against the breathtaking backdrop of the Swiss mountains, 3 extraordinary vocal artists develop traditional yodelling into their own musical language.

Balkan Melody

Balkan Melody

By Stefan Schwietert

2012 | 92 min | Documentary

A portrait of the music collector couple Marcel and Catherine Cellier, who already documented the music of Eastern Europe during the Cold War.

Recommended for you

Winter

Winter

2014 | 29 min | Documentary

Landscapes change and people change with them. This happens over centuries and decades, but sometimes also in the fleeting moment of transition from night to day. Then everything changes and nothing remains as it was. "The snow hid everything beneath itself, until people finally forgot." Director Martin Prinoth (DIE GESCHÖPFE DES VESUV), born in Bolzano, is a graduate of the Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg. He is a member of the German-Italian artist collective YOVO! YOVO! and co-founder ...

Soulscapes: Spiritual Places in Scotland

Soulscapes: Spiritual Places in Scotland

2023 | 56 min | Documentary

Scotland is a region full of secrets and beguiling beauty. Since filmmaker Rüdiger Sünner first traveled to Scotland in 1987, this country has cast a deep spell over him. Here he also encountered millennia-old traces of European spirituality that he had not known before: the sun temples of the megalithic period, "holy places" of a pagan nature religion, the belief in fairies, a nature-loving Celtic Christianity and landscapes in which one could experience "fulfilled solitude". Scotland became a kind ...

Farewell Halong

Farewell Halong

2017 | 98 min | Documentary

The 46-year old Nguyen Van Cuong and his family live on a self-made cabin built on a raft offshore in Northern Vietnam's Ha Long Bay. For him life on the water is pretty normal - his family has slept, cooked, and worked here for generations. The Vietnamese Ha Long Bay in northern Vietnam became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994 and welcomes millions of tourists from all over the world every year. "The thematic superstructure speaks volumes, even though, or perhaps precisely because Duc has remained ...

Balkan Melody

Balkan Melody

2012 | 92 min | Documentary

Director Stefan Schwietert (ECHOES FROM HOME, ACCORDION TRIBE) continues his musical world explorations with BALKAN MELODIE, a portrait of music collectors Marcel and Catherine Cellier who who through their own love story, discovered a shared lifelong passion for the music of Eastern Europe. They brought undiscovered sounds from the East to intrigued Western ears. "Thrilling" (Zitty) Over 50 years ago Marcel and Catherine Cellier travelled for the first time behind the Iron Curtain, where they collected ...

The Circle in Which She Travels

The Circle in Which She Travels

2010 | 25 min | Drama

19-year-old Luisa travels to Mexico to search for her Mexican roots, which her mother kept secret from her. She wants to find her grandfather, whom she has never met. All she knows is that he lived in a small mountain town in Mexico and that the name is “Villa”. What she doesn't know is that the famous Mexican revolutionary from 1910 has the same name and that every Mexican knows the name of the national hero. During her search, she meets a young man named Memo, who offers to help her. Torn between ...

In die Welt - Into the World

In die Welt - Into the World

2009 | 87 min | Documentary

In all its intensity and diversity, the everyday miracle of birth is shown with the means of direct cinema, without commentary, interviews or explanation, and connected to the cycle of standardized processes in the Viennese hospital. A chronicle of the beginning of life and its organization. "Sober and at the same time of physical force, intimate, yet not voyeuristic, distanced, but never apathetic." (Jury statement Duisburger Filmwoche) "The balance of the design draws us into the spell of the ...

Indian Summer

Indian Summer

2015 | 87 min | Documentary

Apart from the obligatory visits to the Louvre and the Leaning Tower of Pisa, a livestock transporter and the statues of ancient deities also become an occasion for cultural exchange. France, England, Holland and Italy are on the itinerary. In between are Belgium, Ireland, Austria and of course Switzerland, the absolute highlight of the trip. Ever since a slew of Bollywood films were shot in Switzerland, the land of the Alps has become the very epitome of Europe for many Indian people. Anna, the ...

Stories from the Sea

Stories from the Sea

2021 | 86 min | Documentary

The film shows these women as they navigate the sea, calculate routes and perform tasks such as hoisting the sails and steering the ship. The documentary features women of different ages and backgrounds, including an apprentice on a cargo ship, a retiree traveling alone on a cruise ship, and a group of young people on a sailing trip for intercultural understanding. The sea serves as a unifying element between the stories, and Serafin Spitzer's film footage captures the vastness and beauty of the ...

Working On It

Working On It

2008 | 50 min | Music, Dance, Theater

WORKING ON IT: directors Karin Michalski and Sabian Baumann explore the contemporary queer arts scene in Berlin and how perceptions of femininity and masculinity are constructed. The film asks “What happens when you don’t fit firmly into one box or the other?” - Soundtrack featuring Riot Girrrl bands: Lesbians on Ecstasy, Scream Club, Heidi Mortenson and Rhythm King and her friends.

The Dust of Modern Life

The Dust of Modern Life

2021 | 81 min | Documentary

Liêm is a member of the Sedang, an ethnic minority group in Vietnam. Following tradition, he and other men go into the jungle for a spiritual cleansing, subsisting only on what the forest offers them. In the past, when he made the trip with his father, they fed on wild animals, such as monkeys, wild cats, or deer. Nowadays, deforestation has driven these animals away, and so Liêm is forced to catch rats and frogs, which the group (and film crew) consume. "The Vietnamese jungle is changing, and ...