Distance and Intimacy: Documentaries by Jacqueline Zünd

Description

The Hong Kong Arts Centre, Consulate General of Switzerland in Hong Kong and Swiss Films co-present Distance and Intimacy: Jacqueline Zünd’s Documentary Film Retrospective. Three films by Swiss documentarian Jacqueline Zünd will be showcased, and the documentarian will also chat with the audience and share two films that have influenced her filmmaking.

In her work, Zünd frequents the distant but intimate lives of people from around the world—insomniacs, the elderly and children—embracing their delights and disappointments, regrets and hopes, and other contrasting feelings. As these people wander along their paths, they understand life anew with wisdom, dignity and vitality.

The opening film, Where We Belong, asks what it means to live in constant transition between homes by approaching the lives of five children. It showcases how fragile, but also how brave, smart and funny they are in perceiving their volatile situations. Zünd’s second film, Goodnight Nobody, follows four insomniacs in Burkina Faso, Ukraine, America and China who are forced to dream awake throughout long nights. The third film, Almost There, tells the story of three men who decide to embark on new journeys to discover the unknown sides of themselves in the autumn of their lives, including a man who swaps his safe home for a camper van to find himself in the barren Californian desert, and a drag queen who moves to Spain from England to make amends with his past.

There will also be talk by Zünd in which she will talk about the process of how she transforms intimate human subjects into film.

Jacqueline Zünd is a critically-acclaimed filmmaker born in Zurich, Switzerland. After completing her studies at the Ringier School of Journalism and the London Film School, she was stationed in the Swiss Institute in Rome until her return to Switzerland to complete her debut documentary feature Goodnight Nobody. Her works have been featured in prominent festivals including the Berlin, Locarno, Moscow International Film Festivals, Visions du Réel and DOK Leipzig amongst others.