Anka Schmid (born March 8, 1961 in Zurich,

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

) is a film director, screenwriter and video artist. She is considered a German as well as a Swiss artist.

Life and education

Anka Schmid is the eldest of three daughters of an engineer and a school teacher and grew up in Zurich, Switzerland. After finishing an all-girls high school in 1980 she began her studies in

German philology German studies is the field of humanities that researches, documents and disseminates German language and literature in both its historic and present forms. Academic departments of German studies often include classes on German culture, German hi ...

. In the 1980s she was a member of a street theatre group and a music band, it was also then that she made her first experimental videos and

Super 8 Super 8 or Super Eight may refer to: Film * Super 8 film, a motion picture film format released in 1965 * Super 8 film camera, a motion picture camera used to film Super 8mm motion picture format * ''Super 8'' (2011 film), a science-fiction fi ...

films. In 1984 she moved to Berlin and studied at the German Film and Television Academy DFFB (

Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie Berlin The Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie Berlin (DFFB, German Film and Television Academy Berlin) is a film school in Berlin, Germany. In the German film school ranking of FOCUS (Issue 22/2006), the dffb - together with the Academy of Media Arts Co ...

). During her studies at the DFFB she made a number of her own videos and short films on

16mm 16 mm film is a historically popular and economical gauge of film. 16 mm refers to the width of the film (about inch); other common film gauges include 8 and 35 mm. It is generally used for non-theatrical (e.g., industrial, educ ...

but also worked as a camera assistant and

assistant director The role of an assistant director on a film includes tracking daily progress against the filming production schedule, arranging logistics, preparing daily call sheets, checking cast and crew, and maintaining order on the set. They also have to tak ...

in professional productions.

Film projects

During 1989 Schmid lived in the

Hopi Reservation The Hopi Reservation ( Hopi: Hopituskwa) is a Native American reservation for the Hopi and Arizona Tewa people, surrounded entirely by the Navajo Nation, in Navajo and Coconino counties in north-eastern Arizona, United States. The site has ...

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

in the United States. Together with Swiss artist Agnes Barmettler and the

Hopi The Hopi are a Native American ethnic group who primarily live on the Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona, United States. As of the 2010 census, there are 19,338 Hopi in the country. The Hopi Tribe is a sovereign nation within the Unite ...

Native American James Danaqymptewa she shot the feature documentary '' Techqua Ikachi, Land - My Life'' which was shown at the

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...

in 1992. Schmid completed her studies at DFFB in 1991 with her feature film ''

Behind Locked Doors ''Behind Locked Doors'' is a 1948 film noir directed by Budd Boetticher and starring Lucille Bremer, Richard Carlson and Tor Johnson. At the behest of a pretty reporter, an amorously forward private detective goes undercover as a patient in a ...

'' (original title ''Hinter verschlossenen Türen'') which won several awards. She has since been living and working as an independent film maker and assistant director in Germany, Switzerland, France, Argentina and the US. In 1994 her son was born in Berlin. Shortly after she finished her film essay ''

Magic Matterhorn Magic Matterhorn (1995) is an essayistic documentary by Swiss director Anka Schmid about the meaning of ones homeland, its clichés and reality. The mountain Matterhorn is the starting point for the portrayal of a ‚part-time‘ farmer from the S ...

'' which she shot in

Zermatt Zermatt () is a municipality in the district of Visp in the German-speaking section of the canton of Valais in Switzerland. It has a year-round population of about 5,800 and is classified as a town by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office (FSO). ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

and Berlin. Four years later, in 1998, she and her son moved from Berlin to Zurich. There, apart from working on her own film and art projects, Schmid also started working as a lecturer at universities as well as film and media schools. Additionally she has been conducting workshops for children and teenagers, showing them how to create an animated films. Her feature documentary '' Against All Odds'' (original title ''Mit dem Bauch durch die Wand'') was awarded with the so-called ''Zürcher Filmpreis'', the film award of the city of Zurich in 2011. Her latest feature documentary '' Wild Women – Gentle Beasts'' about female animal tamers in the circus was shot and shown in Germany, France, Russia and Switzerland. Schmid has also had numerous exhibitions and art-interventions since the late 1990s.Irene Genhart
''Ciné-Portrait Anka Schmid''
on swissfilms.ch.

Filmography (selection)

* 1986: ''Die Reise zur Südsee'' (script, director, drawings, edit) * 1986: ''Habibi − Ein Liebesbrief'' (script, director, edit) * 1986: ''Herzens-Freude'' (script, director, animation, edit) * 1989: '' Techqua Ikachi, Land - My Life'' (script, director, cinematography) * 1991: ''

'' (script, director) * 1991: ''Praktisch und friedlich'' (script, director) * 1996: ''

'' (script, director) * 1997: ''Labyrinth-Projektionen'' (script, director, cinematography, producer) * 1998: ''Little Sister'' (script, director) * 2000: ''Das Engadiner Wunder'' (script, director, cinematography, producer) * 2002: ''Perpetuum Mobile'' * 2003: ''ABC Sound Alphabet'' (script, director) * 2005: ''Yello – Electropop Made In Switzerland'' (script, director) * 2007: ''Rondo Industrial – Found Footage II (Mechanisch & Organisch)'' (concept, director) * 2007: ''Shake Hands – Found Footage IV (Diplomatie & Choreografie)'' * 2009: ''Isa Hesse-Rabinovitch – Das grosse Spiel'' (script, director) * 2009: ''Hierig-Heutig'' (concept, execution) * 2011: '' Against All Odds'' (script, director, cinematography) * 2012: ''Marzili Badi'' * 2014: ''Fe-Male'' * 2015: '' Wild Women – Gentle Beasts'' (script, director)

References

External links

* Anka Schmid o
Swissfilms
* Anka Schmid o
IMDB
* Anka Schmid o

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schmid, Anka 1961 births 20th-century German women artists 20th-century Swiss women artists 21st-century German women artists 21st-century Swiss women artists Film people from Zürich German documentary film directors German mass media people German video artists German women film directors Living people Swiss documentary filmmakers Swiss screenwriters Swiss women film directors Women documentary filmmakers