Feature film
Züri brännt
Videoladen Zürich · 1981
Synopsis
On 30 May 1980, the city of Zurich has just granted sixty million francs for the renovation of its Opera House, after refusing young people an autonomous house. Demonstrators gather in front of the building, and the evening turns into street fighting. The members of the collective film from inside the movement the months that follow: the clashes, the struggle for an autonomous youth centre, a demonstration in which the participants march naked, and the punk music that serves as their voice.
Context
The images were shot on the spot, on black and white video, from May 1980 and during the following months. Four of them, Müller, Krempke, Wahli and Sieber, handled the editing, and Silvano Speranza delivered the commentary. The film was first shown in November 1980, then at the Solothurn Film Days in 1981. Its title comes from a track by the punk band TNT, which became the anthem of the young people that year. Restored since, it was broadcast by German-language Swiss television in May 2014.
Who it is for
One hundred minutes, in Zurich German. It is best to know that the film is a pamphlet as much as a document, and that those holding the camera are in the demonstration.
Prizes and reception
Chosen in 2015 by the Solothurn festival among the milestones of Swiss film history, as a document of the unrest of 1980.