Anka Schmid (born 8 March 1961) 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 an academic field that researches, documents and disseminates German language, German literature, literature, and culture in its historic and present forms. Academic departments of German studies therefore often focus on Culture ...

. 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 f ...

films. In 1984 she moved to Berlin and studied at the

German Film and Television Academy The Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie Berlin (DFFB, German Film and Television Academy Berlin) is a film school in Berlin, Germany. It was founded in 1966. In the German film school rankings by FOCUS in 2006 (Issue 22), the DFFB was ranked 2nd a ...

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 Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Ba ...

). 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 mm and 35 mm. It is generally used for non-theatrical (e.g., industrial, ...

but also worked as a camera assistant and

assistant director The role of an assistant director (AD) 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 ...

in professional productions.

Film projects

During 1989 Schmid lived in the

Hopi Reservation The Hopi Reservation () is a Native American reservation for the Hopi and Arizona Tewa people, surrounded entirely by the Navajo Nation, in Navajo and Coconino counties in northeastern Arizona, United States. The site has a land area of 2,53 ...

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

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

Hopi The Hopi are Native Americans who primarily live in northeastern Arizona. The majority are enrolled in the Hopi Tribe of Arizona and live on the Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona; however, some Hopi people are enrolled in the Colorado ...

Native American Native Americans or Native American usually refers to Native Americans in the United States. Related terms and peoples include: Ethnic groups * Indigenous peoples of the Americas, the pre-Columbian peoples of North, South, and Central America ...

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

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023. The festival has acted ...

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. The title "Human Gorilla" for this movie can be found on various copies of this movie. Although the film fe ...

'' (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'' which she shot in

Zermatt Zermatt (, ) is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district of Visp (district), Visp in the German language, German-speaking section of the canton of Valais in Switzerland. It has a year-round population of about 5,800 and is cl ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

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: '' Magic Matterhorn'' (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 Zurich 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