Private Project

Didi Contractor - Marrying the Earth to the Building

"Didi Contractor - Marrying the Earth to the Building" is a poetic documentary approach to an aged artist and architect, the landscape of North India, the buildings and the people for whom she designed her houses that sensitizes us to her vision and global issues affecting our ongoing relationship with mother earth.

  • Steffi Giaracuni
    Director
  • Steffi Giaracuni
    Producer
  • Britta Kastern, Bahman Kormi
    Producer
  • Norma Giannetta
    Producer
  • Steffi Giaracuni
    Writer
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 20 minutes 44 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    October 1, 2016
  • Production Budget:
    85,000 CHF
  • Country of Origin:
    Switzerland
  • Country of Filming:
    India
  • Language:
    English, German, Hindi
  • Shooting Format:
    Full HD
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Dharamsala International Film Festival
    Dharamsala
    India
    November 4, 2016
    Special Screening with Protagonist and Cast
  • International Film Festival of Art and Artists
    Bhubaneshwar
    India
    January 28, 2017
  • Lichter Filmfest Frankfurt
    Frankfurt am Main
    Germany
    April 2, 2017
    German Premiere
  • Cayfilm 2017 - Cayman Islands International Film Festival

    Cayman Islands
    July 2, 2017
  • FSFF Fünf Seen Film Festival - ODEON Sektion
    Starnberg, Gauting
    Germany
    July 28, 2017
  • Deauville Green Awards - International Festival for Audio-visual Productions on sustainability and eco-innovations
    Deauville
    France
    June 27, 2017
    SILVER AWARD in the category „Health and living environment„
  • Architecture Film Festival Rotterdam
    Rotterdam
    Netherlands
    October 8, 2017
  • BIFED - Bozcaada International Festival for Ecological Documentary
    Bozcaada
    Turkey
  • Kasseler Dokfest
    Kassel
    Germany
Director Biography - Steffi Giaracuni

Steffi Giaracuni is born on 1975 in Heiligenstadt (Germany). Since 10 years she is living in Basel (Switzerland). She studied media design at the Bauhaus University in Weimar (Germany) and documentary film with focuse on camera at the Zelig - School for Documentary, Television and New Media in Bolzano (Italy).
Since 10 years she repeatedly realizes documentary film projects as director, editor, camera operator and producer. "Didi Contractor – Marrying the Earth to the Building" is her first full-length documentary as a director and producer.

Filmography

2011 Zwischen Kommen und Gehen
Short Documentary (director, camera, editing)

2010 Laura D’Oriano – Die geheimnisvolle Schweizer Spionin
TV-Doc (editing)

2007 Brüder
Cinema Documentary (camera)

2006 Per chi vien su dalla campagna
Short Documentary (editing)

2005 Seringal – Das Versprechen der Ministerin
TV-Documentary (editing)

2003 Nelken für Reisch
Short Documentary (director)

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

For the past 20 years, Didi Contractor has been building in adobe, addressing herself to such complex challenges, as climate and cultural change, the energy crisis and pollution, while opposing conventional roles, persistent paradigms of colonial history and modernization along Western lines.

I am thrilled by her architectural vision, admire her ideals, her bravery and strength of character, and want to explore her creative ideas, which differ from everything that I had assumed in my life so far.

Her houses are convincing evidence of a possible alternative way of life. In order to understand how daily decisions can influence our environment, I wanted to explore her experiences, to know how and where she lives and works, with whom she communicates, and what interests and influences motivate her to build these mud houses.

For the length of a film, in the darkness of a movie theater, I would like to take the audience through the fascinating world of this 86 year old woman, Didi Contractor, and her vision. With this film I would like to inspire people to explore and to support their own unusual imaginative ideas.