Cirque de Pic
Traveling with elephants by train through the night… Saving a chicken from the clutches of a cook... Blowing large bubbles into the uncertain winds of a packed circus tent... In loosely interwoven scenes “Cirque de Pic” tells the story of a Swiss mime who fled a precarious family home to become one of the most extraordinary and beloved clowns of his generation. “Cirque de Pic” is the result of an intermittent, twelve-year collaboration between filmmaker and clown.
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Thomas OttProducer
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Richard Hirzel (aka Pic)Producer
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Richard HirzelKey Cast"Pic"
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Emil SteinbergerKey Cast"Comedian"
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Franziska Messner-RastKey Cast"Photographer"
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Lydie AuvrayKey Cast"Accordéoniste"
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Bernhard PaulKey Cast"Circus Director"
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Thomas OttDirectorRace for the Superbomb; Eyes on the Prize; Little People
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Project Type:Documentary
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Runtime:1 hour 24 minutes
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Completion Date:March 12, 2020
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Production Budget:60,000 USD
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Country of Origin:Switzerland
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Country of Filming:Switzerland
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Language:Swiss German
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Shooting Format:Digital
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Aspect Ratio:16:9
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Film Color:Black & White and Color
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First-time Filmmaker:No
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Student Project:No
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Lucerne
Switzerland
March 12, 2020
Swiss Premiere (two days before lockdown ... )
Distribution Information
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filmingo / Trigon FilmDistributorCountry: SwitzerlandRights: Internet, Pay Per View
RACE FOR THE SUPERBOMB (1997-99)
Producer/Writer/Director
A history of the race between the United States and the Soviet Union to develop the Hydrogen bomb during the early days of the Cold War.
Produced for WGBH-BOSTON and THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE.
“The brilliant RACE FOR THE SUPERBOMB let's many of the people tell their own story, including a thundering, 90-year old Edward Teller. It captures the passions - fear, anger and sheer scientific curiosity - that seemed to propel the world on a race to destruction.”
San Antonio Express
“RACE FOR THE SUPERBOMB astonishes most when it deals with the obvious. The recently declassified footage of American nuclear testing is mesmerizing, for instance. There is a terrible, otherworldly quality to watching this very real hellfire sweep away what man and God have wrought, and those seeing these images are unlikely to forget them anytime soon.”
Daily Variety
BREAKTHROUGH: THE PATH OF MOST RESISTANCE (1994-95)
Producer/Writer/Director
A film portrait of the lives and careers of four physicists: Part One of the PBS special about people of color in American science.
Winner of the CINE Golden Eagle Award and the Silver Star at the Worldfest Houston. Produced by BLACKSIDE INC. for WGBH-BOSTON and PBS.
EYES ON THE PRIZE - PART 12: A NATION OF LAW? (1989-90)
Writer/Director/Editor
The acclaimed PBS television history of the American Civil Rights Movement from BLACKSIDE INC. Recipient of the Peabody Award, the DuPont-Columbia Award for Broadcast Journalism and the Eric Barnouw Award.
“All eyes should be on EYES ON THE PRIZE because it is a fabulous work of art. And of history, sociology and humanity.”
New York Post
“We have been watching “EYES ON THE PRIZE for these past six weeks and have never been disappointed by this landmark series about the civil rights movement. Tonight brings a truly gripping show, an hour-long episode that chronicles the police response to the Black Panther Party in Chicago in the late 1960s and the Attica prison uprising in 1971. (…) The law and order crowd running the country, it turned out, had very little regard for either law or order.”
The Detroit Free Press
LITTLE PEOPLE (1981-84)
Director/Cinematographer
A documentary film about dwarfism. Emmy Award nominee. Selected for the New York Film Festival. Recipient of the CINE Golden Eagle. Broadcast on PBS.
“LITTLE PEOPLE is about dwarfs, and it is one of the better documentaries you will see this season. It is intelligent and tough-minded, and because it is, it becomes moving as well.”
The New York Times
COTTON CANDY AND ELEPHANT STUFF (1979)
Director/Cinematographer
A documentary about a small-time, family-owned traveling tent circus in the Midwest.
Academy Award for best student documentary film.
Education
Master of Fine Arts, School of Communication, Temple University, Philadelphia (1979).
Diploma in Cinematography, Academy of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna (1974).
Born in Bern, Switzerland in 1950