Karlsruhe Dialogues 2009

Right-Wing Extremism in Europe today

Artists

 

Thomas Bierling
Composer and pianist
was born in Karlsruhe in 1968 and is a pianist. He plays jazz since his youth and founded various jazz-formations. After he has studied physics at the University of Karlsruhe, he worked as a management consultant. At the same time he professionalized his work as bandleader, composer and arranger. Since 2000 he works as a pianist for the Karlsruhe cabaret “Die Spiegelfechter”.

 

Ekkehard Rössle
Saxophonist
was born in Stuttgart in 1959 and is a jazz-saxophonist. He studied at the University for Music in Stuttgart and was awarded with the Jazz-Prize Baden-Württemberg in 1994. In 1999 he received a scholarship by the Kunststiftung Baden-Württemberg. He has recorded several CDs and plays in various bands, such as the Ekkehard Rössle Quartett, Hans Kollers Saxophon-Septett and the Saxophonisches Ensemble B.

 

Daniel Schweizer
Director
was born in 1959 in Geneva/Switzerland. He studied at the École supérieure d’Art Visuel de Genève and worked for the Western Swiss Television (TSR), doing sound and vision of documentary films and movies. In the 1980s he studied at the École supérieure d’Études cinématographiques (E.S.E.C.) in Paris and at the same time worked as second and than first assistant director for TSR as well as for different movie productions. His first documentary film “Vivre Avec” received a great acceptance worldwide in 1993. Like most of Schweizer’s films, “Vivre Avec” was shown on a great number of international festivals. It was rewarded in Leipzig and was chosen for the Félix Européens. His second film “Sylvie” was praised by the jury of the Europe-prize. Schweizer regulary works together with famous TV-broadcasters in Germany, France, Belgium, Sweden and Finland. He is member of various associations of film directors and works as independent director and producer in Geneva and Paris. Schweizer creates challenging and dedicated films, which deal with up-to-date topics. He has also produced documentary films about right-wing extremism. The film “Skin Or Die” (1998) shows a group of neo-Nazi people, who regard themselves as “Skinhead-Elite” and act very violently. In “Skinhead Attitude” (2003), Schweizer accompanies a 22-year old Skinhead-girl through different countries, in which the Skinhead-movement has spread, and documents the development of this scene from the beginnings to its splitting. The topic of “White Terror” (2005) is the fast global diffusion of right-wing extremist ideologies by new means of communication, such as the internet. His newest documentary film “Dirty Gold” (2009), which is a co-production between TSR and ARTE, deals with the exploitation of French Guyana by Canadian and French companies, who search for gold in this country. In addition, Schweizer is working on a trilogy about Amazonia.

 

Eva Weiß
Choreographer and vocalist
began to learn jazz-singing and dancing as a child. As a young woman she has sung in army clubs around K-Town and Frankfurt and as such got insights into afro-American music- and life-culture. As a singer and bar pianist, she acted in France, Switzerland and Israel. She has recorded a number of CDs and gives lessons in singing and flamenco-dancing.