ThoseDocumentaire «Home is the Ocean» –Twenty-five years on the ocean: a Swiss family tells of their life in a sailboat
The Schwörer family has lived for twenty-five years on a sailboat. Director Livia Vonaesch followed them for seven years and signed an overwhelming film.
Posted today at 1:13 p.m.
Little Alegra lives with her family on a sailboat. She sways laughing above the waves and in the middle of the ocean.
Livia vonaesch / ZVG
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- A Swiss couple travels sailing with their six children for twenty-five years.
- Livia Vonaesch documented their extraordinary daily life for seven years.
- The family lives on a sailboat of 20 square meters like a crew.
- Children assume crucial responsibilities for the safety of the ship.
A blonde head climbs on the structure of the sailboat then drops into the void. It is suspended by a harness and is swung by the ocean wind, just a few meters from the agitated waters. Happiness can be read on this little face that looks at the camera with malice.
Like other children benefit from a swing, Alegra uses what his home – a boat – offers him. She is one of the six children of the Schwörer couple, whose life is worthy of an adventure novel.
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Twenty-five years ago, Dario and Sabine Schwörer took the sea. Their objective: to collect samples of the most remote water points on the planet and to raise awareness, over the meetings, to the protection of the environment.
Along the way, their six children were born. From Chile to Australia, all pointed their heads on a different corner of the globe. Since then, this family has lived together twenty-four on their 20 square meters sailboat. Like a small crew where organization and discipline are the watchwords.
The film of a life on a sailboat
Director Livia Vonaesch followed them for seven years. She says: “When I contacted the family, they were very open. The only condition for me to embark alongside them: that I am a member of the crew in its own right. So I had to learn to navigate. “
Livia has shot several weeks a year on the boat alongside the whole family. “It was an incredible experience. I lived with them, so I had to learn to identify the moments when I could take out my camera and those when it was better, like when the sea was too agitated and I had to help. ”
A sensitive approach
The result? «Home is the Ocean»a remarkable film. Instead of diving the spectator at the heart of the action, the documentary explores more intimate questions. How to educate our children? What responsibilities leave for them? What to do so that they are happy?
Where the quest for Dario and Sabine Schwörer is incredible, the stakes of the film are commonplace in the best sense of the term, that is to say universal and important. Livia Vonaesch offers a sensitive look at the way in which the couple’s children live this particular life, made of confinement in the open air.
“I wanted to show how the family calls into question the usual social norms,” explains the director. Whether in education, teaching, home or even security: everything is different for these children. ”
The family’s sailboat went to the Arctic Ocean. A journey that is not without risks, between frozen water and polar bears.
-Livia vonaesch / ZVG
Not the right to make mistakes for children
The film also addresses the pressure, absolutely immense, which has been put on children from all young people. Livia vonaesch has captured simple moments that betray wider questions.
Life on a sailboat in the middle of the ocean requires that at least one member of the crew will be constantly awake and ready to make the necessary maneuvers in the event of an emergency. The family therefore organizes in turn night watch. A sharing of tasks that includes the smallest.
Like when the father, Dario, a 56 -year -old climatologist and an excellent browser, explains that his children “must be aware that the life of eight people is in their hands”, while the director’s camera zooms in on Andri’s serene facial expression, 12 at most.
That night, Andri is alone at the helm while the whole family sleeps. If there is a storm, a too strong wave, the slightest incident, it is up to him that it will be up to react quickly and with accuracy. If he wins, the boat can sink. The scene leaves the spectator with a ball in the stomach, but it is the strength of Livia Vonaesch’s film.
“On the sailboat, the family must operate as a well coordinated team. Children have responsibilities from an early age, while remaining supervised by their parents. You have to understand that they only know this life, so they are used to it. It can shock, but above all, it questions the spectator. How do these children manage so much pressure? What responsibilities can we give them? It is this type of question that I want to bring. ”
A director with a sociologist’s eye
Director Livia Vonaesch spent seven years following the Schwörer family.
DR
Livia Vonaesch was born in Saint-Gall in 1984. After studying journalism and sociology, she embarked on the production of films. His works are marked by a sensitive look, which raises deep questions with modesty.
In 2016, she was selected for a Uniondocs scholarship, Center for Documentary Art in New York. His film “Home is the Ocean” was presented in preview at the Zurich Film Festival and will be screened in the French-speaking rooms from May 7.
“Home is the ocean”, Livia vonaesch, 1 h 35. To be discovered on May 7.
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