Henry Brandt: Cinéaste et photographe

The first large-scale exhibition ever devoted to Henry Brandt (1921-1998) marks the centenary of his birth.As visitors make their way through this exhibition, they will discover the work of this major figure in Swiss cinema who produced peerless documentaries about Africa and Switzerland. The exhibition also focuses on Brandt’s photographic output, which has remained largely unknown until now.

Born in 1921, Henry Brandt was a self-taught exponent of the cinematic and photographic arts. Together with Alain Tanner and Claude Goretta in particular, he was one of the co-founders of the Swiss Filmmakers Association (ARF/FDS) in 1962. Brandt produced a large number of films during an active professional career that spanned some 35 years. His shorts for the Swiss National Exposition in 1964 made a lasting impression on an entire generation of visitors.

The Henry Brandt project is the result of a fruitful partnership between specialists from the Department of Film History and Aesthetics (CIN) at the University of Lausanne (UNIL), the Swiss Film Archive (Cinémathèque suisse), the Audio-Visual Department of the City Library of La Chaux-de-Fonds (DAV) and the Neuchâtel Ethnographic Museum (MEN). A publication of over 300 pages is being released to mark the occasion.