1. Cinematographer Nestor Almendros talks about the shooting of the film "Days of Heaven", directed by Terrence Malick: "The visual style of the film took its cue from the works of the silent era, i.e. almost exclusive use of natural light sources. Some parts of the film were shot during the so-called "magic hour", the time between sunset and darkness. For a few minutes, the light is truly magical because nobody knows where the light is coming from. And the decision to shoot during the "magic hour" was not an aesthetic one, but in the country life depicted, it was simply the case that people worked from sunrise to sunset. The scene by the river then takes place in this mood, when they are relaxing after work.

2. "magic hour" is a personal approach to territories that are formative for me. Approaches in the field between memories, thoughts, childhood experiences, experiences, imagery. Finding personal memories and allowing them to take effect as images is a "magical" process that fascinates me again and again. Many things remain private and personal, but some are externalised in my artistic projects. In recent years, my film, video and multimedia works have revolved around the area of memory, visual experiences and perception.

3. In our time, it may seem useful to recall Jean Renoir's dictum that a film can only be understood outside the borders of its country of origin if it concentrates on the specific realities of its own country or region and develops its artistic form from these realities. This "formula" is probably still valid today: in art, the universal can only be achieved through a particularly strong emphasis on the particular, the specific.

Ulrich Gregor

4. The imaginary landscape interests me the most. Creating it on film is my main concern. This includes not only the images, the details and the light, but also the sounds and noises. When I stand somewhere outdoors, close my eyes and just listen, I also see images that arise in the minds of the viewers and how such images can be created with the means of film. How much or how little do I have to present in images and sounds in order to create something third that is neither present in image nor sound, but takes shape in the viewer through them?

Fredi M.Murer

5. If I were to summarise it somehow, documentary and experimental vocabulary flow into each other for me. For me, it's like this: the desire belongs to the experimental and the love belongs to the documentary. And there are things where the two are very, very close and come together. When I succeed in doing that, those are the best moments when I make a film or video.

6. Because one way to reality is through images. I don't think there is a better way. You stick to what doesn't change and thus exploit what is always changeable. Pictures are nets, what appears on them is the durable catch. Some things slip away and some things rot, but you try again, you carry the nets around with you, throw them out and they strengthen themselves on their catches. It is important, however, that these images also exist outside of man; within him they are themselves subject to change. There must be a place where he can find them untouched, not he alone, a place where anyone who becomes uncertain can find them. When he feels the slippery slope of his experience, he turns to an image. Then the experience stops, he looks it in the face. Then he calms himself with the knowledge of reality, which is his own, although it was modelled for him here. Apparently it would also be there without him, but this appearance is deceptive, the image needs his experience in order to awaken. This explains why images lie dormant for generations, because no one can look at them with the experience that awakens them. He feels strong who finds the images that his experience needs. There are several of them - there cannot be too many, for their purpose is to keep reality collected, in their dispersion it would have to spray and seep away. But there should not be just one, either, which does violence to the owner, never releases him and forbids him to change. There are several images that one needs for a good life, and if he finds them early, not too much of him is lost.

Elias Canetti