Biography
Andreas Hoessli, born in 1950 in Zurich, Switzerland, studied social and economic history in Zurich and Paris. He then received a scholarship for postgraduate studies in Warsaw and was a PhD student at the University of Zurich. After his studies, he began working as a journalist. Among other things, he was a correspondent for Central and Eastern Europe for various Swiss and German newspapers and magazines. In 1985, he also began working as a foreign reporter for Swiss television.
In 1987, he realized his first TV documentary with "Verwischte Spuren", about Switzerland and the Algerian war. But it was not until 1993 that Hoessli began to regularly make documentaries as a freelance film author. "Devils Don't Dream" (CH 1995), about Guatemalan president and reformer Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán, who was ousted by a CIA-organized coup in 1958, screened at the Locarno Film Festival in the Semaine de la Critique. At the 1996 Berlinale Forum, "Devils Don't Dream" won the Ecumenical Jury Prize and the Peace Film Award. "Nachrichten aus dem Untergrund" (CH 1997), about three men who tried to inform the free world about the extermination of Jews in Germany during World War II, also screened at the Berlinale Forum.
With "Epoca - The Making of History" (CH 2002), a documentary chronicle of the 20th century, "Wall Street" (CH 2004), shot on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, and "Swiss Sans Papiers" (CH 2006), about the parallel world of illegal migrant workers in Switzerland, Hoessli made other films that screened at various festivals. For "Epoca" he was nominated for the Swiss Film Award.
In 2016 he started working on the feature documentary "Der nackte König - 18 Fragmente über Revolution" ("The Naked King", CH/PL/DE), about the 1979 revolution in Iran and the Polish August 1980. The film premiered at the Munich DOK.fest 2019, where it won the main prize 'Viktor' in the DOK.international competition. The theatrical release was in February 2021.
In addition to his work as a journalist and filmmaker, Hoessli conducts workshops and seminars on behalf of foundations on the topic of memory forms in documentary film. He is a member of the Swiss Film Academy.