* Belinda Sallin, Director
Editing was definitely coming to an end. Long had Birgit and I suffered, laughed, cried and rejoiced. What a trip!
Initially we were delighted by the great material. But since we also wanted to include archive material in our film, we had a huge amount of images. Soon our joy was replaced by concern. How were we to integrate the various temporal and topical matters into a dramaturgical structure?
Birgit had the idea of working with screenshots pinned to a whiteboard to keep some kind of overview. It made the editing room look like that of a film- or TV FBI agent - the office of one of those profilers trying to track down a perp.
And somehow that was what we were, too. Profilers, attempting to understand the protagonist, his art and his environment.
When I heard the news of Hansruedi’s death it was as if we had been paralysed, struck by grief. The first few days we hardly knew how to carry on with our work.
We found our way back to our work-rhythm by degrees. Our attitude towards Hansruedi, his work and environment, had never been superficial. We wanted to go into depth, to display a Giger that had never been seen. One beyond all prejudice. We were always delighted when we had the feeling that we had succeeded in this.
I couldn't have wished for a better editor for this film than Birgit. Being an artist, a painter and photographer herself, she supplied precisely that which this film required. I often had the impression that Birgit’s editing was less a matter of cutting and more one of compiling; that she is not a surgeon, but rather, a weaver.
1 of 3 panels with print screens