Fernand Melgar was born in 1961 into a family of Spanish unionists
exiled to Tangiers (Morocco). His parents smuggled him in with them when, in 1963, they emigrated to Switzerland as seasonal labourers. In the early eighties, he cut short his business studies in order to
found, together with several friends, the Cabaret Orwell in Lausanne, soon a mecca for French-speaking Switzerland's underground culture; later, he created the internationally renowned rock music venue La Dolce Vita, also in Lausanne. After endowing the latter night
spot with a programme of creative video projections, he became a self-taught, freelance film director and producer. In 1983, he began putting together various experimental films and iconoclastic reportages for television. In 1985 he joined Climage*, a collective to which he belongs to this day, and under whose auspices he has realized around a dozen documentaries, now considered as benchmarks on the topics of immigration and identity. He has also edited several of Jacqueline Veuve's films, including her Le Journal de Rivesaltes, awarded the 1998 Swiss Film Prize. His documentary Exit - The Right to Die has garnered several international awards, including the prestigious 2006 EBU Golden Link Award for the Best European Co-Production, and the 2006 Swiss Film Prize. Winner of the screenplay competition launched by Télévision Suisse Romande (Frenchspeaking Switzerland's broadcasting centre) in 2007. In 2008, his documentary The Fortress recieves the Golden Leopard in the International Film Festival Locarno (Filmmakers of the present competition). In 2011 he directed Special Flight, a film shot at a detention and deportation center, presented in the International Competition in Locarno.

*Created in 1985, Climage groups together several individualists who have similar ideas on independent and engaged filmmaking. Today, Climage has become one of Frenchspeaking Switzerland's most prolific producers of documentaries.

Source:
www.swissfilms.ch/static/files/cineportraits/3059_Melgar_en.pdf

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Fernand Melgar wurde 1961 als Sohn von spanischen Gewerkschaftern geboren, die in Tanger, Marokko, exiliert waren. Er reist 1963 seinen Eltern nach, die heimlich in die Schweiz immigrierten. Melgar bildete sich als Autodidakt zum unabhängigen Regisseur und Produzenten aus. Er ist seit 1985 Mitglied der Association Climage, wo er wichtige Referenzwerke zu Immigrations- und Identitätsfragen schuf. 2008 wurde sein Dokumentarfilm La Forteresse mit dem Pardo d'Oro des Internationalen Filmfestivals von Locarno ausgezeichnet. Der Film erhielt seither weltweit weitere wichtige Festivalpreise.

Source:
www.volspecial.ch/de/regisseur

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Fernand Melgar è nato nel 1961 in una famiglia di anarco-sindacalisti andalusi esiliati a Tangeri. Nel 1963, accompagna i suoi genitori che emigrano clandestinamente in Svizzera. Regista e produttore indipendente e autodidatta, dal 1985 fa parte dell'associazione Climage, punto di riferimento per il cinema documentario in Svizzera. Nel 2008, il suo documentario La forteresse ottiene il Pardo d'oro al Festival internazionale del film Locarno e numerosi altri riconoscimenti internazionali.

Source:
www.volspecial.ch/it/regista