Visions du Réel to paint the town red, La Roulotte opens next week.

Photo above outside Angelika Chollet, the stylish gift and home accessory shop on Nyon's Rive. The posters and signs are now up around Nyon for Visions du Réel. This is an international documentary film festival which opens on the 20th April and runs through until the 27th, and is a major event in the Nyon calendar. Not only does the festival bring representatives from TV stations from all over the globe to watch, choose and buy films for their viewers, but it is an important event for documentary film makers too. Films shown at the festival cross many categories. They range from those made by first time film makers to films from seasoned directors. Many of these films are entries in to competition at  Visions du Réel and prizes are awarded in various categories on the final night of the festival. This year Visions du Reel will screen a selection of the prize winning films on Sunday the 28th April in the Salle Communale for those who missed out during the previous week!

Also new this year, the festival will be collaborating with Elastique Citrique, the circus school (next to the bar of the festival) to provide entertainment for the public. As red is the identifying colour for both the circus school and the festival, this colour will also reflected in the shop windows around Nyon during the week of the festival.  

Photo above:  Luciano Barisone  (sourtesy Visions du Réel -Miguel Bueno) Luciano Barisone, festival director told Living in Nyon that there are plenty of films on the agenda this year for the anglophone public. One particular film on this list "A Home Far Away" has been made by Peter Entell, an American film maker who lives in the Nyon area.  The film synopsis reads: "Lois, an American actress, and her husband, Edgar Snow, the first journalist to have reported and filmed the Chinese revolution, are suspected of Communist sympathies and forced into exile. They end up in Switzerland, near Nyon, half way between the US and China. Long after, when Edgar has passed on, Lois tells all. A story of utopia and disillusionment takes shape before the camera".

Photo: courtesy Visions du Réel We will be reporting on this and reviewing films throughout the festival.  The full programme catalogue is now available in print form with a full listing of the films and you can pick a copy up at various outlets: Nyon tourist office, the cinema etc. The full programme is also available on line here and in English. Tickets are now on sale through the site and through Star Ticket. Full details here

La Roulotte opens on the 15th!

 Spring is here which means the opening of La Roulotte! This temporary summer café created out of an old railway carriage and positioned behind Nyon station,  has become a popular fixture over the last two summers for both commuters and locals alike, for breakfast,  lunch or an after work drink. The café reopens on the 15th April at 16:00. See site here