The Austrian director Günter Schwaiger will premiere his new film in August at the 35th Montreal International Film Festival. The documentary, Ibiza Occident, explores this Mediterranean island’s explosive symbiosis of art and mass culture in the “Hollywood of electronic music”.

This feature by Schwaiger, who works and lives in Spain, will receive its international premiere in the official section of the Montreal International Film Festival to be held from 18-28 August. It will then be premiered in Europe at the Zürich Film Festival and presented officially in Spain at the 11th European Film Festival in Seville in November. The third documentary feature by Schwaiger – who won first prize in the “Time of History” section at the 52nd SEMINCI with Hafner’s Paradise – was coproduced by TVE and ORF.

For nearly 90 minutes he offers us the views of the mythical DJs of House and the Baleraric Beat like DJ Alfredo, nightlife revolutionaries like the English Manumission, along with current Techno stars like Cristian Varela, against the background of emblematic clubs like Amnesia, Pachá, Privilege or Space, together with the naturalness of Ibizan and African musicians, a film, filled with colour, music and life, offering a unique opportunity to explore the recent history of electronic music and present-day society’s need to celebrate.

Ibiza, mirror of Occidente
In line with his earlier films, Günter Schwaiger once more dismantles preconceived ideas which lead to erroneous judgements in some fields. “I became interested in Ibiza on realising that the clichés about the island are no more than an attempt to classify a phenomenon which is uncomfortable yet real: a musical culture which has succeeded in uniting people from all over the planet and of different ages around a wish to live intense and often prohibited experiences”.

In the director’s words, “The West is, in general terms, a society which is very self-assured, which likes to enjoy and celebrate its fortune. Today’s society needs to celebrate and, in celebration, seek what does not exist in daily life: a feeling of euphoria making it possible to bear the brutality of a world determined not to learn from its errors”.

The film shows the Balearic island as the reflection of this reality. “In this sense, Ibiza Occidente is also like a metaphor of the current state of things”. Hence, according to Schwaiger, in this context “the advent of a culture such as electronic music, seeking to reunite with its primitive origins, admitting African rhythmic elements or elements of oriental spirituality, shows that the newer generations have begun to doubt the West’s cultural supremacy.

The electronic world discovered Ibiza at the end of the eighties and stayed because the island provided it with a place where celebration was the focus of life. “In Ibiza, celebration was never negative and suspect but an intrinsic part of its very idiosyncrasy, making it today one of the most musically creative places in Europe”.

Art and enjoyment
However the island, the lead player in the film, also reflecting Ibiza’s landscape and natural wealth, it not just a paradise. It is a place were mass culture and art intermix to form an incredible combination. From a hotel employee to Manumission, the voice of Ricardo Urgell – creator and promoter of the Pachá empire – the Kenyan performer Nuwella, or Ricoloop, a musician who creates and plays surprising improvisation sessions outdoors with his loop machine, the island’s diversity is portrayed.

The documentary is a collection of short stories approaching the protagonists working in this sophisticated leisure machine to satisfy highly-strung Western society’s desire for freedom, a culture of leisure often treading the border of the abyss, and where the need to celebrate and for pleasure collide with lust for money and power.

Ibiza Occidente “does not idealise but rather invites reflection on the needs of Western society and on the fact that celebration forms a part of our most fundamental desires while art is far freer and more democratic than we think”, in the words of the director who has lived for nearly two decades in Spain and is the author of a varied documentary filmography.

Special Screening in SPACE IBIZA
Added to the international and national screenings of the documentary is a very special and unique presentation. On 6 September, SPACE IBIZA, the world’s best club, is to open its doors for the first time to film with a special screening of Ibiza Occidente. The night will begin with a showing of the film in the main room at SPACE, and will end with the party of Carl Cox Revolution and Cristian Varela, both DJs of acknowledged international standing, and outstanding characters from the film.

“This presentation shows that culture and art cannot be limited to the usual elitist places but can also reach the sophisticated and complex clubs in Ibiza or elsewhere in the world”, the director explains. Film and the culture of the high temples of Tecno are two fellows who “express and are nourished by the same thing: art and celebration”.

The event will be attended by musicians, DJs, promoters and people from the music and cinema industries who will come to Ibiza to participate in this very special occasion. “The lead player in the film is the island, and music is the inspiration”, Schwaiger emphasises, making this special screening in SPACE IBIZA undoubtedly a unique celebration.

The Director
Günter Schwaiger (Neumarkt-Salzburg/Austria, 1965), director, producer and screenwriter of Ibiza Occidente, has been living in Spain for many years, working in film. Trained in ethnology and dramatic art at Vienna University, he has directed various shorts and documentaries including Santa Cruz, por ejemplo – winning the Salzburg City Special Arts and Culture Prize in 2005, El Paraíso de Hafner – First prize in the “Time of History” section at the 52nd SEMINCI – and, in 2009, Arena, a controversial documentary portraying the struggle and the motivations of modern-day bullfighters.

The Austrian filmmaker also works in theatre and opera, and co-founded and coordinates the group of documentary makers called Imágenes contra el olvido working to recover Spanish historic memory. He collaborated with Freddy Mas Franqueza on the script for the feature Amanecer de un sueño and is, with Achero Mañas, co-author of the script for the film Who is Carlos Buendía? Reflective and courageous, Günter Schwaiger’s films deal with human nature and all its contradictions, and with solitude and the failure to communicate in an alienated society.