DVDs & films
Ella Maillart, écrivain (Film Plans-Fixes)
Born into a Geneva family in 1903, Ella Maillart took up skiing, sailing, and grass hockey in the heroic days of these sports. As a reporter in the USSR, after Moscow, she discovered the Caucasus and Central Asia. In 1935, in China, she accomplished with Peter Fleming an extraordinary raid in the desert regions of northern Tibet and Sinkiang. Her story, Forbidden Journey, made her famous. Later, her journey, guided by a few sages, became a journey into the secret of being, as revealed in this film. Interviewer: Bertil Galland, 50 min., 1984, Film Plans-Fixes no. 1025. In French. (DVD shared with Michel Mermod).
Entretiens avec Ella Maillart : Le Monde – mon héritage
Excerpts from radio interviews recorded between 1945 and 1993, and the film Les itinéraires d'Ella Maillart, made for the TSR in 1973, put us in direct contact with Ella Maillart. She talks about her youth in Geneva, her passion for reading and sports, her travels, her spiritual quest, and the encounters that determined her life. The film includes sequences from documentaries shot by Ella Maillart in Afghanistan, India and Nepal. A booklet with texts by Paul Morand, Nicolas Bouvier and Ella Maillart completes the set. 1 CD + 1 DVD. Coproduction RSR – TSR – Editions Zoé, Geneva, 2009. In French.
Ella Maillart – Double Journey
A medium-length documentary directed by Mariann Lewinsky (Zurich) and Antonio Bigini (Bologna), based on disparate sources: 16mm films shot during the journey from Geneva to Kabul and India in 1939-1940, her photographs from this journey, contact sheets and texts from her travel notes and letters. The bonus of this mosaic includes images of Ella Maillart filmed by Jean Gremillon in 1926 and the 1940 version of Nomads of the Frontier. In French / Italian / English, narrated by Irène Jacob / Alina Marazzi / Kate McIntosh. DVD published by Memoriav (Berne) and Cineteca (Bologna), 2015. 40 minutes.
Les voyages extraordinaires d'Ella Maillart
A compilation film directed by Raphael Blanc, based on footage shot with Ella Mallart in 1973 and 1991, sequences from her film Afghan Nomads (1939), numerous photographs and testimonies by Daniel Girardin (narrator), Bertil Galland and Catherine Domain. Shots taken in Kyrgyzstan, Val d'Anniviers and on Lake Geneva complete this documentary. 2 DVDs : the 70 min. film, in French, with English and German subtitles; the bonus, which includes the making-of and interviews with several friends of Ella Maillart. Artemis Films Production, Genève, 2016.
Films by Ella Maillart (at Cinémathèque Suisse - Swiss Film Archive, Lausanne)
Navigation à l’île de Groix - La pêche au thon
film n/b, silent - shot with Jean Grémillon, 1926
Nomades afghans
16 mm, b/w version, silent, 50 min, 1939 - 1940
16 mm, color version, silent, 50 min, 1939 - 1940
Seule au Népal
16 mm, color, silent, 50 min, 1951
Inde du sud
16 mm, color, silent, 1956 - 1957
Films, TV programs, Audio CDs (selection)
Championnats suisses de ski à Andermatt
Ella Maillart à une course de ski, anon., 26 min, 1934, Cinémathèque suisse
Tour de l'Inde et du Népal
Film de Charles Merrieux, Lyon, 16mm, 1957 (déposé à la Cinémathèque suisse)
Les itinéraires d'Ella Maillart
Film Télévision Suisse romande, Paul Siegrist, 1973
Errances et paysages d'Ella Maillart
Film FR3 de Jean Brard, 45 min, 1977
Conférence d'Ella Maillart au Musée d'Ethnographie, Genève
58 min, 1987. Archives de la Ville de Genève.
Ella Maillart - Emission Apostrophes : La vie est un long fleuve tranquille
Entretien avec Bernard Pivot, March 1989, INA
Ella Maillart
Emission Thalassa, France 3, 1990
Dites-moi… Ella Maillart
Film de Willy de Roos,- RTBF TV, 62 min, 1990
Les Yeux d'Ella Maillart
Télévision Suisse romande, film de Jo Excoffier & Jean-Bernard Menoud, 50 min, 1990
Caractères
Antenne 2 TV, émission de Bernard Rapp, 79 min, 1991
Errances et paysages d'Ella Maillart
FR3 TV, film de Jean Brard, 45 min, 1977
Tibet or not Tibet
Film de Canal 9 TV, Sierre, 45 min, 1991
La Marche du siècle - Etonnants Voyageurs - Ella Maillart
Film FR3 TV, 89 min
Ein Leben als lange Reise
Film de Christoff Kühn, TV Zürich, émission Treffpunkt
42 min, 1992
Aventuriers et écrivains: Portrait d'Ella Maillart
FilmTV de Marc Bessou, La sept, Pathé Cinéma, Julianne Films, Paris, 12 min, 1992
Ella Maillart - Entretien à Chandolin
de Philippe Nicolet, Nicolet Video Productions, Lutry/VD, 45 min, 1992
Ella Maillart - Journal de 20 heures
TF1, 2 min, 1993
Jamais sans mon livre
Antenne 2, émission de Bernard Rapp, 1993
Die Reise nach Kafiristan
by Donatello et Fosco Dubini, 2001, 105 min.
Fiction film based on The Cruel Way by Ella Maillart and Tous les chemins sont ouverts by Annemarie Schwarzenbach.
Travel Writers
British Library Audio CD publication. Ella Maillart interviewed by Bridget Carter at her home in Chandolin in October 1987, 2 CDs, duration 17’29’’. Source of recording: BBC broadcast. October 2011.