Against domestic violence: Switzerland's first women's film team visits a women's shelter

Initiated by feminist endeavours, the first women's shelters were established in Europe in the 1970s. The women's shelter movement aimed to protect women affected by domestic violence. These shelters provided both refuge and support. The documentary filmmaker Marianne Pletscher (b. 1946) actively championed this cause in Switzerland. Her 1977 book Weggehen ist nicht so einfach (Leaving is not so easy) and the television programme Geschlagene Frauen in der Schweiz (Battered Women in Switzerland), in which she interviewed women affected by violence, attracted a great deal of media attention and fostered social debate.

“Switzerland also needs ‘women's shelters’ like those that already exist abroad. Women can find protection here during the day and especially at night.”

Marianne Pletscher, TV Magazine, 1977

In 1979, the first women's shelter in German-speaking Switzerland opened its doors in Zurich. A year later, Marianne Pletscher filmed the documentary Hier habe ich gelernt, dass eine Frau auch ein Mensch sein kann (1980) (Here, I learned that a woman can also be a human being) for Swiss television. According to Pletscher, this was the first documentary in Switzerland to be made by an all-women team. She directed the film, Charlotte Eichhorn was in charge of the camera, Rosmarie Schläpfer was responsible for the sound and Christine Weibel for the editing. The team spent a week in a women's shelter and portrayed everyday life there.

A hand-painted booklet that Marianne Pletscher received as a gift after filming summarises the events of the shoot.

Photographs of children's drawings made during their time at the women's shelter still exist.

The film is of great historical significance, not only in terms of the film crew. By the late 1970s, film technology was being increasingly replaced by video technology in television. Marianne Pletscher and her team used a then new video camera for the first time to film a documentary. In a text archived at the Cinémathèque suisse titled ENG-article. Marianne Pletscher discusses the advantages and disadvantages of the new technology. This article was written for an internal publication at Swiss television. The abbreviation ENG stands for Electronic News Gathering.

In the interview, Marianne Pletscher describes the conditions of the filming and the potential of the new technology.

The photographs show Marianne Pletscher, Charlotte Eichhorn, and Rosmarie Schläpfer during filming.

“The ability to immediately review  and edit was crucial in in developping a strong relationship of trust between those filming and those being filmed.”

Marianne Pletscher, video interview, 2023

The new technology enabled instant playback of the footage with everyone involved on-site. The photographs show women and children at the women's shelter watching the footage from the day’s filming.

Marianne Pletscher worked for Swiss television from the early 1970s until her retirement in 2011, realizing numerous reports and documentaries over a period of 40 years. In the media industry of the 1970s, however, women were rarely to be found in management positions. In an article in the Swiss women's magazine Schweizer Frauenblatt, Marianne Pletscher is interviewed about this fact and her work in Swiss television.

“I actually only felt discriminated against as a woman at the very beginning; I was one of the first women on the news programme and I was still very young, so it took some time before I was fully accepted, both inside and outside the house. Once, when I wanted to interview Federal Councillor Tschudi, he asked me if I was the cameraman's daughter...»

“After my first film about ‘battered women in Switzerland’, I felt discriminated against for the first time, as people labelled me as a feminist and tried to push me into the ghetto of women's issues.”

Marianne Pletscher, Schweizer Frauenblatt/mir Fraue, 1982

The media response to Hier habe ich gelernt, dass eine Frau auch ein Mensch sein kann was overwhelming and reflects the urgency of the topic. Many of the historical articles describe the breaking of a taboo and how the film made a previously taboo subject accessible to a broad public.

“Tuesday evening's report was up close, hard-hitting and without any voyeuristic flavour.”

Barbara Bosshardt, Tages-Anzeiger, undated

“Marianne Pletscher and her colleagues did not try to explain why these men mistreat their wives (...) They were first and foremost concerned with presenting the harrowing facts and making the power of solidarity tangible.”

Rolf Käppeli, Tages-Anzeiger, 6 May 1980

“It is a biased film: made by women about (and with) women, documenting a topic that does not tolerate sensationalism and yet needs publicity.”

C. G., newspaper not identified, 6 May 1980

Sophie Holzberger wrote an article on Marianne Pletscher's film for the publication Texte zum frühen feministischen Film der Schweiz, to be found online in Repérages – Journal of the Cinémathèque suisse. The film can be requested from Marianne Pletscher for private and educational purposes and ordered from Telepool for commercial events.