«No doubt you too have ideas that you would like to share with the world, and you too feel the need to educate people where misunderstanding and ignorance prevail today. So make use of the most effective means of propaganda available today. Our documentary film department is at your disposal. »

Advertising brochure of the Praesens-Film A.-G., approx. 1949

Until the 1960s, commissioned films formed the backbone of Swiss film production. As so-called utility films, they did not aim at art or entertainment but pursued specific practical purposes. Commissioned by authorities, trade associations, political parties or companies, they were intended to inform, instruct, shape public perception, or convey political messages.

Two historical brochures from Praesens-Film A.-G., the most important production company at the time, illustrate the importance of the medium as a ‘propaganda tool’ for the film industry. They contain images of works that had already been completed, including an aerial photograph of Zurich's old town, likely taken during the filming of Zürich baut (1938), commissioned by the Zurich Civil Engineering Office.

The work Probleme des Schweizer Films (Problems facing Swiss cinema, August Kern, Kern-Film AG, 1960), commissioned by the Association of Swiss Film Producers in 1960, provides an overview of Swiss film production and is an important testimony to this period.  

Probleme des Schweizer Films was probably shown at the exhibition Der Film. Geschichte Technik Gestaltungsmittel Bedeutung held at the Kunstgewerbemuseum Zürich in the same year. Part of the exhibition also highlighted the situation in Switzerland. The accompanying publication identifies the problems: the lack of film funding, an insufficient market, dialect and multilingualism, the difficulty of finding Swiss material, and production costs that are too high in relation to revenue make film production in Switzerland difficult. Thanks to commissioned films, however, producer August Kern still draws a positive conclusion.

«Documentary films produced on behalf of industrial, scientific, economic and cultural institutions, known as commissioned films, have increasingly become the mainstay of continuous film production in Switzerland. »

August Kern, Der Film, 1960

Probleme des Schweizer Films presents an overview of the medium's areas of application. Emphasis is placed on the Ciné-Journal suisse, produced from 1940 to 1975 in the three national languages of German, French, and Italian, and the Army Film Service, founded in 1939. The latter still exists today under the name Centre for Electronic Media.

«Between 1939 and 1945, film became a powerful link between the people and the army. Vivid visual reports on the most important measures taken by our top army command, such as the creation of the Réduit, helped to reinforce our determination to defend our country at all costs. »

Probleme des Schweizer Films, 1960

As the quote illustrates, a large part of film production at the time was devoted to spiritual national defence, a political and cultural movement intended to strengthen national cohesion and ward off external threats. Not only Swiss newsreels and army films, but also industrial, educational, and tourism films contributed to narratives and self-representations that remain influential to this day. Films of function and utility, serving political, governmental, or corporate aims, reinforced an ideologically shaped self-image of Switzerland as a neutral, morally stable and economically powerful nation.

Commissioned film production was not only an economic basis, but also enabled the development of technical infrastructure, the acquisition of professional skills and the establishment of production and distribution structures. Probleme des Schweizer Films explains in detail the creative possibilities of the medium, such as the moving camera, cross-fades and montage in sports recordings, time-lapse and time-stretch in educational films, and the use of colour and special effects as effective elements in advertising or industrial films. At the same time, the different production and exploitation purposes become apparent, such as the use of film in classrooms, at trade fairs, in factory halls or at party meetings.