Swiss-Canadian Director Steven Vit Turns the Camera on His Own Family for ‘My Old Man’

variety.com:

Trinidad Barleycorn His dad, that unknown man: since he was a child, Steven Vit saw only one side of his father’s life. What exactly Rudy Vit did for a living remained a mystery to him. “I grew up in Thun, in a family like many others, with an older brother, a devoted stay-at-home mother, and an often-absent working father,” says Steven.

I had a wonderful childhood, but the day my father told me he was going on his last business trip before he retired, after spending 43 years working for the company Schleuniger, I realized how little I knew about his life away from home.” At the time, Steven was living in Stockholm where he was studying for his master’s degree in film directing, after a bachelor’s degree in Lucerne.

With distance, he had started to look at his father from another perspective. “I didn’t know the emotional side of Rudy: what he thinks, how he feels.

He himself didn’t know much about his father. I wanted to break this cycle. I know how fast life goes by. So I decided now was the time to get to know my dad.” This is the starting point for “My Old Man,” the Swiss-Canadian director’s first feature film, produced by Bern-based Lomotion AG, and selected in international competition at Visions du Réel. “Rudy didn’t get why I wanted to film him. ‘I’m not interesting,’ he said repeatedly.” But as it was about his work, the sales manager agreed.