Roger Walch

Roger Walch (*1965) is a Swiss born filmmaker and award winning director who has been living in Japan for 25 years. Roger obtained his MA degree in Japanese Studies and Social Anthropology from the University of Zurich in 1996. He studied documentary filmmaking with Swiss director H.U. Schlumpf in Zurich and filmmaking with Japanese director Katsu Kanai at the Image Forum Institute in Tokyo. Before coming to Japan, Roger worked as a movie theatre manager for an art-house cinema in Switzerland. Roger's short-film "Yuwaku 2" was nominated for Best Picture at the CO2 Short-Film Festival in Osaka 2005. The documentary "Even a large River starts with a Drop of Water" won the Friendship Prize at the International Documentary Film Festival of the Aichi Expo 2005 in Japan. Roger directed the narrative "Tengu" (Japan, 63 min, starring Ted Taylor, Mimori Sento and Mikami Kan) in 2009. In 2010 "Children of Water" (Japan, 52 min) followed. Roger produced and directed the documentary "KAN" (Japan, 95 min) about legendary Japanese singer/actor Mikami Kan and Terayama Shuji in 2013. It was shown at the Tama New Wave Film Festival in Tokyo and had a limited theatrical release. Roger wrote and shot his hour long underground musical "The German" in the homeless district of Osaka (starring Mikami Kan and Opera Singer Yuka Yokoi). It was released in 2018. Roger was DOP for renowned Swiss director Richard Dindo's movie about Haiku Poet Matsuo Basho "Le Voyage de Basho" (90 min, 2019). He also worked as DOP for Swiss directors Erich Schmid (for the film "Adolf Muschg - The Other", CH, 2021) and Thomas Luechinger ("Sound and Silence", CH, 2022). Roger directed and produced the Road Movie "Anaïs" (Japan 2022, 96 min) with a French and Japanese cast.