And then we were taken away

Original title Und dann wurden wir weggenommen

In the 20th century, authorities in Switzerland placed over 100,000 children and adolescents into foster homes and families. The measures were implemented mainly for moral reasons and affected socially marginalised families in particular. Instead of fighting poverty, the state fought the poor. In the participatory ethnographic documentary “And then we were taken away”, two men in their sixties talk about the administrative foster care they experienced as children. They lead the audience to the homes, locations of their tumultuous youth and to their favourite places. Through their biographies, the men document how out-of-home placements shaped their childhood, youth and present.

Author/s Jessica Bollag

Jessica Bollag is a social anthropologist specializing in visual anthropology. She works at the Bern University of Teacher Education. Her research interests are in the fields of social memory, social inequalities and methods of ethnographic filmmaking.
Her first film I’m Not Leaving Eldon was screened at 19 festivals and won the Award for the Best Graduate Student Film at the Society for Visual Anthropology Film & Media Festival of the American Anthropological Association.

Research Caroline Bühler, Tamara Deluigi, Tomas Bascio, Mira Ducommun & Urs Hafner

Sound Music: Stiller Has, Song: “Käthi” (1996)