Swiss Beach Talks continues in 2022 and our first guest is Dr. Pamela Munster, Professor of Medicine in Oncology/Hematology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).

The discussion will be moderated by Consul General Balz Abplanalp, who took office in San Francisco on February 1.

At UCSF's Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, Dr. Munster is leader of the Experimental Therapeutics Program, Director of Early Phase Clinical Trials Unit, and Co-Director of the UCSF Center for BRCA Research.

Dr. Munster serves on multiple local, national, and international committees focused on developing new treatments for cancer. She has published over two hundred articles, authored textbooks, and is a frequent lecturer. A native of Switzerland, she leads breast cancer
awareness campaigns in the United States, United Arab Emirates, and India.

Dr. Munster was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2012. There was not an easy place to coordinate her care, and so she set out to create the UCSF Center for BRCA Research in partnership with Alan Ashworth, PhD, FRS. By transcending the doctor-patient perspective, Dr. Munster gives a framework for successful treatment – epitomizing the personal, patient centered care that is a hallmark of the UCSF medical center. Dr. Munster is the author of Twisting Fate, where she writes about her experience as an oncologist as well as a cancer patient.

If you missed the screening of Michael Steiner's And Tomorrow We Will Be Dead at the Castro Theatre during the Berlin & Beyond Film Festival, here is your chance to see this exciting film, which is based on a true story of a Swiss couple kidnapped by the Taliban.

The film screening will be followed by a conversation with Director Michael Steiner who was our guest at the Berlin & Beyond Film Festival. The conversation is a recorded version of the live post-film discussion at San Francisco's Castro Theatre.

AND TOMORROW WE WILL BE DEAD (UND MORGEN SEID IHR TOT)

Switzerland/Germany, 2021, 115 min.

In 2011, Daniela Widmer and David Och, a young Swiss couple, are kidnapped on their journey along the old Silk Road in Pakistan. They are taken to warlike Waziristan and handed over to the local Taliban.

Friday, April 8, 12:01 AM to Sunday, April 10, 11:59 PM (PDT)

Please register here in order to receive the viewing link.

Congratulations to the Ala Kachuu - Take and Run film crew for its success at this year's Oscars. Ala Kachuu - Take and Run was nominated for an Academy Award in the category Live-Action Short Films.

The Consulate General of Switzerland in San Francisco celebrated the film and its makers with a small reception in Los Angeles.

Switzerland, 2020, 38 min. 

This is a short film about a young Kyrgyz woman, who is kidnapped and forced to marry. A drama about the desire for freedom in the clutches of a tradition.

The Consulate General of Switzerland in San Francisco had invited director Maria Brendle for a Swiss Film & Talks about her short film. Here you can watch the discussion.

(The discussion with Maria Brendle starts at 14 minutes of this episode of Swiss Film & Talks).

DIDA

By Nicola Ilić and Corina Schwingruber Ilić

Switzerland, 2021, 87 min., North American Premiere

Fifteen years ago Nikola left Serbia to follow his heart to Switzerland. Since then his life is shared between two countries and three women: his mother Dida, his grandmother, and his wife. His mother has learning disabilities and has always been dependent on grandmother. As grandmother is getting older, Belgrade is now calling Nikola back home. How can he help his mother live a life of independence without losing his own? 

Dida won the Zurich Film Award of 2022.

For tickets and further information about the entire festival, please click here.

Venture Leaders Pitch Night:

Meet the Swiss entrepreneurs from the Venture Leaders Roadshow and mingle with other startup enthusiasts at Pier 17.

Venture Leaders has selected 10 startups for the roadshow, including three Swissnex Startup Bootcamp alumni: Lattice Flow, Tyxit, and Sensoryx.

Free

To register, please visit.

Applications due by April 6

Swissnex in San Francisco is looking for a Head of Space and Operations to look after its space at Pier 17 and to help make it an impact platform. Applications are due by April 6, 2022.