rocafilm

Biography

Film and video production company rocafilm was founded in 2010 by Carmen Maria Zimmermann and Roland Horvath. Their work focusses on documentaries and video production for opera and theatre.

Carmen Maria Zimmermann was born in Salzburg in 1981 and is a filmmaker and camera operator. She studied Photography at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna and Digital Television at the University of Applied Sciences in Salzburg. She worked as a media technician for the Salzburger Festspiele since 2007.

Roland Horvath was born in Graz in 1981 and is an architect, filmmaker and video artist. He studied Architecture at the University of Technology in Graz and the École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture in Montpellier. He worked as video technician for the Salzburger Festspiele since 2008 collaborating and creating many important productions. As an architect he created an orphanage center in the Northern Region of Thailand in 2013.

rocafilm created two documentary films in Asia. Zwischen Tag und Traum talks about the work of a young woman from Salzburg who opened an orphanage for HIV infected children in Northern Thailand, (2011, 80 min). Sister Heart, (2015, 60 min), focuses on the life project of a catholic nun in India, helping out women and men in need.

For Opera, in 2012 they collaborated with the directors Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier creating the video design for Giulio Cesare both for Salzburg Whitsun Festival and Salzburger Festspiele.

They have also started a solid creative relationship with the director Damiano Michieletto collaborating on La bohème then Falstaff in 2013 and, the following year, La Cenerentola. These productions were presented at the Whitsun Festival and Salzburger Festspiele.

Further productions include Idomeneo (Theater an der Wien, 2013) and Die Zauberflöte (Teatro La Fenice in Venice, 2015). Autumn 2016 involved their work for Aquagranda at Teatro La Fenice in Venice (composer Filippo Perocco). This production was awarded the Special Prize at the XXXVI edition of Franco Abbiati Awards 2017. In the same year Falstaff was revived at Teatro della Scala.

With director Luc Bondy they collaborated on the world premiere Charlotte Salomon, composed by Marc-André Dalbavie (Salzburger Festspiele 2014) and for the director Philipp Stölzl they created a live camera video design for Cavalleria Rusticana / I Pagliacci directed (Salzburg Easter Festival, 2015).

In 2017 rocafilm has been invited to participate at the Salzburg Easter Festival with a new video design for the remake of the legendary production Die Walküre which was originally conducted by Herbert von Karajan and directed by Günther Schneider-Siemssen. In 2017 the revival was directed by Vera Nemirova.

Latest productions includw: the theatre performance Frequenzen at Schauspielhaus Graz, directed by Alexander Eisenach (2016), Geächtet, directed by Volcker Hesse (2016), Rigoletto at National Opera of Amsterdam, and La Damnation de Faust (Premio Abbiati for best production 2017) for the opening of the season 2017/18 of Teatro dell’Opera di Roma (and revival at Palao de les Arts in Valencia), both opera productions were directed by Damiano Michieletto.

Season 2018/19 includes the new production of Altes Testament at Schauspielhaus Graz (director Volker Hesse) and Don Pasquale at Opera National de Paris (director Damiano Michieletto) and Bérénice at Opera de Paris, world premiere by the composer Michael Jarrell (director by Claus Guth). At Oper Frankfurt they collaborated with director Damiano Michieletto for Der ferne Klang by Franz Schreker and Alcina for the Whitsun Festival, Salzburger Festspiele.

With director Claus Guth they have been collaborating at Theater an der Wien for Orlando (Händel) and in November of the same year at Deutsche Oper in Berlin for the world premiere Heart Chamber, music by Chaya Czernowin.

In October 2020 they have been invited to create a new production of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly at Oper Köln and in December of the same year at Schauspiel Köln they collaborated with director Jürgen Flimm on the theatre production Don Karlos by Friedrich Schiller.