Ruedi Gerber founded ZAS Film AG in Zurich in 1992. Gerber started out as a stage actor in the early 1980s, playing a wide range of theaters in the German-speaking world (Mannheim, Basel, Wuppertal etc.), initially as a member of a theater company and later in the independent and experimental drama scene. From 1986 to 1990 he studied film at the Tisch School of the Arts in New York and graduated with honors. His first documentary films, Living with the Spill and Meta Mecano, found international recognition, and his first feature film, Heartbreak Hospital, starring Patricia Clarkson, came out in 2002. He gained international fame with three documentaries about the world-renowned postmodern dancer Anna Halprin, especially Breath Made Visible. Gerber also produces international films, including La Fuga – Girl in Flight (directed by Sandra Vannucchi), which was nominated for the European Film Academy Award, Basmati Blues (starring Brie Larson and Donald Sutherland) and Letters from Baghdad (by Sabine Krayenbühl), which won awards at a number of festivals.
