Building a Sustainable Ecosystem for World Cinema featuring Meret Ruggle

Update: 2025-11-04

Description

How can independent distributors build a sustainable future for world cinema in an era of content saturation and shrinking public support?

In this episode, Alex Stolz speaks with Meret Ruggle, Co-head of Trigon Film, the Swiss foundation and distributor that has spent more than three decades championing outstanding films from Latin America, Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe.

Meret shares how Trigon has developed a holistic and community-driven model for distribution, combining theatrical releases, educational outreach and its own VoD platform Filmingo to extend the life of its films and connect directly with audiences.

The conversation explores:

Trigon's mission and the challenge of sustaining it amid the loss of key public funding
Balancing cultural purpose with commercial realities
Building direct relationships and trust with audiences
The evolving tastes of Swiss arthouse viewers
Lessons from a truly global approach to curation

A candid and inspiring look at what it takes to keep diverse storytelling alive - and why community, innovation and creativity matter more than ever in the world of film marketing, distribution and audiences.

About Meret Ruggle

Meret Ruggle is Co-head of the Swiss film distributor trigon-film. The film foundation has been releasing carefully selected films from Latin America, Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe since 1988 and runs its own DVD edition and the video-on-demand platform filmingo. Meret has been working for trigon-film for the last 12 years and is also involved in the Swiss Film Fund visions sud est, both as a member of the Board and an expert in the selection committee. Since 2024 she is also member of the board of the Winterthur Short Film Days (kurzfilmtage.ch).