The Movie
In a dystopian Switzerland that has fallen under the fascist rule of an evil cheese tyrant, Heidi lives the pure and simple life in the Swiss Alps. Grandfather Alpöhi does his best to protect Heidi, but her yearning for freedom soon gets her into trouble with the dictator’s henchmen. The innocent girl transforms herself into a kick-ass female fighting force who sets out to liberate the country from the insane cheese fascists.
MAD HEIDI is an action-adventure exploitation spoof based on the popular children‘s book character Heidi and the very first Swissploitation film. Yes, this time Switzerland will be exploited!
We just love the kind of movies that don’t take themselves too seriously. Even though making movies is very serious business!
It all started out in 2017 with a poster. Then we shot a promo-teaser, started a crowdfunding campaign and a merchandise shop, which allowed us to develop the script. In 2020 we launched an investment call and eventually 538 people from 19 countries invested 2m Swiss Francs and will participate directly in the film’s revenue. In Fall 2021 the film was shot. And now, in December 2022 it will finally be released!
It was a long and hard, yet rewarding journey. We had tons of fun along the way, together with our many fans and investors and all the people who made this exciting film possible. Would we do it again? Hell yeah!
The masterminds behind MAD HEIDI are exploitation film nerds and upcoming directors Johannes Hartmann (IMDB) and Sandro Klopfstein (IMDB) as well as producer Valentin Greutert (IMDB).
More about our production and distribution philosophy at the bottom of this page.
Indie Film Production in the Digital Age
The film industry is changing. The power shifts from the Studios to Netflix and co. Independent filmmakers have to find new ways to persist in an oversaturated market.
For Mad Heidi we have developed a concept called fan-powered content creation
MAD HEIDI has been building up a worldwide fan base throughout the entire production period. More than 50,000 people from all over the world are currently following us on various social media channels.
MAD HEIDI was largely financed through crowd-investing, where investors share in the film's revenue from the very first penny in a transparent, secure and automated way. They also got exclusive insights into the making of the film. 538 people from 19 countries have become Mad Investors and invested a total of 2 million Swiss francs (2.1m USD).
MAD HEIDI will be released globally on the same day on madheidi.com. We are virtually our own Netflix, multiplying the revenue for our investors and reducing piracy. Later the film will appear on many other platforms as well.
MAD HEIDI offers fans many ways to participate in the production - with their talent, their ideas or just to watch closely how a film gets made. The simplest way is to join one of our social media channels or subscribe to our newsletter.
We are extremely grateful to all the fans and investors who have supported us. It has been an absolutely fantastic adventure. We are now in the last stretch: Releasing the film. And then? Hopefully Mad Heidi 2!! We do hope that our way of financing, producing and distributing will pave the way for other passionate filmmakers.
The Power of Independence
Many people believe that the best thing that can happen to a filmmaker is when their film is playing on Netflix or Amazon. But in most cases, working for the big streaming companies means they give away their intellectual property. They will never know how many people watch the film. They will never make any money with their film anymore. Plus, people who do not own a subscription will never be able to watch the film.
With the film on platforms like iTunes or Google Play, filmmakers aren't much better off, because all those companies take up to 50% of the price for providing the technical service, but they do nothing else for you. All the marketing and promotion are left with the filmmaker, but the profits go to the platforms.
We don’t like that. We want MAD HEIDI to be available for everybody (with a credit card, of course). We want the profits to go to the people who really deserve it: the investors and creators, not global corporations. That's why we release MAD HEIDI globally on the same day on our website in many different languages.
We believe that if people want to see MAD HEIDI, they will also do it on madheidi.com. Like this, we can increase profits up to 6 times compared to traditional distribution. That’s the power of independence.
Mad Heidi will be available on various standard platforms as well, but only after a few months following the release. All revenue from the film is directly distributed to our 538 fan investors from 19 countries.
