Two research trips into a possible future of humanity and the very real past of a family history combine to form a narrative about our relationship to time.
A new father visits the hometown of his mother in 1976, accompanied by his wife and baby. At the same time, the NASA Viking lander is sending the first images back to Earth from the surface of another planet. Using the father’s travel journal as a guide, and re-contextualising archival footage and photographs, this film explores our yearning to bridge a gap: the gap between parents and children, between points in space, and between the present and the past.
A trip to the beach expands to a family observation over two generations. This captivating minimalist stretching exercise does not need much: black and white and the deep blue of the sea.
Blue is a story in which time stretches. A mother and a daughter are trying to find their place after the father leaves. They spend time idly on a metaphorical empty beach. They fight their uncertainty and longing. The image of the sea comes back rhythmically. It is a promise of freedom but also a scary different world, far from the warm sand.
The operators of the Emergency Call Center 112 take care of and connect with various outside situations whilst setting boundaries and dealing with their own emotions.
The Emergency Call Centre 112 receives numerous phone calls every day. The operators take care of and connect with various situations outside as well as within the office, whilst setting boundaries and dealing with their own emotions.
After leaving prison, Mariusz and his son attempt to adapt to reality, interweaving the habits of jail with the struggle of everyday life. Contrary to popular opinion, their relationship is filled with reflection and love. The protagonists' sensitivity contrasts with the heartless reality that leaves a scar on former prisoners excluding them from being valuable members of society.
The cutting down of a cherry tree becomes the starting point of an intimate dialogue about transgenerational trauma between a mother and a daughter. The line between the need for investigation and the desire for healing becomes blurry when a persistent camera depicts the felling of the tree. The short documentary is an attempt to find a shared language for the unspeakable consequences of child sexual abuse within my own family. Content warning: The film contains descriptions of experiences of sexual violence.
A touching, warm and painfully accurate portrait of a person with a mental disability. We observe the protagonist during her classes and therapies, we learn about her family situation, and we get to know what she dreams of and what she does in her everyday life. Animation brings Ewa's drawings to life and helps us to see the world through her eyes. We may not be able to fully understand her but thanks to Marcin Lesisz's film, we may at least get closer to her. We may realise what kind of problems she faces and notice the person, not the illness; the person who has the right to be who she wants to be.
A religious statue comes alive and unites with a boneless girl. They leave the village together with many other figures that have stepped down from the altars.
One day, all the statues in the area come to life. They leave the roadside shrines and pedestals and calmly set off straight ahead, all in the same direction. They do not even stop for a moment. People watch the phenomenon with growing anxiety. None of them knows where they are going and why. Only a little girl with a boneless body marvels at the procession of the unusual figures with pure fascination. They walk without muscles, although they should not be able to walk. How strange!
A short animated documentary exploring the immigration experience through the eyes of a little Israeli girl learning how to swim with clothes on in the Netherlands.
A high-rise in Kyiv, an apartment on the 15th floor. A zoom out of a still image. On the telephone, Mariia shares her memories of this place, of coming-of-age and community – before the war.
Three windows on the southwest and a balcony on the southeast is what you can see on the facade of Mariia's apartment. In three conversations, Mariia reflects on her experiences related to the place of her upbringing in Kyiv and attempts to claim back the image of her home.
Evolutionary biologist Toby Kiers takes us along on her epic quest to map the world's fungi networks and understand their behaviour before it's too late.
Beneath our feet lies a mystery. A complex underground network of mycorrhizal fungi keeps our ecosystem alive by exchanging nutrients and carbon with almost all plants on Earth. Remarkably, no one knows exactly how these sophisticated and ancient systems operate, or how they are affected by climate change.
The Underground Astronaut follows evolutionary biologist Toby Kiers, named one of the 2022 TIME100 Next Innovators, on her quest to map the world's fungi networks and understand their behaviour before it's too late. A fragrant and high-stakes journey into the soil. “No fungi, no future.”
The Underground Astronaut is part of Ammodo Docs, a series of short documentaries about original minds in arts and science.
A Polish fishing village in deceptive winter silence … This expressively designed everyday mosaic of a village community talks of Anka, Jesus, warmth of heart and coldness of feeling.
It grows slowly as an icicle, but one day, it drops and crashes. Anka loves cats. And Jesus. In a winter silence, the lagoon freezes and the unspoken resurfaces like a crack in the ice. A mosaic portrait of a small fisherman's village where human to human, human to animal, animal to animal interdepend on a delicate balance of warm tender care and cold emotional cruelty. An eerie story of loneliness and community narrated with magical realism.
DOK Industry is realised with the support of Creative Europe MEDIA Programme of the European Union, the Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung (MDM) and the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media upon a Decision of the German Bundestag.