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Retrospective 2019
… sie bewegt uns alle Kurt Stordel

An animation in praise of the Deutsche Mark as the solid currency to be trusted.

… sie bewegt uns alle

Animated Film
FRG
1950
10 minutes
Subtitles: 
No

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Producer
Kurt Stordel Filmproduktion
Director
Kurt Stordel
Music
Gerhard Trede
Animation
Kurt Stordel
Script
Bertram Otto
An animation in praise of the Deutsche Mark as the solid currency to be trusted.

Olaf Möller
Matinee Saxon State Archive 2021
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… Do Not Forget Us! [excerpt]
Michael Wünsch, Christine Beer
At the district level, the SED’s legitimization and claim to moral leadership are brought into a line of tradition with the illegal KPD resistance in the Weimar Republic.
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… Do Not Forget Us! [excerpt]

… vergeßt uns nicht! [Ausschnitt]
Michael Wünsch, Christine Beer
Matinee Saxon State Archive 2021
Documentary Film
GDR
1984
15 minutes
German
Subtitles: 
None

A film is ceremonially screened on the 40th anniversary of the murder of the resistance group around KPD (Communist Party of Germany) functionary Georg Schuman. Present is Horst Schumann, son of the resistance fighter and 1st Secretary of the SED Leipzig District Authority. The filmed document and the documented screening become propaganda accomplices: The GDR present perpetuates the history of NS resistance.

Konstantin Wiesinger

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Michael Wünsch, Christine Beer
Script
Michael Wünsch, Christine Beer
Cinematographer
Maro Nagel, Thomas Huschlo, Bert Gahrmann, Thomas Voßbeck, Janek Ziegler, Hagen Reckziegel, Rainhardt Mißbach, Thomas Böttger
Editor
Christine Beer, Gabi Blumentritt
Producer
Filmstudio am Haus der Jungen Pioniere "Georg Schwarz", Leipzig
Sound
Thilo Kersten, Benedikt Rösel, Janek Ziegler
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“Hello,” We Lied

“Hello,” We Lied
Laura Gamse
Competition for the Audience Award Short Film 2020
Documentary Film
USA
2020
12 minutes
English
Subtitles: 
English

Journalism in the U.S. is in crisis. Jestin Coler, also known as the “fake news king”, most likely contributed to this when headlines from his satirical web page were picked up and believed by the mainstream. Coler describes fake news as a gateway drug and, ironically, as an antidote at the same time. In her film, director Laura Gamse scrolls through news and memes and thereby impressively comments on the state of Western societies.

Kim Busch
Umverteilen und Mitreden
Zustand der Welt

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Laura Gamse
Producer
Daydream Reels
Score
Mike Diva, Steven O’Brien, Lostboyevsky, Sony Cleveland, Greg Sinibaldi, Jesse Canterbury
Animation
Mike Diva, Bernard Myburgh
Download Film Details PDF

(Be)Longing

Documentary Film
France,
Portugal,
Switzerland
2014
77 minutes
Subtitles: 
English

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Producer
Luís Urbano
Director
João Pedro Plácido
Cinematographer
João Pedro Plácido
Editor
Pedro Marques
Script
João Pedro Plácido, Laurence Ferreira Barbosa
Sound
Hugo Leitão
Uz, a hamlet in the north of Portugal, is home to about 50 people. Four generations, including the filmmaker João Pedro Plácido’s grandparents, so there’s reason to assume that he was emotionally involved with this project long before the first take was even a remote possibility. In Uz time passes as if clocks didn’t exist. Few things happen, lots of things are going on. The elements provide the rhythm. The story of village life over the course of a year develops organically between cattle drives, an overturned dung cart, harvest and the feast on the day the animals are slaughtered, between vespers and fireworks, confession and longing. The characters, too, develop quite naturally. There’s even a boy-meets-girl story which gradually emerges from the flow of events between Daniel, the youngest lad in this village community, and a young woman from nearby. It’s a touching moment when Daniel thinks about what kind of relationship a guy like him can probably expect from the future – that is “ordering” a Thai or Brazilian bride on the Internet. Even more touching is the fact that he (and the Brazilian or Thai) are spared this fate, at least for the time being. The film portrays people and events with sober tenderness, beautifully balanced between precise observation and sparing poetry.

Ralph Eue
International Programme 2018
(M)Other Antonia Hungerland

How does the image of motherhood change when egg donation, surrogate motherhood or adoption add various alternatives to the male-female-intercourse-biology model?

(M)Other

Documentary Film
Germany
2018
88 minutes
Subtitles: 
English
German

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Producer
Christopher Zitterbart, Saskia Veigel, Filmuniversität Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF
Director
Antonia Hungerland
Music
Markus Zierhofer
Cinematographer
Antonia Hungerland
Editor
Antonella Sarubbi
Script
Antonia Hungerland
Sound
Tim Altrichter, Benedikt Ludwig, Christoph Walter, Luise Hofmann
It’s quite realistic today for a child to have three mothers: an egg donor gives her genes to a baby who is born by a surrogate mother and raised by another woman or a person who may be male and gay. The classic concept of “natural” motherhood reaches its limits here (and elsewhere).

The definition of motherhood is being contested. The general controversy about changing social norms is reflected in the debate about (good) mothers. This discussion, as “(M)Other” very clearly demonstrates, concerns everybody. Both those who have to contend with stereotypes and prejudice as “classic” mothers and those who claim the term even though they do not correspond to the established “model” that stubbornly resists all obvious changes. Antonia Hungerland shows that the seemingly personal is still (or: today more than ever) highly political.

Luc-Carolin Ziemann


Nominated for the Goethe-Institut Documentary Film Prize

[Demonstration in Dresden am 22. Januar 1990; Besichtigung in Dresdener Stasi-Objekt] [Ausschnitt]

Documentary Film
GDR
1990
15 minutes
Subtitles: 
No

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
anonymous
An amateur film document in the midst of the political and social changes that were demanded, desired or feared since the opening of the inner-German border in November 1989. The uncertainty of that time seems to operate the filmmaker’s camera: shot from an awkward angle, trying to get a clear view but inexperienced and as yet unable to create a comprehensive picture, the speakers are to be captured on stage between banners and flags. There, prominent speakers explain their interpretation of the past and, to the enthusiastic applause of their listeners, make demands for the political design of the immediate future.

Konstantin Wiesinger
Everyday Life in the GDR 2016
[Eigenwerbung für das Bezirksfilmstudio Leipzig]

This commercial was to be screened before the amateur film programmes presented by Leipzig’s “Casino” arthouse cinema on special occasions.

[Eigenwerbung für das Bezirksfilmstudio Leipzig]

Documentary Film
GDR
1980
4 minutes

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Producer
Bezirksfilmstudio Leipzig
This commercial was to be screened before the amateur film programmes presented by Leipzig’s “Casino” arthouse cinema on special occasions.

Stefan Gööck
Matinee Saxon State Archive 2022
Filmstill [An Interview with Ingeborg Tölke]
[An Interview with Ingeborg Tölke]
The self-taught nature filmmaker Ingeborg Tölke inspired broad audiences with her technical skills and her lifelong connection to flora and fauna.
Filmstill [An Interview with Ingeborg Tölke]

[An Interview with Ingeborg Tölke]

[Interview mit Ingeborg Tölke]
Matinee Sächsisches Staatsarchiv 2022
Documentary Film
GDR
1963
7 minutes
German
Subtitles: 
None

Ingeborg Tölke recaps her filmic biography, explains its elaborate technical conditions and talks about future core themes. She was presumably responsible for several short intermission films for Deutscher Fernsehfunk as well as a commissioned educational film. Until old age, she explored the possibilities of macro shots and time-lapse technology, which became her trademark.

Konstantin Wiesinger
From the Archive
Regional

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Producer
Deutscher Fernsehfunk (DFF)

[Kolloquium Ausstellung „Zeitzeichen. Stationen Bildender Kunst in NRW“ am 11. November 1989 in Leipzig] [Ausschnitt]

Documentary Film
GDR
1989
28 minutes
Subtitles: 
No

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Producer
Stadtkabinett für Kulturarbeit Leipzig
Director
Stadtkabinett für Kulturarbeit Leipzig
On the occasion of an exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts in Leipzig shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall, a panel of renowned artists and art mediators in the GDR talk about the mutual pervasion of art and society in the GDR and the FRG. Among the panellists are the painters and professors Arno Rink and Wolfgang Mattheuer, both spokesmen for the Leipzig School renowned beyond the borders of the GDR, and Erhard Frommhold, publicist and former chief reader of Verlag der Kunst in Dresden. The interviewees reflect on their own biographies and attempt to give an outlook on the freedom of art under the auspices of the free market.

Konstantin Wiesinger
Genius Loci 2020
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[Leipzig, Station Forecourt]
Stadtkabinett für Kulturarbeit Leipzig
The hectic atmosphere on the station forecourt hasn’t changed in all those years. Even in 1988, this inhospitable place was crossed at the quickest possible pace.
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[Leipzig, Station Forecourt]

[Leipzig, Bahnhofsvorplatz]
Stadtkabinett für Kulturarbeit Leipzig
Genius Loci 2020
Documentary Film
GDR
1988
3 minutes
without dialogue
Subtitles: 
None

Romantic train rides? Rapid cuts and pans show the profane, hectic everyday life of a big city that has no time for romance. The “last mile” to the place of actual departure is covered at a quick pace – by taxi, streetcar or bus. Serious, tired or withdrawn faces hurry to leave the inhospitable station forecourt behind.

Konstantin Wiesinger
Regional (Heeme)

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Stadtkabinett für Kulturarbeit Leipzig
Producer
Stadtkabinett für Kulturarbeit Leipzig
Extended Reality 2022
Filmstill [Posthuman Wombs]
[Posthuman Wombs]
Anna Fries, Malu Peeters
This auto-theoretical essay explores the womb of a posthuman, questioning stereotypical ideas of pregnancy and speculating about non-binary reproduction scenarios.
Filmstill [Posthuman Wombs]

[Posthuman Wombs]

[Posthuman Wombs]
Anna Fries, Malu Peeters
Extended Reality 2022
XR
Germany,
Netherlands,
Switzerland
2021
20 minutes
English

The stereotypical idea of pregnancy is a challenge for persons who do not define themselves as female only. This auto-theoretical essay explores the future of the family and non-binary reproduction scenarios in which all bodies can become pregnant. We travel into the womb of a posthuman and follow speculations about the de-feminisation of childbearing.

Lars Rummel

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Producer
Anna Fries, Malu Peeters
Animation
Lisa Kaschubat, Manuel Tozzi
VR Developer
Ambrus Ivanyos
3D Artist
Lisa Kaschubat, Manuel Tozzi, Danielle Williams
Creative Technologist
Ambrus Ivanyos
Sound
Malu Peeters
Script
Anna Fries
Score
Malu Peeters
Performer
Brandy Butler, Anna Fries, Olivia Hyunsin Kim, Ncube as Bibi, Fercha Pombo, Kübra Uzun, Wheelymum
Director
Anna Fries, Malu Peeters
Retrospective 2018
[Universitätskirche in Leipzig, Sprengung 1968]

Footage that was officially not supposed to exist. A find from the Saxon State Archive.

[Universitätskirche in Leipzig, Sprengung 1968]

Documentary Film
GDR
1968
2 minutes
Subtitles: 
_without dialogue / subtitles

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Cinematographer
Manfred Köhler, Rudolf Etzold
Footage that was officially not supposed to exist. A find from the Saxon State Archive.

Ralph Eue
Matinee Saxon State Archive 2018
[Universitätskirche Leipzig, Sprengung 1968; Interview mit Manfred Köhler 1999]

The cinematographer Manfred Köhler talks about filming the controlled demolition of the Leipzig university church in 1968.

[Universitätskirche Leipzig, Sprengung 1968; Interview mit Manfred Köhler 1999]

Documentary Film
GDR
1968
11 minutes
Subtitles: 
_without dialogue / subtitles

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Cinematographer
Manfred Köhler, Rudolf Etzold, Paul Pfingst
The cinematographer and television producer Manfred Köhler, who died in 2013 and was head of the “Bezirksfilmstudio Leipzig” in the 1960s, talks with Stefan Gööck about the circumstances of filming the controlled demolition of the Leipzig university church in 1968. The master baker Rudolf Etzold from Schmölln is mentioned as a member of the team, the vocational school teacher Klaus Büttner developed the 16mm material, bypassing the DEFA lab – both of them members of the “Bezirksarbeitsgemeinschaft Amateurfilm Leipzig” (district amateur film association). Köhler cites the production of this material as proof that it was possible to not be taken in completely.

Stefan Gööck
Disobedient Images 2016
#47 José Miguel Biscaya

Landscape painting with creative pixel glitches. José Miguel Biscaya explores a nature scene with the camera and rediscovers it through manipulated MPEG algorithms and deliberate encoding errors.

#47

Animated Film
Netherlands
2014
11 minutes
Subtitles: 
_without dialogue / subtitles

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Producer
José Miguel Biscaya
Director
José Miguel Biscaya
Music
José Miguel Biscaya
Editor
José Miguel Biscaya
Animation
José Miguel Biscaya
Script
José Miguel Biscaya
Sound
José Miguel Biscaya
Landscape painting with creative pixel glitches. José Miguel Biscaya explores a nature scene with the camera and rediscovers it through manipulated MPEG algorithms and deliberate encoding errors. Familiar natural phenomena liquefy into surprising shapes and colours straight from the hidden recesses of perception.

Ines Seifert
Late Harvest 2018
#Female Pleasure Barbara Miller

Misogyny is structurally inscribed in the cultural cores of all social systems in the world. “#Female Pleasure” exposes these cores, lucidly and from a global perspective.

#Female Pleasure

Documentary Film
Germany,
Switzerland
2018
97 minutes
Subtitles: 
German

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Producer
Philip Delaquis, Arek Gielnik
Director
Barbara Miller
Music
Peter Scherer
Cinematographer
Anne Misselwitz, Gabriela Betschart, Akiba Jiro
Editor
Isabel Meier
Script
Barbara Miller
Sound
Tom Weber
Women are subordinate to men. They are born sinful and have no legal claim to their own body. Misogyny is more than a phenomenon observed across continental divides all over the world and in some cases the cause of abuse and crime. It is structurally inscribed – literally – into the core of all social systems founded on religious beliefs. In the bible, for example, we read: “I find woman more bitter than Death […] The man who is pleasing to God eludes her.”

In this lucid film, which takes a global perspective, five female protagonists talk about misogynistic behaviour they experienced, hostilities they were exposed to, crimes committed against them. Rokudenashiko, a Japanese artist, is on trial for the obscenity of her art. Deborah Feldman escaped with her son from a Hassidic community in Brooklyn, leaving her husband to whom she was forcibly married. Leyla Hussein, Doris Wagner and Vithika Yadav talk about rape and mutilation, lack of legal protection, homophobia, shame and the strange feeling that one’s sexuality and body are associated with sin from birth.

Lukas Stern



Awarded with the Special Prize of the Interreligious Jury

#resistayol

Documentary Film
Germany,
Turkey
2016
56 minutes
Subtitles: 
English

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Producer
Rüzgâr Buşki
Director
Rüzgâr Buşki
Music
Gizem Oruç
Cinematographer
Zara Zandieh
Editor
Rüzgâr Buşki
Animation
Fehmican Gözüm
Script
Senem Donatan, Rüzgâr Buşki
Sound
Ulaş P. Dutlu, Gizem Oruç
In the summer of 2013, Rüzgâr Buşki was on his way to Istanbul to make a documentary about his close friend Şevval, a trans-LGBTI activist. What he didn’t realise was that his visit coincided with the Gezi Park protests, one of the biggest demonstrations in Turkish history. Inevitably, the focus of the documentary shifted in light of these events and we, just like Şevval, participate in this turning point. High spirited and whimsical, “#resistayol” shows us a magical moment in the lives of thousands of people and gives us a better sense of the contribution of the LGBTI community to the human rights movement in Turkey.

Özge Calafato