Film Archive

Sections (Film Archive)

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

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
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

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Producer
Deutscher Fernsehfunk (DFF)
Matinee Saxon State Archive 2023
Filmstill [Kurt Biedenkopf visits a Soviet tank regiment]
[Kurt Biedenkopf visits a Soviet tank regiment]
Klaus Wilhelm
A Soviet armoured regiment in Saxony welcomes a distinguished visitor: The Minister President arrives on Christmas Eve 1991 and meets young soldiers whose future is uncertain.
Filmstill [Kurt Biedenkopf visits a Soviet tank regiment]

[Kurt Biedenkopf visits a Soviet tank regiment]

[Kurt Biedenkopf besucht ein sowjetisches Panzerregiment]
Klaus Wilhelm
Matinee Saxon State Archive 2023
Documentary Film
Germany
1991
8 minutes
German
Subtitles: 
None

The Russian tricolour is already blowing in the background as Saxony’s Minister President Prof. Dr. Kurt Biedenkopf visits a Soviet armoured regiment on Christmas Eve 1991. Those were truly turbulent times – a few months before, tanks had been rolling across Moscow’s Red Square during the August Coup; only days later, Mikhail Gorbachev resigned.

Konstantin Wiesinger

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Klaus Wilhelm
Cinematographer
Ch. Stolle
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

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
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0.2 Milligrams of Gold

0,2 miligramas de ouro
Diego Quinderé de Carvalho
Competition for the Audience Award Short Film 2021
Documentary Film
Belgium,
Brazil,
Portugal,
Hungary
2021
24 minutes
Portuguese (Brazil),
French,
English
Subtitles: 
English

8,500 kilometres lie between the Amazon and the Ardennes. In his home country of Brazil, Diego Quinderé de Carvalho only looks at the inaccessible and menacing forest from the outside. Its Belgian counter piece, however, is easy to explore. Here, everything is laid out by people, neatly ordered and reduced to the essentials. A geologist, a gold miner and an astronomer provide insights for a philosophical exploration of the origin of existence and the future of our planet.

Kim Busch

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Diego Quinderé de Carvalho
Script
Diego Quinderé de Carvalho
Cinematographer
Leo Foulet
Editor
Diego Quinderé de Carvalho
Producer
Frederik Nicolai
Co-Producer
André Mielnik, Diego Quinderé de Carvalho
Sound
Sébastien Lheureux
Score
Sébastien Lheureux
Doc Alliance Award 2023
Filmstill 07:15 – Blackbird
07:15 – Blackbird
Judith Auffray
In a cabin in the forest, Jean and Mana listen to various animal species and catalogue voice recordings. When they hear unfamiliar sounds, their curiosity to uncover a secret is aroused.
Filmstill 07:15 – Blackbird

07:15 – Blackbird

7h15 – merle noir
Judith Auffray
Doc Alliance Award 2023
Documentary Film
France
2021
30 minutes
French
Subtitles: 
English

The setting and cast of characters seem like the prelude to an unusual fairy-tale. An elderly man, a hermit living in a remote cabin, is visited by a young woman, almost a girl, who can understand and imitate the language of birds. Deep in the forest, Jean and Mana record and catalogue the calls of the different species day by day, night by night. But then they hear the voice of an unknown animal and set out to find it.

The focus is on birdcalls and their classification. But instead of making the meticulous analysis of sound events look like a quirky hobby, the film inspires us to listen closely. The two scientists’ unperturbed curiosity is catching, and as we watch, we are gradually infected not just with their enthusiasm for their object of research but also with their childlike desire to discover a secret.

Lina Dinkla

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Judith Auffray
Script
Judith Auffray
Cinematographer
Mario Valero, Raimon Gaffier
Editor
Judith Auffray
Producer
François Bonenfant, Luc-Jérôme Bailleul
Co-Producer
Gaël Teicher
Sound
Stéphane Debien, Kilian Fanget
-
Joséphine Auffray, Victor Auffray
Re-Visions 2020
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100 Years of Cinema
Heinrich Sabl
A short and entertaining foray through 100 years of international cinema history: an animated man takes a walk that leads us from the magic cylinder into legendary film scenes.
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100 Years of Cinema

100 Jahre Kino
Heinrich Sabl
Re-Visions 2020
Animated Film
Germany
1994
3 minutes
without dialogue
Subtitles: 
None

Cinema turned 100. With his homage Heinrich Sabl went one short step further back into the prehistory of cinematography for a run-up. Individual images are set in motion in a praxinoscope, invented by Émile Reynaud in 1877. A pedestrian seizes this illusion as an occasion to walk out of the magic cylinder through scenes from international film history.

Ralph Eue

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Heinrich Sabl
Script
Heinrich Sabl
Cinematographer
Hans Moser
Producer
Heinrich Sabl
Animation
Sven Pannicke
Filmstill 1976: Search for Life

1976: Search for Life

1976: Search for Life
Tess Martin
International Competition Animated Film 2023
Animated Film
Netherlands
2023
11 minutes
English
Subtitles: 
German Subtitles for deaf and hard-of-hearing

A new father takes his wife and daughter on a journey to his mother’s birthplace in Scotland. It is 1976 – the year in which NASA’s Viking 1 and 2 space probes land on the surface of Mars. They send images of an only vaguely explored area from a great distance, enabling a first look into the history of an alien planet. Like the NASA scientists, the small family are hoping that their journey will give them insights into the past, an understanding of the present situation and perhaps even the chance to anticipate the future.

Texts from the father’s travel diary, photos and video recordings are interwoven with visual and sound material from the NASA archives to form a multilayered narrative that navigates several decades of family history, cosmological questions and philosophical reflections. A filmic multiverse unfolds before us whose elementary particles oscillate between times and worlds, between reality and fiction.

Franka Sachse

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Tess Martin
Cinematographer
Matija Pekić
Nominated for: mephisto 97.6 Audience Award
Animation Night 2023
Filmstill 1976: Search for Life – Installation
1976: Search for Life – Installation
Tess Martin
The documentary video for the installation version of the short film “1976: Search for Life” takes us to Mars. There, a small television set shows a very personal story.
Filmstill 1976: Search for Life – Installation

1976: Search for Life – Installation

1976: Search for Life – Installation
Tess Martin
Animation Night 2023
Documentary Film
Netherlands
2023
11 minutes
English
Subtitles: 
None

The documentary video for the installation version of the short film “1976: Search for Life” takes us to Mars. There – between huge boulders and in the red light of our sibling planet – we find a small television set. With headphones and in an intimate atmosphere, Tess Martin shares a very personal memory of an important historical event with us.

Franka Sachse

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Tess Martin
Filmstill 27

27

27
Flóra Anna Buda
International Competition Animated Film 2023
Animated Film
France,
Hungary
2023
11 minutes
Hungarian
Subtitles: 
English

It is Alice’s 27th birthday today. She lives in her old room in her parents’ apartment. Her mother coddles her like a little child. Her kid brother gets on her nerves. The only space for self-realisation and living out her sexual desires is in her imagination, if at all. For economic reasons, she and many other young people are denied the chance to live an independent life in their own four walls. So Alice has to endure the confinement.

On the night of her birthday, she goes pub-crawling with a buddy and dances, free at last for a few moments, at a party on the roof of a high-rise. Looking at the nocturnal city and sobering up after all the exuberance, though, her dilemma re-surfaces again: Where is her private space where body and soul can unfold unobserved? Haunting, colourful, with a fantastic soundtrack and full of eroticism, the film describes the depressing situation of a whole generation.

Franka Sachse

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Flóra Anna Buda
Script
Flóra Anna Buda
Editor
Albane du Plessix
Producer
Emmanuel-Alain Raynal, Pierre Baussaron, Gábor Osváth, Péter Benjámin Lukács
Sound
Péter Benjámin Lukács
Score
Mári Mákó, Rozi Mákó
Animation
Zoltán Koska, Gábor Mariai, Luca Tóth, Borbála Zétényi, Flóra Anna Buda
World Sales
Annabel Sebag
Artistic Design
Natália Andrade, Melinda Kádár
Nominated for: mephisto 97.6 Audience Award
Filmstill 30 Kilometres per Second
Filmstill 30 Kilometres per Second

30 Kilometres per Second

30 kilometriä sekunnissa
Jani Peltonen
International Competition Documentary Film 2023
Documentary Film
Finland
2023
23 minutes
English,
Finnish
Subtitles: 
English

The narrator of the film was diagnosed with proprioception disorder by her physiotherapist: She lacks a normal awareness of her body in space and thus a reference to the world around her. Dancing as a therapy might help. Instead, she takes a ghost train into Finland’s television history, to the 1960s, when ordinances forbade spontaneous dancing because of a Medieval decree.

Young people were robbed of their body awareness, Finland, with its peculiar position between the blocks of the Cold War, stood untethered in the political geography of the time. Connections were made through television, Swiss campaigns for the independence of the West African province of Biafra, the weightless moon landing, U.S. American stars from soap operas and TV western shows. Travelling without moving. Do ghosts have proprioception? Wouldn’t they float out of this world otherwise? Or are they kept tethered to the ground by film and television recordings?

Jan Künemund

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Jani Peltonen
Script
Jani Peltonen
Cinematographer
Jani Peltonen
Editor
Anni Tiainen, Julia Matinniemi
Producer
Joona Mielonen
Sound Design
Saku Anttila
Score
Emil Sana
Narrator
Emmi Parviainen
Winner of: Silver Dove Short Film (International Competition Documentary Film)
Doc Alliance Award 2022
Filmstill 5 Dreamers and a Horse
5 Dreamers and a Horse
Vahagn Khachatryan, Aren Malakyan
Four people embody the contrasting faces of Armenia today. However different their dreams may be, they are all about freedom and self-determination.
Filmstill 5 Dreamers and a Horse

5 Dreamers and a Horse

5 yerazoghnery yev dzin
Vahagn Khachatryan, Aren Malakyan
Doc Alliance Award 2022
Documentary Film
Armenia,
Germany
2022
82 minutes
Armenian
Subtitles: 
English

The four people introduced by Aren Malakyan and Vahagn Khachatryan in their debut feature-length film embody the contrasting faces of Armenia today. Some of them are making plans for the future that might even be realised, others strive for seemingly unattainable ideals. What unites them all is the dream of a self-determined life – a near-impossibility in a country where the government tries to control everything and everyone.

Melania, in her mid-sixties, works as a lift operator in a Yerevan hospital and longs for a late career as a cosmonaut. In a way, she seems to be an anachronistic remnant of the Soviet age. The deep country, still ruled by ancient traditions and ideas of happiness, is represented by the farmer Karen, who is looking for the best of all possible wives. And Amasia and Sona own the night over the roofs of the capital. They are part of a new generation ready to fight for a future in which some liberties can be obtained despite a suffocating patriarchy. Occasionally amused, but never judgmental, the two filmmakers watch their native country dream.
Lina Dinkla

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Vahagn Khachatryan, Aren Malakyan
Cinematographer
Vahagn Khachatryan, Aren Malakyan, Andranik Sahakyan
Editor
Federico Delpero Bejar
Producer
Vahagn Khachatryan
Co-Producer
Eva Blondiau
Sound
Jonathan Darch
Score
Avet Terteryan, Rafael Tunyan
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75/1

75/1
Till Kleinau
German Competition Short Film 2021
Documentary Film
Germany
2020
27 minutes
German
Subtitles: 
English

“Boo” – the name is as unusual as the sound is special. The avant-garde composer Harry Partch invented instruments for micro-sounds and completely new musical experiences. The musician and instrument maker Thomas Meixner dedicated two years of his life, marked by family and health losses, to rebuilding 75 of these sound-generators for a concert tour. The film portrays a monomaniac who fiercely avoids social life but with great sensitivity makes material sing.

André Eckardt

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Till Kleinau
Cinematographer
Katja Tauber, Christophe Poulles
Editor
Friederike Dörffler
Producer
Friederike Dörffler
Sound
Maximilian Rodegra
German Competition 2020
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80.000 Schnitzels
Hannah Schweier
Monika has a new dream: She fights tirelessly to preserve her grandmother’s ailing inn and farm. A family chronicle and a film about life goals.
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80.000 Schnitzels

80.000 Schnitzel
Hannah Schweier
German Competition 2020
Documentary Film
Germany
2020
102 minutes
German
Subtitles: 
English

Grandma Berta’s beloved “Zollhaus” is on the verge of ruin. She has dedicated her whole life to this inn and farm. Now her granddaughter Monika, the filmmaker’s sister, is to take over the heavily indebted family farm in the Upper Palatinate. What makes Monika decide to give up her previous plans and move to the countryside to live with her grandmother? The director decides to follow her sister for one year during this apparent labour of Sisyphus.

Monika puts all her energy into the ailing farm and is constantly confronted with its history: Grandma Berta’s schnitzel was legendary. But only the jukebox is left of the merry evenings in a packed inn. Berta had to bury her husband, two of her sons and a grandson. She is not a woman of tender words and unsparingly direct, which soon leads to conflict. The director at first watches her indefatigable sister in stunned disbelief. But gradually she understands that Monika has found a new dream in the “Zollhaus”. This enables her to offer an intimate insight into the chronicle of a family. The film confronts us with the universal question when it is the right time to live one’s dreams and how quickly this time may pass.
Annina Wettstein

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Hannah Schweier
Cinematographer
Stefanie Reinhard
Editor
Romy Steyer
Producer
Stefan Sporbert
Co-Producer
ZDF
Sound
Johannes Kunz
Score
Ella Zwietnig
Narrator
Hannah Schweier
Winner of: ver.di Prize for Solidarity, Humanity and Fairness