Film Archive

International Competition 2020
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Considering the Ends
Elsa Maury
Shepherdess Nathalie learns what it means to kill with one’s own hands. Her process of development turns out to be a holistic learning experience: about responsibility, care and knives.
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Considering the Ends

Nous la mangerons, c’est la moindre des choses
Elsa Maury
International Competition 2020
Documentary Film
Belgium,
France
2020
67 minutes
French
Subtitles: 
English, German Subtitles for deaf and hard-of-hearing

The vultures are circling over the Cevennes, the south-eastern part of the French Massif Central. They are part of the holistic cycle of becoming and passing away which shepherdess Nathalie seeks to come closer to. Because the vultures are gnawing at the remains of her beloved animals. She considers herself responsible not only for their lives, but also for their death. Elsa Maury’s film is an unequivocal testimony to what it means to wield the fatal knife oneself.

The sounds made by a ewe when a lamb is born seem almost human. And when a little later the newborn turns out to be unwilling to live it seems as if one could detect pain in the mother’s eyes. The shepherdess Nathalie’s empathic look at her flock was transferred directly to the viewer. Each animal here has its own name, each has a biography that Nathalie knows by heart. And it’s ultimately up to her to finally decide when the end of a sheep is near. In diary-like sequences we learn about her feelings, take part in a difficult process of development which results in new self-confidence, perhaps even new wisdom. Elsa Maury shows a perennial school of killing and death. She leaves the events uncommented, but achieves an intensity through images and editing that stays with us for a long time.
Carolin Weidner

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Elsa Maury
Cinematographer
Christian Tessier, Martin Flament, Elsa Maury
Editor
Geoffroy Cernaix, Pauline Piris-Nury
Producer
Cyril Bibas
Co-Producer
Luc Reder, Olivier Burlet, Javier Packer-Comyn
Sound
Marc Siffert, Loïc Villiot, Galaad Germa, Willy Boutet, Elsa Maury
World Sales
Philippe Cotte
Narrator
Nathalie Savalois
Nominated for: Prize of the Interreligious Jury, FIPRESCI Prize
Extended Reality 2022
Filmstill Control Negative
Control Negative
Monika Masłoń
A VR experience as a psychological experiment that confronts us with feelings such as frustration, helplessness, stress, rage and grief, and debunks control as an illusion.
2022
Filmstill Control Negative

Control Negative

Control Negative
Monika Masłoń
Extended Reality 2022
XR
Poland
2022
30 minutes
Polish,
English

The Western culture of self-optimisation is based on the idea that one can control all aspects of life. This VR experience subjects us to a psychological experiment, confronting us with feelings such as frustration, helplessness, stress, rage and grief to show: Control is an illusion. Step by step, we are led from physical activation to contemplative perception.

Lars Rummel

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Producer
Krzysztof Franek, Krzysztof Pijarski
Executive Producer
Agnieszka Sural, Tomasz Filiks
Creative Producer
Pola Borkiewicz, Jacek Nagłowski
Production Company
The Polish National Film School in Łódź – vnLab
VR Developer
Marcin Puchalski
3D Artist
Adam Kosiewicz, Marcin Puchalski
Sound
Kajetan Zakrzewski
Script
Monika Masłoń, Rafał Kotas
Score
Karolina Rec
Narrator
Julia Kolberger, Włodzimierz Press, Richard Bialy
Director
Monika Masłoń
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Conversations with Siro

Conversations avec Siro
Dima El-Horr
International Competition 2021
Documentary Film
Lebanon,
France
2021
52 minutes
Arabic,
French
Subtitles: 
French, English

Lebanese filmmaker Dima El-Horr moved to Paris several years ago. Among the friends who stayed at home is the artist Sirvat Fazlian, whom she regularly visits in Beirut until the failed revolution of 2019, the COVID lockdown, the devastating port explosion and finally the dramatic economic crisis put a temporary end to their meetings. So the director decides to give her conversations with Siro a cinematic form.

Ever since the death of her husband, the well-known Armenian actor Berj Fazlian, Siro has lived alone in a flat filled with souvenirs and devoted most of her time to music and painting. In this film, footage from the years before 2019 blends with recorded phone calls between Siro and Dima and recent scenes from Paris, coming together in a densely woven portrait of life in exile. While snow falls in Paris, Siro talks about warm days on the Mediterranean coast and sings Armenian songs. She rails against the permanent crisis in Lebanon, but her nature is not affected. For one thing, Siro personifies the legendary Lebanese resilience. Yet for the filmmaker she represents that part of the heart that people in exile leave behind. So almost inevitably, “Conversations with Siro” becomes the director’s dialogue with herself.
Christoph Terhechte

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Dima El-Horr
Cinematographer
Dima El-Horr
Editor
Catherine Zins
Producer
Paul Rognoni, Sabine Sidawi
Sound
Jean-Pierre Dussardier
Nominated for: FIPRESCI Prize, Prize of the Interreligious Jury
Animation and Musique concrète 2021
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Court-circuit n° 180 – Interview with Michèle Bokanowski
Lorenzo Recio
Michèle Bokanowski’s sounds have been a distinct part of Patrick Bokanowski’s film images since 1972. Between tape loops she talks about her work with material that’s often quite unlike music.
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Court-circuit n° 180 – Interview with Michèle Bokanowski

Court-circuit n° 180 – Interview de Michèle Bokanowski
Lorenzo Recio
Animation and Musique concrète 2021
Documentary Film
France
2004
10 minutes
French
Subtitles: 
English

Michèle Bokanowski’s sounds have been a distinct part of Patrick Bokanowski’s film images since 1972. The origin of her soundtracks often lies in noises that are quite unlike music. Thus, she uses the clacking of billiard balls to describe people working on a field in the distance. Between tape loops and electronic devices, the composer talks about her craft of shaping sonorous material.

André Eckardt

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Lorenzo Recio
Producer
ARTE France, MK2TV
International Competition Short Film 2021
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Crumbs of Life
Katarzyna Miechowicz
This wild, imaginative thriller in analogue cut-out technique – in the best Polish animation film tradition of the Łódź Film School – offers plenty of room for interpretation.
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Crumbs of Life

Okruszki życia
Katarzyna Miechowicz
International Competition Short Film 2021
Animated Film
Poland
2020
7 minutes
without dialogue
Subtitles: 
None

Spitting ponies, a cursed TV reporter and a hairy giant who is lovingly combed by his brunette girlfriend while she develops inexplicable fears about her own foot. This will later literally be shot off – the foot, not the boyfriend! A faceless man is also there – acting in alliance with the ponies. This colourful, ominous animated thriller made in analogue cut-out technique addresses states of anxiety, masochistic fights and media criticism. Perhaps.

Borjana Gaković

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Katarzyna Miechowicz
Script
Katarzyna Miechowicz
Cinematographer
Katarzyna Miechowicz
Editor
Piotr Baryła
Producer
Agata Golanska
Sound
Piotr Baryła
Score
Anna Obara
Animation
Katarzyna Miechowicz
World Sales
Maciej Reguła
Filmstill Cyclepaths

Cyclepaths

Cyclepaths
Anton Cla
International Competition Animated Film 2023
Animated Film
Belgium
2023
12 minutes
without dialogue
Subtitles: 
None

On the outskirts of the city, the new modern buildings are silent and the motorway bridge drones. Birds are circling in the sky, a young man, concealed by his hoodie, is riding his e-scooter along a park path. The only irritating element is the rifle over his shoulder.

Anton Cla’s film depicts a mood of high alert, while the disaster has in fact already happened. Unexplainable scenes that could not be more disconcerting and grow increasingly drastic unfold calmly. The screaming silence is decisively enhanced by the imperceptibly accumulating mixed drone of the daily sounds of a mechanised world: motorway, tramway, clicking indicators, pulsating emergency signals. What the soundscape adamantly refuses to deliver is a loud discharge that would release the tension. The suburban landscape is steeped in a red theatrical warning light, blurs restrict the view. The 3D computer design masks neither the artificiality nor the computer-based deformations of the images of a normality that has become a combat zone – the machine matrix seems to rule already.

André Eckardt

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Anton Cla
Producer
Anton Cla
Sound
Milan Van Doren
Animation
Anton Cla
Nominated for: mephisto 97.6 Audience Award
Kids DOK 2023
Filmstill Cake Ballad
Cake Ballad
Meike Fehre
A new Musifants episode! This time, Charlie bakes a birthday cake. No sooner is it on the table, smelling delicious, than someone takes a sneaky bite. Who is the cheeky rascal?
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Cake Ballad

Kuchenballade
Meike Fehre
Kids DOK 2023
Animated Film
Germany
2022
4 minutes
German
Subtitles: 
None

A new Musifants episode! Grandpa Günter – a retired circus elephant – and grandson Charlie take another musical excursion into the songbook of the 1920s and 1930s. This time, it’s the little green cactus’s birthday and Charlie bakes a cake. No sooner is it on the table, smelling delicious, than a bit is missing. Charlie wants to know who has been sneaking a bite …

Lina Dinkla

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Meike Fehre
Script
Geoffrey Schöning
Cinematographer
Sabine Dully
Editor
Thomas Schmidl
Producer
Meike Fehre
Co-Producer
Nina Paysen, NDR Norddeutscher Rundfunk / German TV ARD Network, Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk
Sound
Christian Riegel
Sound Design
Caroline Micol Loguercio
Score
Kurt Weill
Animation
Vera Lalyko
World Sales
Sara Cooper
Kids DOK 2021
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Cabinets of Wonder
Susanne Kim
If childhood is a place: How does it feel, what is there to discover? A documentary journey into children’s minds, to unique planets and personal cabinets of wonder.
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Cabinets of Wonder

Meine Wunderkammern
Susanne Kim
Kids DOK 2021
Documentary Film
Germany
2021
79 minutes
German
Subtitles: 
English

Four kids aged 12 to 14 let us in on their secrets and desires. They talk about what shapes their lives: friendship, but also bullying and ostracism. Love, but also the struggle with prejudice. An imaginative, very musical film, created together with the children, which shows the world from their perspective – unadornedly beautiful, idealistic and radically honest.

Luc-Carolin Ziemann

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Susanne Kim
Script
Joline, Elias, Wisdom, Roya, Susanne Kim
Cinematographer
Emma Rosa Simon
Editor
Marion Tuor
Producer
Holm Taddiken
Co-Producer
KiKA, Alexander Herrmann
Sound
Lukas Scheigenpflug, Christoph Fleischer, Daniel Fischer
Score
Cornelia F. Müller, Sylvia Gössel
Animation
Franziska Junge, Falk Johnke
Genius Loci 2020
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Crime Scene: Railway Premises [excerpt]
Gabriele Stange
Three boys play near the forbidden tracks. Dangerous situations are commented on by a strict voice. The solution? Kids, why don’t you play with model trains instead!
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Crime Scene: Railway Premises [excerpt]

Tatort Bahngelände [Ausschnitt]
Gabriele Stange
Genius Loci 2020
Fictional Film
GDR
1967
5 minutes
German
Subtitles: 
None

Unusually elaborate in terms of cinematography and dramaturgy, the film illustrates the dangers of careless children playing on railway premises. It’s only logical that this leads to a recommendation to make do with the less dangerous model trains. Quite a number of film and television careers began at the “Iskra” pioneer film studio, headed for many years by the lower grade and handicrafts teacher Rolf Kießling.

Konstantin Wiesinger

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Gabriele Stange
Script
Frank Schumann, Rainer Mutz, Rolf Kiessling
Cinematographer
Frank Schumann
Editor
Gabriele Stange, Rolf Kiessling, Karin Uebelacker
Producer
Pionierfilmstudio 31. Oberschule Leipzig, Transportpolizei Amt Leipzig Abteilung K
Sound
Matthias Heynicke, Peter Förster