Film Archive

Competition for the Audience Award 2022
Filmstill A Bunch of Amateurs
A Bunch of Amateurs
Kim Hopkins
Dwindling membership, a crumbling club house, penniless coffers: The “Bradford Movie Makers” have seen better days. The funny and touching portrait of a band of film buffs.
Filmstill A Bunch of Amateurs

A Bunch of Amateurs

A Bunch of Amateurs
Kim Hopkins
Competition for the Audience Award 2022
Documentary Film
UK
2022
95 minutes
English
Subtitles: 
English

Dwindling membership, a crumbling club house, penniless coffers: The “Bradford Movie Makers” have seen better days. The active club members, most of them fairly advanced in years, sit there, basking in blissful memories and not mincing their words when they pick at the others’ film ideas over multiple cups of tea. Cineastes have met here every Monday since 1932 and can be proud of a ninety-year history including countless amateur films of all genres.

The “club”, as insiders call it, is a typical British working class film club: watching films together on a regular basis and spending every free minute on elaborate shoots including stunt riders and green screens. But the old veterans are beginning to get frail, the occasional death must be mourned. And then the pandemic comes on top of all this, darkening the only bright spot of the week. But it also brings unexpected surprises … Kim Hopkins manages the feat, despite a number of tragic-sad occasions, of avoiding the tear-jerker trap and gives us equally astonishing and funny insights into this pastime that’s far more than just a hobby. This quiet, funny and touching portrait of a band of film buffs – male and female – pays tribute to the need we all have to spend time together.
Lina Dinkla

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Kim Hopkins
Cinematographer
Kim Hopkins
Editor
Leah Marino
Producer
Margareta Szabo, Kim Hopkins
Sound
Margareta Szabo
Score
Terence Dunn
World Sales
Jenny Bohnhoff
Animation Night 2023
Filmstill A Moment’s Reverie
A Moment’s Reverie
Tess Martin
A train leaves the station, carrying a person whose thoughts begin to drift while reading a book. A surreal journey through memory fragments, sounds and textures begins.

UK

UK
2007
Filmstill A Moment’s Reverie

A Moment’s Reverie

A Moment’s Reverie
Tess Martin
Animation Night 2023
Animated Film
UK
2007
10 minutes
English
Subtitles: 
None

A train journey begins. On board is a reader whose thoughts begin to move. The letters change and flow from the pages of the book, carrying us into a world of memories and associations. We meet the letters again: swimming in a tea cup. Shot, they bleed to death on a sheet of paper and at last evaporate into the night sky.

Franka Sachse

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Tess Martin
Animation
Tess Martin
Re-Visions 2020
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Achilles
Barry Purves
Trench warfare around Troy, the heroes are well-known. This adaptation of a classical myth, inspired by antique designs, dares to show explicit images for adults.

UK

UK
1995
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Achilles

Achilles
Barry Purves
Re-Visions 2020
Animated Film
UK
1995
11 minutes
English
Subtitles: 
None

The winner of the first golden “Animation Dove”: nine years of war between Greeks and Trojans have gone past. The impulsive Patroclus, comrade in arms and bed mate of the rather battle-weary Achilles, thinks that victory can be achieved by other means. The tragedy takes its course – just as it was passed down in the classical myths but supplemented by what they left unspoken.

Ralph Eue

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Barry Purves
Script
Barry Purves
Editor
Leo Casserley
Producer
Glenn Holberton
Score
Nigel Hess
Animation
Barry Purves
Production Company
Channel Four, Bare Boards Productions
Animation Perspectives 2023
Filmstill Any Instant Whatever
Any Instant Whatever
Michelle Brand
A person at a table. Time makes its usual rounds – until there is a hiccup. Normality slips. The table becomes a wild combination of constantly changing perspectives.
Filmstill Any Instant Whatever

Any Instant Whatever

Any Instant Whatever
Michelle Brand
Animation Perspectives 2023
Animated Film
UK
2019
5 minutes
without dialogue
Subtitles: 
None

A person sits at a plain table. Time makes its usual rounds – until there is a hiccup. Moments fall into each other, angles of vision diverge, normality slips. The table becomes an unmanageable combination of constantly changing perspectives. The troubled person is transformed into a distorted temporal body. The world atomises itself in basic shapes and colours.

André Eckardt

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Michelle Brand
Producer
RCA London
Sound Design
Michelle Brand
Animation
Michelle Brand
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Atomu

Atomu
Shariffa Ali, Yetunde Dada
Extended Reality 2021
-
France,
Kenya,
USA,
UK
2020
12 minutes
English

In the mythology of the Kikuyu community the Mugumo, the Kenyan fig tree, represents transformation and rebirth. This multiplayer VR experience invites us to witness a sacred ritual: Dancing around the Mugumo can turn a man into a woman and a woman into a man. We follow Waicici, a genderless person, in the quest for the most honest version of themselves.

Lars Rummel

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Producer
Antoine Cayrol, Steve Jelly
Co-Producer
Steve Jelly, Arnaud Colinart, Opeyemi Olukemi, Rafael Pavon, Annick Jakobowicz, Simon Windsor
Production Company
POV Spark, France Télévisions, Dimension, Atlas V
Choreographer
Stephen Buescher
Key Collaborator
Andrew Orkin, Banna Dasta, Toby Coffey, Steve Jelly, Simon Windsor, Akash Kushwaha, Annick Jakobowicz, Stephen Buescher, Opeyemi Olukemi, Arnaud Colinart, Rafael Pavon, Antoine Cayrol, Derren Sinnott
Director
Shariffa Ali, Yetunde Dada
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Björk: Hunter

Björk: Hunter
Paul White
Animation and Musique concrète 2021
Experimental Film
UK
1997
4 minutes
English
Subtitles: 
None

Icelandic musician Björk has always merged natural and technoid creativeness. She samples and loops environmental sounds and transforms them by means of electronic effects. Paul White translates this approach and aesthetics in the video clip for “Hunter”, morphing the singing Björk’s head and human features into an artificial polar bear that seems to be made of liquid plastic.

Cornelia Friederike Müller aka CFM

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Paul White
Performer
Björk
Soul-Things 2022
Filmstill Björk: Tabula Rasa
Björk: Tabula Rasa
Tobias Gremmler
Björk’s figure seamlessly transforms into fantastic organic shapes, while her singing wipes the slate clean: tabula rasa, a free space for children to blossom and make their own mistakes.
Filmstill Björk: Tabula Rasa

Björk: Tabula Rasa

Björk: Tabula Rasa
Tobias Gremmler
Soul-Things 2022
Animated Film
UK
2017
5 minutes
English
Subtitles: 
None

The figure of the singer Björk seamlessly transforms into petals, into underwater creatures with delicate tentacles and other fantastic organic manifestations impossible to classify. Accompanying Tobias Gremmler’s graceful computer animation, Björk’s singing wipes the slate clean: tabula rasa, a free, unencumbered space for later-born children to blossom and make their own mistakes.

André Eckardt

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Tobias Gremmler
Performer
Björk
Beyond Animation 2023
Filmstill Blight
Blight
John Smith
A rhythmic collage of sounds and film images accompanies the demolition of a house in East London and becomes a protest piece against the motorway network that destroys the neighbourhood.
Filmstill Blight

Blight

Blight
John Smith
Beyond Animation 2023
Experimental Film
UK
1996
15 minutes
English

A rhythmic collage of sounds and filmed sequences accompanies the demolition of a house. People from a neighbourhood in East London report in interview fragments: The living conditions were not comfortable – ugh, those spiders! – but the families had a home that had grown over generations. Now the community protests against being squeezed out by a motorway network.

André Eckardt

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
John Smith
Script
John Smith
Cinematographer
John Smith
Editor
John Smith
Sound
John Smith
Score
Jocelyn Pook
Re-Visions 2020
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City Paradise
Gaëlle Denis
Tomoko from Japan travels to London. She is well-prepared, works hard on a language course and has brought her goldfish to fight homesickness. But she still feels lonely.
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City Paradise

City Paradise
Gaëlle Denis
Re-Visions 2020
Animated Film
UK
2004
6 minutes
English
Subtitles: 
None

Who hasn’t?! You arrive in a foreign land, ready to embrace the world, but the world refuses to be embraced. Tomoko from Japan travels to London. She is well-prepared, works hard on a language course and has brought her goldfish to fight homesickness. And yet she feels lonely and unable to utter a word when spoken to. What to do? How about a slight change of perspective?

Ralph Eue

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Gaëlle Denis
Script
Gaëlle Denis
Cinematographer
Sarah Bartles-Smith
Editor
Tony Fish
Producer
Erika Forzy, Andrew Ruhemann
Sound
Fabrice Gerardi, Andy Thompson
Score
Joce Mienniel, Joanna Newsom
Production Company
Channel Four, Passion Pictures
Filmstill Delikado

Delikado

Delikado
Karl Malakunas
Time to Act! 2022
Documentary Film
USA,
UK,
Philippines,
China,
Australia
2022
94 minutes
English,
Filipino
Subtitles: 
English

On the island of Palawan in the Philippine archipelago, more and more rainforest is falling victim to the saws. The clearances have long been illegal but are protected and even initiated by President Duterte’s corrupt regime. Local resistance is forming. A group of courageous men around a determined human rights lawyer decide to react. They sneak into the forests to take away the logging teams’ chainsaws, cars and boats. This exciting film, constructed like a thriller, follows them on their dangerous missions, which they call “meta-legal”. But the price is high: Some of the activists pay for their resistance with their lives.

Luc-Carolin Ziemann

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Karl Malakunas
Cinematographer
Tom Bannigan
Editor
Michael Collins, Eric Daniel Metzgar
Producer
Marty Syjuco, Michael Collins, Kara Magsanoc-Alikpala
Score
Nainita Desai
World Sales
Jenny Bohnhoff
Extended Reality 2022
Filmstill Dragzina
Dragzina
Nikita Shokhov, Masha Vorslav
Where are the spaces for the LGBTQIA2S+ culture in Russia? This AR experience opens a digital safe space for the drag scene where they can perform without fear of violence.
2022
Filmstill Dragzina

Dragzina

Dragzina
Nikita Shokhov, Masha Vorslav
Extended Reality 2022
XR
USA,
Russia,
UK
2022
12 minutes
English,
Russian

The LGBTQIA2S+ community in Russia is facing an increasingly hostile social climate, is tabooed and criminalised. The AR experience opens a digital safe space for the local drag scene where they can perform without fear of violence. At the same time, this artistic occupation of heteronormatively dominated places is a political intervention.

Lars Rummel

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Producer
Anna Evtiugina
Production Company
iPureland.art
AR Developer
Yuan Li
Interactive Design
Parker Ford
Artistic Design
Alexey Golubev, Vannet, Zac Kim
Creative Technologist
Zach Duer
Sound
Konstantin Andzhanovskii
Score
Ultraflex, Anoche Xenon
Performer
Masha Vorslav, Lorina Rey, Anoche Xenon, Skinny Jenny, Polis Vera/Robert, Vanessa Diziai, Ramona Vile, Vannet
Key Collaborator
Moscow gender play community "Dragzina", Moscow drag community "Home Drag Race", Ilya Lagerfeld
Director
Nikita Shokhov, Masha Vorslav
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E14

E14
Peiman Zekavat
International Competition Short Film 2020
Documentary Film
UK
2020
19 minutes
English
Subtitles: 
None

What did the Corona lockdown look like from a window in the residential towers of posh East London in the spring of 2020? The reflective two-week observation shows serious shifts in the everyday coordinate system of a privileged urban population at an immediate level. Meanwhile, the vacant apartments in the district, which were deliberately caused by speculation, represent a warning sign for the future of investor-friendly urban spaces.

Ralph Eue

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Peiman Zekavat
Producer
Sanam Jehanfard
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Earthworks – Installation

Earthworks – Installation
Joe Gerhardt, Ruth Jarman
Animation and Musique concrète 2021
Documentary Film
UK,
Spain
2016
2 minutes
without dialogue
Subtitles: 
None

The earth never sleeps. The duo Semiconductor distils research data on earth movements and animates them in a five-channel installation. In a dark hall, visitors to the Sónar Barcelona 2016 festival are captivated by a huge, luminous band of ceaselessly morphing layers of colours and strange sounds, experiencing a cut through both landscape and time.

André Eckardt

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Joe Gerhardt, Ruth Jarman
Animation and Musique concrète 2021
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Earthworks – Making Of
Joe Gerhardt, Ruth Jarman
Creaking, rumbling and trickling, earth movements leave traces of sound. The duo Semiconductor animates research data and conveys geological processes in a fascinating way.
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Earthworks – Making Of

Earthworks – Making Of
Joe Gerhardt, Ruth Jarman
Animation and Musique concrète 2021
Documentary Film
UK,
Spain
2016
10 minutes
English
Subtitles: 
None

Geologically, layers of earth form over thousands of years. The processes are almost imperceptible to humans. A research project in a Spanish quarry reconstructs earth movements, models them and records them acoustically. Creaking, rumbling and trickling, the layers leave traces of sounds animated in an audiovisual five-channel installation by the duo Semiconductor.

André Eckardt

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Joe Gerhardt, Ruth Jarman
Time to Act! 2022
Filmstill Everything Wrong and Nowhere to Go
Everything Wrong and Nowhere to Go
Sindha Agha
How does the climate crisis affect our mind? How to go on in the midst of disaster? A personal essay about “climate anxiety”, guilt-rage spirals and radical self-care.
Filmstill Everything Wrong and Nowhere to Go

Everything Wrong and Nowhere to Go

Everything Wrong and Nowhere to Go
Sindha Agha
Time to Act! 2022
Documentary Film
USA,
UK
2022
12 minutes
English
Subtitles: 
None

Heatwaves, melting polar caps, rising sea levels, mass extinction of species. The climate crisis is threatening life on earth, and our peace of mind, too, because if you become aware of where we stand, you’ll find it hard to sleep well. Sindha Agha, too, is suffering from “climate anxiety”, the all-consuming fear of the consequences of the climate emergency, and seeks out a climate psychologist to learn how to cope with it. This cinematic portrait shows how – representative of countless others – she is torn between panic, helplessness, guilt and rage, but still finds ways to overcome the paralysis to actively tackle the climate crisis.

Luc-Carolin Ziemann

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Sindha Agha
Cinematographer
Lauren Guiteras
Editor
Matty Neikrug
Producer
Elizabeth Woodward, Elizabeth Woodward
Sound
Jackie Zhou
Score
Daniel Fox
Audience Award Competition 2020
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Faith and Branko
Catherine Harte
Faith loves music and Branko loves Faith. The two set out on a turbulent journey as a music duo and married couple. But alas, the first cracks in their romantic bliss soon appear.
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Faith and Branko

Faith and Branko
Catherine Harte
Competition for the Audience Award 2020
Documentary Film
Serbia,
UK
2020
82 minutes
English,
Serbian
Subtitles: 
English

It begins like a classic “girl meets boy” story: Faith, a charismatic accordion player from Great Britain, travels to Serbia to learn about Roma folk music. She meets the violinist Branko, who is instantly smitten. They quickly marry and form a band. But with musical success their love dwindles. A turbulent story of expectations, disappointments and the dream of happiness.

Faith enters into Branko’s life in an almost disturbingly casual way. She doesn’t seem to be bothered by the new country, the sceptical family and the cultural differences. Branko on the other hand adores his new wife and boldly enters a new world. They are a big hit as a duo – travelling around the world and playing bigger and bigger venues. But while Faith feels as happy as a lark, Branko seems like an uprooted tree. Instead of dealing with their differences they keep moving on rapidly, until one ruthless step follows the next. Catherine Harte has produced a captivating and very intimate portrait of this contradictory couple. Relentlessly close and yet compassionate, the film develops an impressive pull you don’t want to resist.
Kim Busch

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Catherine Harte
Cinematographer
Catherine Harte
Editor
Dragan Von Petrovic, Ljubodrag Starovlah
Producer
Snezana Van Houwelingen, Catherine Harte
Sound
Zoran Maksimovic
Funder
Film Center Serbia