Film Archive

Panorama: Central and Eastern Europe 2023
Filmstill Who, If Not Us? The Fight for Democracy in Belarus
Who, If Not Us? The Fight for Democracy in Belarus
Juliane Tutein
The political climate in Belarus is growing more restrictive every day, activists are constantly facing imprisonment. This film is dedicated to three courageous rebels.
Filmstill Who, If Not Us? The Fight for Democracy in Belarus

Who, If Not Us? The Fight for Democracy in Belarus

Wer, wenn nicht wir? Der Kampf für Demokratie in Belarus
Juliane Tutein
Panorama: Central and Eastern Europe 2023
Documentary Film
Germany
2023
77 minutes
Belarusian,
Russian,
Ukrainian
Subtitles: 
English

In 2020, the biggest protests against the government to date formed in Belarus. The protesters were met with violence and restrictions, many of them were given draconian prison sentences. A dangerous climate that sought to nip political activism in the bud took hold. For “Who, If Not Us? The Fight for Democracy in Belarus,” Juliane Tutein filmed and researched for three years in a country that had not seen a change of elites with its supposed independence in 1991. She discovered mainly women at the forefront of the courageous protesters. This portrait is dedicated to three of them: Nina Baginskaya, in her mid-seventies and active in the fight for an open Belarus since the 1980s, Tatsyana “Tanya” Hatsura-Yavorskaya, founder of the human rights film festival “Watch Docs”, and Darya Rublevskaya, the youngest at 22, who works for the “Viasna” human rights centre founded by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski. Tutein develops a polyphonic collage in which Minsk’s intimidating architecture has the same haunting impact as Hatsura-Yavorskaya’s escape into a Ukraine attacked by Russia.

Carolin Weidner

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Director
Juliane Tutein
Script
Juliane Tutein
Cinematographer
Siarhei Kavaliou, Feline Gerhardt, Juliane Tutein
Editor
Maria Hemmleb
Producer
Ümit Uludağ, Martin Roelly, Erik Winker
Sound
Cécilia Marchat, Sirius Kestel, Juliane Tutein
Sound Design
Andreas Mühlschlegel
Score
Julian Erhardt, Mirko Büchele
Animation
Georg Krefeld
Nominated for: MDR Film Prize, Goethe-Institut Documentary Film Prize, Leipziger Ring
Kids DOK 2020
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What About Our Future?
Jaime Leigh Gianopoulos, Cláudio Cruz
A film observation about the Vancouver “Sustainabiliteens” and their life between school, friends and climate activism. They are raising their voices for a system change.
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What About Our Future?

What About Our Future?
Jaime Leigh Gianopoulos, Cláudio Cruz
Kids DOK 2020
Documentary Film
Canada
2020
24 minutes
English
Subtitles: 
None

In 2019, the “Sustainabiliteens” from Vancouver mobilized more than 150,000 people to march against climate destruction. The film gives insights into the teenagers’ everyday life which is determined not only by school, friends and families, but also by the climate crisis and activism. Taking things into their own hands gives them strength: “We are unstoppable, another world is possible.”

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Director
Jaime Leigh Gianopoulos, Cláudio Cruz
Producer
Jaime Leigh Gianopoulos, Jen Muranetz
Kids DOK 2023
Filmstill What’s in That Crate?
What’s in That Crate?
Bram Algoed
The turbulent journey of a huge crate never seems to end. It keeps getting smaller and smaller, and everyone has their own idea of what may be hidden inside. An elephant, a lion, or perhaps a bear after all?
Filmstill What’s in That Crate?

What’s in That Crate?

Wat zit er in die kist?
Bram Algoed
Kids DOK 2023
Animated Film
Belgium
2023
9 minutes
without dialogue
Subtitles: 
None

The multicoloured, turbulent journey of a huge crate never seems to end. Whatever could it contain? An elephant, a lion, a bear? First it’s loaded onto a plane, then a ship. Then it goes up the mountains in a train, and over hill and dale on a bus. The crate keeps getting smaller and smaller and everyone has their own idea of what may be hidden inside. But mum’s the word!

Lina Dinkla

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Director
Bram Algoed
Script
Bram Algoed, Pieter Gaudesaboos
Cinematographer
Bram Algoed
Editor
Bram Algoed
Producer
Brecht Van Elslande
Sound
David Kamp
Sound Design
David Kamp
Score
Boris Zeebroek
Animation
Eno Swinnen, Jeroen Ceulebrouck, William Lebrun
Filmstill When Adam Changes

When Adam Changes

Adam change lentement
Joël Vaudreuil
International Competition Animated Film 2023
Animated Film
Canada
2023
94 minutes
French
Subtitles: 
English

Adam is 15, bullied by his schoolmates and ignored by the girl of his dreams. His grandmother, who has teased him all his life with nasty remarks about his appearance, uses her dying breath to bring home to him once more his supposed physical shortcomings. Even the prospect of the upcoming summer holidays hardly raises Adam’s spirits, because his father has organised several unpleasant holiday jobs for him to build his character. On top of everything else, the teasing and negative comments manifest in Adam in strange deformations of his body which provoke additional stress and ridicule.

Adam is different. He stays outside while the people around him go about their usual – their “normal” – activities. He watches his sister being cheated on by her boyfriend, must bear a neighbour’s fanatical lawn care accuracy and discovers that a resident of his street throws bags of dog faeces up into the branches of the alley trees. The more the daily madness around him becomes evident, the more Adam emerges as an empathetic and mature young adult. Contrary to all claims he, whom the others regard as a strange eccentric, is in control of his life.

Franka Sachse

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Director
Joël Vaudreuil
Script
Joël Vaudreuil
Editor
Joël Vaudreuil
Producer
David Pierrat, Olivier Picard
Sound
Olivier Calvert
Sound Design
Olivier Calvert
Score
Joël Vaudreuil
Animation
Nicolas Moussette, Hrsito Karastoyanov
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When Light Is Displaced

When Light Is Displaced
Zaina Bseiso
International Competition Short Film 2021
Documentary Film
USA
2021
7 minutes
Arabic
Subtitles: 
English

In her light-footed film miniature, Zaina Bseiso links the disappearance of the last orange grove from the suburbs of Los Angeles with the fate of the Jaffa orange, a native fruit of Palestine. When she engages her father in a conversation regarding this content and artistic concept, it turns into a discussion about how a good documentary can approach reality and why – with all due respect for realism – we must never underestimate the power of illusion.

Luc-Carolin Ziemann

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Director
Zaina Bseiso
Script
Zaina Bseiso
Cinematographer
Zaina Bseiso, Luis Gutierrez Arias
Editor
Zaina Bseiso
Producer
Luis Gutierrez Arias, Zaina Bseiso
Sound
Sarah Ibrahim, Gavati Wad
Score
Brian Griffith
Animation
Adam Wand, Jordan Wong
Camera Lucida 2022
Filmstill When There Is No More Music to Write, and Other Roman Stories
When There Is No More Music to Write, and Other Roman Stories
Éric Baudelaire
An opulent film collage revolving around the works of composer Alvin Curran and the human need to look towards music for orientation in the world.
Filmstill When There Is No More Music to Write, and Other Roman Stories

When There Is No More Music to Write, and Other Roman Stories

When There Is No More Music to Write, and Other Roman Stories
Éric Baudelaire
Camera Lucida 2022
Documentary Film
France
2022
59 minutes
English
Subtitles: 
None

The kidnapping and murder of the politician Aldo Moro; four slashed tyres that were to save a florist’s life; the lost soundtrack to Antonioni’s film “Zabriskie Point”; the meeting of two avant-garde composers; archive material and found footage – these are the elements of this “freely composed” film that is imbued with the city of Rome and juxtaposes the human urge for constant rebellion and the thesis of the end of history.

For the US electronic composer Alvin Curran, whose intellectual and artistic world are at the centre of Éric Baudelaire’s exceptionally rich collage, music is a vehicle that carries us to places we have never travelled before. In Rome, where Curran settled in the 1960s, he met his then considerably more experienced professional colleague Franco Evangelisti, who shocked him with the question: “Don’t you know that there’s no more music to write?” Baudelaire’s congenial montage of image and sound fragments suggests that Curran’s solo work – as well as his collaboration with the pioneering collective “Musica Elettronica Viva” – is the answer to Evangelisti’s question: We have to keep reassembling the world.
Christoph Terhechte

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Director
Éric Baudelaire
Cinematographer
Éric Baudelaire
Editor
Claire Atherton
Producer
Éric Baudelaire
Sound
Éric Lesachet
Filmstill When Will the Winter of 2022 End?

When Will the Winter of 2022 End?

Koly zakinchyt’sya zyma 2022?
Hanna Trofimova
International Competition Short Film 2022
Documentary Film
Ukraine
2022
23 minutes
Ukrainian,
Russian
Subtitles: 
English

With this personal video diary from Kyiv, artist Hanna Trofimova manages to make us comprehend something of how the war infiltrates and destroys life and everyday routines, even if one’s own apartment has not been hit by a bomb yet. Images of an oppressive “normality” between alarm sirens and explosions are combined with the touching words of a young woman who tries not to lose herself and her life to the new reality.

Luc-Carolin Ziemann

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Hanna Trofimova
Cinematographer
Hanna Trofimova
Editor
Hanna Trofimova
Producer
Hanna Trofimova
Sound
Hanna Trofimova
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Where Is Eva Hipsey?

Where Is Eva Hipsey?
Orla McHardy
Animation and Musique concrète 2021
Animated Film
Ireland
2016
8 minutes
English
Subtitles: 
None

An elderly lady indulges in her audiophile obsession. She records the sound of her house during her absence to listen to it later. A life of random and environmental sound, collected on countless C60 cassettes. This poetic collage of negative film, photos, dried flowers, animation and sounds reveals a big heart for Eva Hipsey – and for quirky amateur recordings.

André Eckardt

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Director
Orla McHardy
Script
Justin Spooner
Cinematographer
Orla McHardy
Editor
Orla McHardy
Producer
Nicky Gogan
Sound
Justin Spooner
Score
Justin Spooner
Animation
Orla McHardy, Allison Zigadlo, Moaz Elemam, Micah Weber
Narrator
Olwen Fouéré
Filmstill Where Zebus Speak French

Where Zebus Speak French

Sitabaomba
Nantenaina Lova
International Competition Documentary Film 2023
Documentary Film
Burkina Faso,
France,
Germany,
Madagascar
2023
103 minutes
French,
Malagasy
Subtitles: 
English

Does farmer Ly have dealings with the Chinese, who have recently been tampering with the infrastructure of the village of Sitabaomba, not far from the Malagasy capital of Antananarivo, director Nantenaina Lova asks as bluntly as mischievously. Ly denies it. However, it becomes increasingly clear in the course of “Where Zebus Speak French” that the various development measures, often introduced by foreign initiatives and fuelled by corrupted politicians, also affect him.

Focussing on Sitabaomba, Lova shows over several years how the village population attempt to defend their farmland. Their fight is reminiscent of David against Goliath but doesn’t lead to despondence. Because in Madagascar, a very unique form of artistic, especially linguistic expression has always been cultivated which, at its best, allows people to maintain an inner independence. The commentary is therefore spoken in the style of “Kabary.” This polite, rhetorically sophisticated and sometimes mocking form of speech elegantly circumvents criticism, thus stating it all the more clearly. An artist also visits the village repeatedly and makes stones speak with the children, confirming an attitude Nantenaina Lova describes as follows: “Laughing at injustice rather than crying, resisting rather than pitying.”

Carolin Weidner

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Director
Nantenaina Lova
Script
Nantenaina Lova, Eva Lova-Bély
Cinematographer
Nantenaina Lova, Nantenaina Fifaliana
Editor
Nantenaina Lova, Emmanuel Roy
Producer
Eva Lova-Bély, Candy Radifera
Co-Producer
Nicole Gehards, Nina Fernandez, Michel Zongo
Sound
Jonathan Narlysh Rafidiarison, Nantenaina Fifaliana
Sound Design
Julien Verstraete
Score
Various Malagasy Music Bands
Animation
Herizo Ramilijaonina
Narrator
Claudia Tagbo
Winner of: Leipziger Ring
Filmstill While the Green Grass Grows

While the Green Grass Grows

While the Green Grass Grows
Peter Mettler
Hommage Peter Mettler 2023
Documentary Film
Canada,
Switzerland
2023
166 minutes
English
Subtitles: 
German

A film that teaches us mindfulness. In his audiovisual diary, award-winning Swiss-Canadian filmmaker Peter Mettler says farewell to his mother and father. But the film transcends his personal work of mourning. In an always dialogue-oriented search movement over the cycle of life, he reflects on this world and the next, on existence and time. It is an eternal circuit and flow – like the continuous passing of clouds and rivers.

Visually as well as intellectually, Peter Mettler draws upon personal conversations, philosophical and spiritual texts as well as his own film and sound archive. His approach is characterised by openness and humility towards life and nature. This attentive attitude characterises the director’s notion of “film-making” per se that has shaped all his works. “While the Green Grass Grows” comprises two parts of a larger epic diary project with the same title.

Annina Wettstein

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Director
Peter Mettler
Script
Peter Mettler
Cinematographer
Peter Mettler
Editor
Jordan Kawai, Peter Mettler
Producer
Cornelia Seitler, Peter Mettler, Brigitte Hofer
Sound
Peter Mettler
Sound Design
Jordan Kawai
Winner of: Golden Dove Feature-Length Film (International Competition Documentary Film)
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Whistle Stop

Whistle Stop
Martin Arnold
Animation and Musique concrète 2021
Animated Film
Austria
2014
4 minutes
without dialogue
Subtitles: 
None

Daffy Duck is caught in an animation loop. Martin Arnold dissects the industrial animated film production with its extreme division of labour, where body parts of the characters are isolated on different cels and moved separately, in loops and outside their habitat, separated from the background. Daffy’s beak wiggles, his wing hands flutter in the black void. An artistic and psychological study.

André Eckardt

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Martin Arnold
Animation
Martin Arnold
Opening Film 2023
Filmstill White Angel – The End of Marinka
White Angel – The End of Marinka
Arndt Ginzel
Summer 2022 in eastern Ukraine: The police evacuate people from the war zone, bodycams record the dramatic events. In 2023, the film team talks to survivors.
Filmstill White Angel – The End of Marinka
Filmstill White Angel – The End of Marinka

White Angel – The End of Marinka

White Angel – Das Ende von Marinka
Arndt Ginzel
Opening Film 2023
Documentary Film
Germany
2023
103 minutes
Ukrainian,
Russian
Subtitles: 
German, English

The small town of Marinka lies in the Ukrainian Donetsk Oblast. Almost 10,000 people lived there, even though the town was under constant attack by pro-Russian separatists since 2014. When the war escalated in the spring of 2022, however, Marinka came under heavy artillery fire and practically all residents had to leave the town by September. The local police helped get them out. One of the policemen is Vasyl, the protagonist of this film. In a white van, soon christened the “white angel” by the population, he and his colleagues pull civilians out of the line of fire, recover the wounded and the dead. Vasyl’s helmet camera records the dramatic events of their missions: evacuating scared people from their cellars, first aid for the seriously injured, the hasty gathering of personal belongings, the painful and permanent partings.

Six months after the end of Marinka, the Leipzig-based investigative journalist Arndt Ginzel and his crew return to eastern Ukraine. They find the survivors, rescued persons and rescuers, and let them comment the action cam images. They speak of losses, of pain and grief, but also of hopes and dreams. “White Angel – The End of Marinka” is more than a film about war. It is a document of humanity and the longing for peace.

Christoph Terhechte

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Director
Arndt Ginzel
Cinematographer
Gerald Gerber
Producer
Martin Kraushaar
-
Guntram Schuschke, Beatrix Grundt, Claudia Huber , Nicole Schuschke, Christina Susanne Marx, Annina Wolf
Nominated for: Goethe-Institut Documentary Film Prize, MDR Film Prize
Filmstill Why My Mum Loves Russell Crowe

Why My Mum Loves Russell Crowe

Why My Mum Loves Russell Crowe
Emma van den Berg
International Competition Short Film 2022
Documentary Film
UK,
Netherlands
2022
25 minutes
Dutch
Subtitles: 
English

“Sex does strange things to people!” This sentence reverberates from her childhood. What did her mother mean? What fears did she pass on to Emma? The budding filmmaker sets up the camera in her mother’s apartment, invites mum’s friends, creates an open atmosphere. Coby opens up more and more, talks about a repressed topic. At the same time, she gets to show a wholly different side of herself, performing song and dance numbers in front of her daughter’s lens.

Anke Leweke

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Director
Emma van den Berg
Cinematographer
Emma van den Berg
Editor
Emma van den Berg
Producer
Emma van den Berg
Co-Producer
Imoje Aikhoje
Sound
Jack Evans, Peter Sant
Score
Joel Whitaker
Funder
Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds
Filmstill Will You Look at Me

Will You Look at Me

Dang wo wang xiang ni de shi hou
Shuli Huang
International Competition Short Film 2022
Documentary Film
China
2022
20 minutes
Chinese
Subtitles: 
English

The summer after graduation: Own life plans and expectations of the parents’ generation collide. While Shuli films his friends with a Super 8 camera, his mother wants nothing more than for him to get married. She resolutely refuses to speak about the fact that her son loves men and has been living with his boyfriend in Beijing for years. A deafening silence. Idyllic family pictures are overlaid by a long overdue confrontation.

Marie Kloos

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Director
Shuli Huang
Cinematographer
Shuli Huang
Editor
Shuli Huang
Producer
Shuli Huang
Sound
Nicolas Verhaeghe, Jingxi Guo
World Sales
Flavio Armone
Winner of: Golden Dove Short Documentary (International Competition Short Film)
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William Jefferson Wilderness

William Jefferson Wilderness
Ben Young
International Competition Short Film 2020
Documentary Film
UK,
USA
2020
6 minutes
English
Subtitles: 
English

An inventive examination of the legacy of the 1990s: In his experimental short film, Ben Young portrays the figure of the then U.S. president – whom he is said to have met once in person in Louisville, Kentucky – as a foil for the questionable political developments, the beginnings of a globalised world and a society marked by collective amnesia. The director’s intelligent, witty and very personal reckoning with Bill Clinton.

Borjana Gaković

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Director
Ben Young
Script
Ben Young
Editor
Theo Watkins
Producer
Ben Young
Sound
Emily Wiles, Jack Eyres
Animation
Theo Watkins
Beyond Animation 2023
Filmstill Winchester Trilogy: 1906
Winchester Trilogy: 1906
Jeremy Blake
The centrepiece of Jeremy Blake’s moving triptych looks into the heart of the Winchester House. Hit hard by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, interior construction continued nonetheless. Only differently.
Filmstill Winchester Trilogy: 1906

Winchester Trilogy: 1906

Winchester Trilogy: 1906
Jeremy Blake
Beyond Animation 2023
Animated Film
USA
2003
21 minutes
without dialogue
Subtitles: 
None

How much do staircases and doors leading nowhere in the Californian Winchester House reveal about the owner’s superstitions and how much about the years of converting and rebuilding after the 1906 earthquake? In the centrepiece of his trilogy, Jeremy Blake fills the labyrinthine interiors of this architectural rarity with unreal light and colour apparitions of impressive beauty and oppressive impact.

André Eckardt

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Jeremy Blake