Film Archive

German Competition Short Film 2021
Media Name: 77317203-261f-4fb1-9754-3d16f8a724e9.jpg
Happytrail
Jakob Werner, Thea Sparmeier, Pauline Cremer
Animated documentary about female body hair, social illusions and self-love. An appeal for creative (hair) art on legs, bellies and arms: Let it grow!
Media Name: 77317203-261f-4fb1-9754-3d16f8a724e9.jpg

Happytrail

Glückspfad
Jakob Werner, Thea Sparmeier, Pauline Cremer
German Competition Short Film 2021
Animated Film
Germany
2021
5 minutes
German
Subtitles: 
English, German Subtitles for deaf and hard-of-hearing

How does a woman deal with the hair that grows other than on her head? A young woman talks about her journey between first depilation attempts, recurring frustration and slowly, but steadily growing pride in her own body. With verve, humour and honesty, this short, animated documentary visualizes a subject that’s all too often hushed up or shaved off. Strong performance, great cinema!

Luc-Carolin Ziemann

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Jakob Werner, Thea Sparmeier, Pauline Cremer
Cinematographer
Hannes Schulze
Producer
Jakob Werner, Thea Sparmeier, Pauline Cremer
Sound
Nils Plambeck
Score
Sebastian Farnbacher
Animation
Thea Sparmeier, Jakob Werner
Narrator
Franka Geiser
Winner of: Honourable Mention (German Competition Short Film)
German Competition Short Film 2020
Media Name: afd1a07f-7982-4511-9f5f-7cd4c0789cdc.jpg
Haeberli
Moritz Mueller-Preisser
A portrait of a happy cynic and lateral thinker who has persevered for years in a legal dispute over his dilapidated house with authorities in the luxury spa town of St. Moritz.
Media Name: afd1a07f-7982-4511-9f5f-7cd4c0789cdc.jpg

Haeberli

Haeberli
Moritz Mueller-Preisser
German Competition Short Film 2020
Documentary Film
Germany
2019
29 minutes
English,
German,
Swiss German
Subtitles: 
English

Is he crazy or a genius? An impoverished compulsive hoarder or a millionaire? Many legends surround octogenarian Adolf Haeberli, who lives in a cramped and dilapidated house in the luxury spa town of St. Moritz. For some residents his home is an eyesore, while for others it’s a creative place of resistance. Haeberli himself thinks he was born under a lucky star. In this humorous but never exposing portrait of a lateral thinker, every voice is heard.

Annina Wettstein

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Moritz Mueller-Preisser
Script
Moritz Mueller-Preisser
Cinematographer
Holger Jungnickel
Editor
Hauke von Stietencron
Producer
Elena Erbenich, Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film München
Sound
Michael Urs Heber, David Preute
Score
Sebastian Fillenberg
Kids DOK 2022
Filmstill Half for You, Half for Me
Half for You, Half for Me
Agnieszka Jurek
The yellow banana beckons from the fruit basket; it’s peeled in no time and about to disappear in the mouth. But the little elephant wants a piece, too. A piece for you, a piece for me.
Filmstill Half for You, Half for Me

Half for You, Half for Me

Hälfte Hälfte
Agnieszka Jurek
Kids DOK 2022
Animated Film
Germany
2022
4 minutes
German
Subtitles: 
None

The yellow banana beckons from the fruit basket; it’s peeled in no time and about to disappear in the mouth. But stop! Before you can at last take the first bite, you have to share. The banana becomes smaller and smaller. The elephant, too, wants a piece of the sweet fruit. A piece for you, a piece for me … A little film about the joys of sharing.

Lina Dinkla

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Agnieszka Jurek
Script
Agnieszka Jurek
Cinematographer
Agnieszka Jurek
Editor
Agnieszka Jurek
Producer
Agnieszka Jurek
Sound
Carsten Aschmann
Sound Design
Carsten Aschmann
Score
Carsten Aschmann
Animation
Agnieszka Jurek
Narrator
Fanny Aschmann
Media Name: 4bd1edad-481a-4991-bef2-d91604b9abc6.png

Handbook

Handbuch
Pavel Mozhar
German Competition Short Film 2021
Documentary Film
Germany
2021
29 minutes
Russian,
German
Subtitles: 
German

A felicitous and at the same time almost unbearable cinematic experimental set-up that uses documentary means to show what the Belarusian reality behind the news items looks like. Based on eyewitness accounts, Pavel Mozhar re-stages Lukashenko’s perfidious and oppression-based power system. Violence in the shape of detailed reconstructions may seem abstract at first glance but drills itself into our consciousness all the more persistently in the course of the film.

Luc-Carolin Ziemann

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Pavel Mozhar
Cinematographer
Jonas Römmig
Editor
Florian Seufert, Pavel Mozhar
Producer
Pavel Mozhar, Kolja Wolle
Sound
Joscha Eickel, Bertold Budig, Ganna Gryniva
Animation
Laura Därr
Artistic Design
Friedi Blume
Kids DOK 2020
Media Name: 9c469628-989f-4430-a4dd-c85280a5c3bb.jpeg
Hide and Seek
Felix Golenko, Matthias Wölbing
What’s it like to live as a schoolkid in Germany? Especially when you had to flee here from another country? Three children talk about this, animated drawings provide the images.
Media Name: 9c469628-989f-4430-a4dd-c85280a5c3bb.jpeg

Hide and Seek

Verstecken und Fangen
Felix Golenko, Matthias Wölbing
Kids DOK 2020
Animated Film
Germany
2020
2 minutes
German

Three children and their families have fled from crisis areas and found a new home in Germany. What are their wishes for the future, their dreams? The conversations with the three were turned into animated children’s drawings. We see a schoolkid’s life from their perspective.

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Felix Golenko, Matthias Wölbing
Producer
Christine Duttlinger
Sound
Michael Bötticher
Animation
Sarah Schulz
World Sales
Sigrid Gairing
German Competition Short Film 2021
Media Name: 445f2406-70da-41b6-8870-8122551af1d3.png
Homesick Lungs
Felix Klee
After the loss of the family farm, all that’s left are digital visits via 3D online maps. But the narration is imprecise. The remembered place is reclaimed by image manipulation.
Media Name: 445f2406-70da-41b6-8870-8122551af1d3.png

Homesick Lungs

Hoamweh Lung
Felix Klee
German Competition Short Film 2021
Documentary Film
Germany
2021
14 minutes
German
Subtitles: 
English

Just hold your breath. Perhaps this helps as much against the pain of parting as the stinging nettles of one’s childhood. Sheila died of hay dust in her lungs and it seems as if the family farm died with the horse, too. After its sale, the laconic narrator pays digital visits via 3D online maps. But even the most detailed view says nothing about the grave of the three-legged farm cat. Using animation and image manipulation, he reclaims the remembered place.

André Eckardt

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Felix Klee
Cinematographer
Felix Klee
Editor
Felix Klee
Producer
Felix Klee
Sound
Felix Klee
Animation
Felix Klee
Narrator
Felix Klee
Beyond Animation 2023
Filmstill Homesick Lungs
Homesick Lungs
Felix Klee
The family-owned farm died along with the horse Sheila. The narrator visits the place of his childhood and youth on 3D online maps. The imprecise images need some digital working on.
Filmstill Homesick Lungs

Homesick Lungs

Hoamweh Lung
Felix Klee
Beyond Animation 2023
Documentary Film
Germany
2021
14 minutes
German
Subtitles: 
English

Sheila died of hay dust in the lungs, and the family-owned farm somehow died along with the horse. After it was sold, the narrator visits it digitally on 3D online maps. But even the most detailed view reveals nothing about the grave of the three-legged farm cat. Using animation and image processing, he reclaims the remembered place of his childhood and youth.

André Eckardt

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Felix Klee
Cinematographer
Felix Klee
Editor
Felix Klee
Producer
Felix Klee
Sound
Felix Klee
Animation
Felix Klee
Narrator
Felix Klee
Beyond Animation 2023
Filmstill Home Stories
Home Stories
Matthias Müller
Startled, a scared woman goes to the door … Actresses in such classic Hollywood scenes become one in this montage: an eternal female prisoner of their home and their role.
Filmstill Home Stories

Home Stories

Home Stories
Matthias Müller
Beyond Animation 2023
Experimental Film
Germany
1990
6 minutes
without dialogue
Subtitles: 
None

At home in the uncanny: Startled, a woman turns on the light, hesitates, listens and goes to the door, full of dark forebodings … In this montage of similar scenes from Hollywood melodramas of the 1950s and 1960s, the various actresses merge into a meta-protagonist who experiences the same horror over and over again: She is trapped in her home and in her classic movie role.

André Eckardt

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Matthias Müller
Sound
Dirk Schaefer
German Competition Documentary Film 2023
Filmstill Home Sweet Home
Home Sweet Home
Annika Mayer
Old Super 8 films show domestic happiness, the West German economic miracle, an idyllic home, grandmother Rose as a young woman at the centre. They do not show the violence in Rose’s marriage. Or do they?
Filmstill Home Sweet Home

Home Sweet Home

Home Sweet Home
Annika Mayer
German Competition Documentary Film 2023
Documentary Film
Germany
2023
67 minutes
German
Subtitles: 
English

Rose and Rolf in the still-young FRG. He, 13 years her senior, was in the Second World War. She, who wants to have many children, accepts his proposal and leaves school. Rose watches Super 8 home movies from the fifties, sixties and seventies with her granddaughter Annika Mayer, the director of “Home Sweet Home”: her two boys in short leather pants, a home with a manicured front garden, dad coming home from work, mom cooking soup with sausage links. Rose does not recognise herself in these ideal images of the German economic miracle. This pretty young woman is a stranger to her.

Annika begins to ask questions. Together with her grandmother, she starts to look for traces of domestic violence in the latter’s marriage, which is invisible in the films. But Rose’s open narratives gradually make her experiences tangible. What biographical abysses may lurk behind Rolf’s proud smile? Judiciously deployed slow motion effects dissect the apparent domestic happiness. Atonal and hyperrealistic sounds lie under the distorted soundtrack. The birds sing all too happily, the idyll suddenly seems deceptive.

Anke Leweke

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Annika Mayer
Script
Annika Mayer
Cinematographer
Jakob Krese
Editor
Annika Mayer
Producer
Annika Mayer, Jakob Krese
Sound Design
Gaston Ibarroule
Score
Gaston Ibarroule
Nominated for: VER.DI Prize for Solidarity, Humanity and Fairness, DEFA Sponsoring Prize
Media Name: 73950bb7-09d8-4d69-912f-02af821a0d42.jpg

Hotel Astoria

Hotel Astoria
Falk Schuster, Alina Cyranek
Competition for the Audience Award Short Film 2020
Animated Film
Germany
2020
28 minutes
German
Subtitles: 
English

Everyone in Leipzig is familiar with the Hotel Astoria, which has stood vacant since 1996. This film takes a look back to the time when the hotel was the hotspot of the trade fair city, where professionals, politicians and guests from all over the world were entertained with the greatest possible GDR pomp. But the Stasi also came and went in the hotel. The story of an exciting chapter in the city’s history is told with archive material, staff reports, and the distinctive animations by Falk Schuster.

Kim Busch

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Falk Schuster, Alina Cyranek
Script
Alina Cyranek
Editor
Alina Cyranek, Falk Schuster
Producer
Alina Cyranek, Falk Schuster
Co-Producer
MDR Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk
Sound
Florian Marquardt
Score
Florian Marquardt
Animation
Falk Schuster, Tim Romanowsky, Alexander Schmidt, Julian Quitsch
Filmstill Hysteresis

Hysteresis

Hysteresis
Robert Seidel
Dancing in the Dark 2022
Experimental Film
Germany
2021
5 minutes
without dialogue
Subtitles: 
None

The term hysteresis soberly describes a processual behaviour where the previous history affects the result as much as new changes. Robert Seidel enters analogue drawings, performance footage of the queer dancer Tsuki and pluck sounds and drones by Oval into a feedback system that reorganises time and movement in a multicoloured and sensual organic tableau.

André Eckardt

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Robert Seidel
Producer
Robert Seidel
Score
Oval
Performer
Tsuki
German Competition 2021
Media Name: 0e4e778f-e4cf-4f82-8667-87ce8ec04642.jpg
Head Fist Flag – Perspectives on the Thälmann Memorial
Betina Kuntzsch
Ten cinematic perspectives on a historical site: Ernst Thälmann Park in East Berlin. In 1986, an old gasworks made way for a housing estate – and a controversial monument.
Media Name: 0e4e778f-e4cf-4f82-8667-87ce8ec04642.jpg

Head Fist Flag – Perspectives on the Thälmann Memorial

Kopf Faust Fahne – Perspektiven auf das Thälmanndenkmal
Betina Kuntzsch
German Competition 2021
Documentary Film
Germany
2021
47 minutes
German
Subtitles: 
English

For technical reasons – too massive! – this 50-ton bronze colossus was not demolished in 1993. Today it is listed as a historical monument, along with the associated housing estate. A relic from the old days: Today, the raised fist of the former German Communist Party leader and erstwhile GDR hero Ernst Thälmann in the Prenzlauer Berg park defies the collective forgetting of a not-so-long-ago past instead of heralding the victory of communism.

In 1986, an old municipal gasworks in East Berlin made way for a housing estate – and a monument that was controversial even then. Partly imagined, partly remembered and extensively researched throughout, Betina Kuntzsch assembles a complex narrative as part of her project “Vom Sockel Denken” about the Ernst-Thälmann-Memorial in Berlin: about a place full of history, viewed from ten different perspectives. In her omnibus film she skilfully uses various aesthetic and research tools. The successful combination of own footage, animation, archive material and oral history generates a kind of kaleidoscope, a gem of historiographic documentary-making and a parcours through a whole range of documentary film genres.
Borjana Gaković

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Betina Kuntzsch
Script
Betina Kuntzsch
Cinematographer
Sven Boeck, Martin Langner, Claire Roggan
Editor
Betina Kuntzsch
Producer
Maria Wischnewski
Sound
Michael Walz
Score
Joachim Gies
Animation
Betina Kuntzsch