Film Archive

Camera Lucida 2022
Filmstill Salamone, Pampa
Salamone, Pampa
Heinz Emigholz
Concrete hubris looms over the Argentinean pampa around Buenos Aires. The buildings of Francisco Salamone (1897–1959) advertise a pitiless modern age.
Filmstill Salamone, Pampa

Salamone, Pampa

Salamone, Pampa
Heinz Emigholz
Camera Lucida 2022
Documentary Film
Germany
2022
62 minutes
without dialogue
Subtitles: 
None

Slaughterhouses with concrete blades on top, monumental cemetery gates in the plains: Architect Francisco Salamone (1897–1959) shaped the image of the Argentinean pampa around Buenos Aires. In part 34 of his “Photography and beyond” series, Heinz Emigholz once more probes architecture for biographical traces. Salamone, who immigrated from Sicily as a child, realised his ideas between 1936 and 1940, when Mussolini’s Italy re-discovered architecture as an ideological craft.

Axes seem to be buried in the façade of the Coronel Pringles city hall. Elsewhere, stone tree fungi grow. And in front of the Saldungaray cemetery, viewed from the rear, a giant pancake or satellite dish forms, while in front the head of a suffering Jesus protrudes from the concrete. Monumental designs, occasionally incorporating elements of Art Deco or Italian Futurism, towering in the sky and advertising importance. Francisco Salamone worked in the years of the “Década infame”, that infamous decade followed shortly afterwards by the presidency of Juan Perón. The buildings seem inhospitable and full of hubris. They are supposed to herald modernity and progress and yet loomed terrifyingly over the peasantry of the country. Heinz Emigholz documents these intimidating buildings from every conceivable angle.
Carolin Weidner

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Heinz Emigholz
Script
Heinz Emigholz
Cinematographer
Heinz Emigholz, Till Beckmann
Editor
Till Beckmann, Heinz Emigholz
Producer
Irene von Alberti, Frieder Schlaich
Sound
Esteban Bellotto, Christian Obermaier, Jochen Jezussek
World Sales
Frieder Schlaich
Filmstill Salute to the Sun

Salute to the Sun

Pozdrav suncu
Darko Masnec
Competition for the Audience Award Short Film 2022
Animated Film
Croatia
2022
9 minutes
without dialogue
Subtitles: 
None

It’s lonely out in space and only the sun can warm you. In his imaginative 2D animation, Darko Masnec makes lines come alive and breathes life into abstract geometrical figures, as if Paul Klee and the Shadoks were celebrating a colourful banquet of metamorphoses. Stylised forms sprout luminescent organic compounds that tell a touching love story in outer space.

Christoph Terhechte

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Darko Masnec
Script
Darko Masnec, Lana Cirkveni
Cinematographer
Darko Masnec
Editor
Darko Masnec
Producer
Stjepan Milas
Sound
Luka Smetiško
Sound Design
Luka Smetiško
Score
Luka Smetiško
Animation
Darko Masnec, Anita Kos, Stjepan Milas
World Sales
Vanja Andrijević
Nominated for: mephisto 97.6 Audience Award
German Competition 2022
Filmstill Slaughterhouses of Modernity
Slaughterhouses of Modernity
Heinz Emigholz
From the Argentinean pampa to the Bolivian highlands to the middle of Berlin: a trenchant critique of German history in its most visible manifestation, architecture.
Filmstill Slaughterhouses of Modernity

Slaughterhouses of Modernity

Schlachthäuser der Moderne
Heinz Emigholz
German Competition 2022
Documentary Film
Germany
2022
80 minutes
German
Subtitles: 
English

An Argentinean builder who has built council halls, cemetery gates and abattoirs in the pampa as if from a modernist assembly line. Then a Bolivian architect, whose gaudy functional buildings in the highland defy description and imagination. Last, but not least, a new old palace in the middle of Berlin. Connections are plentiful, none of them edifying. Heinz Emigholz uses them for a pamphlet against stylistic amnesia and historical falsification.

The first film in Heinz Emigholz’s series “Photography and beyond” was released in 1983 and, including the two works screened by DOK Leipzig this year in the Camera Lucida section, there are now 35. But although “Slaughterhouses of Modernity” uses a number of sequences from the other two works, it has little in common with them in terms of form and ductus. While the aforementioned rather minimalist films do without commentary and partly without inserts, this one is characterised by its edgy monologues and courageous use of stylistic inconsistencies. Polemics and black humour are not unusual in Emigholz’s universe. But one has never seen him spoiling for a fight as gleefully as in this complex exploration of German history and its ugly manifestations. Not so much a late work as a new departure.
Christoph Terhechte

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Heinz Emigholz
Script
Heinz Emigholz
Cinematographer
Till Beckmann, Heinz Emigholz
Editor
Heinz Emigholz, Till Beckmann
Producer
Frieder Schlaich, Irene von Alberti
Co-Producer
Rolf Bergmann
Sound
Esteban Bellotto, Rainer Gerlach, Christian Obermaier, Jochen Jezussek
Score
Kiev Stingl
World Sales
Frieder Schlaich
Key Collaborator
Angel Cordero Siles
Narrator
Susanne Bredehöft, Heinz Emigholz, Kiev Stingl, Stefan Kolosko, Arno Brandlhuber
Nominated for: VER.DI Prize for Solidarity, Humanity and Fairness
Kids DOK 2022
Filmstill Soon May the Musifants Come
Soon May the Musifants Come
Meike Fehre
Ship ahoy, the musifants are afloat again! Charlie and Grandpa Günter get mail from the small green cactus in New Zealand. They set sail, singing their special shanty.
Filmstill Soon May the Musifants Come

Soon May the Musifants Come

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

Ship ahoy, the musifants are back! This time, Charlie and Grandpa Günter get mail from the small green cactus in New Zealand and set sail with Fox and Captain Krause. On the way, they fish the little wild sow Svenja from the sea and sing their special shanty. The waves rise when the retired circus elephant makes musical forays into 1920s and 1930s song collections.

Lina Dinkla

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Meike Fehre
Cinematographer
Sabine Dully
Editor
Thomas Schmidl
Producer
Meike Fehre
Co-Producer
Nina Paysen
Sound
Günter Röhn
Score
Eike Hosenfeld, Moritz Denis
Animation
Vera Lalyko
World Sales
Sara Cooper
Broadcaster
RBB Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg
Dancing in the Dark 2022
Filmstill Serpentine Dance
Serpentine Dance
Louis Lumière, Auguste Lumière
In the early days of cinema, audiences were hungry for pictures bursting with vitality. The serpentine dance with its graceful shifting patterns, and in colour, satisfied their wish.
1897
Filmstill Serpentine Dance

Serpentine Dance

Danse serpentine
Louis Lumière, Auguste Lumière
Dancing in the Dark 2022
Documentary Film
France
1897
1 minute
without dialogue
Subtitles: 
None

Movement, movement: In the early days of cinema, audiences were hungry for pictures bursting with vitality. For many film pioneers, the subject par excellence was the serpentine dance, which produced graceful shifting patterns by means of ample veils. The Lumière brothers additionally had the film hand-coloured, frame by frame, reinforcing the vivid expression of the dynamic body geometries.

André Eckardt

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Louis Lumière, Auguste Lumière
Cinematographer
Louis Lumière, Auguste Lumière
Producer
Louis Lumière, Auguste Lumière
Extended Reality 2022
Filmstill Seven Grams
Seven Grams
Karim Ben Khelifa
Our everyday digital life is unthinkable without mobile phones. But what natural and human resources does the tech industry require for this innovation?
2021
Filmstill Seven Grams

Seven Grams

Seven Grams
Karim Ben Khelifa
Extended Reality 2022
XR
France,
USA,
UK
2021
24 minutes
English,
French,
German

Our everyday digital life is unthinkable without smartphones. Across the world, more than five billion such devices are in circulation. Each one of those is even touched more than 2,600 times per day. This AR experience takes us through the hidden history of this technology and thus into the Democratic Republic of the Congo. What natural and human resources does the tech industry require for its innovations?

Lars Rummel

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Executive Producer
Chloé Jarry, Opeyemi Olukemi
Production Company
Lucid Realities
Animation
TT Hernandez
AR Developer
Novelab
Sound
Frank Weber
Script
Karim Ben Khelifa, Juan B. Diaz
Key Collaborator
Quentin Noirfalisse
Director
Karim Ben Khelifa
Animation Perspectives 2022
Filmstill Shape of Appetite [excerpt]
Shape of Appetite [excerpt]
Tang Han, Xiaopeng Zhou
Magnificent works of art made of fruit once lent the Chinese restaurant business a radiant glamour. Today they are overshadowed by a heavily economised food culture.
Filmstill Shape of Appetite [excerpt]

Shape of Appetite [excerpt]

Shi yu de xing zhuang [excerpt]
Tang Han, Xiaopeng Zhou
Animation Perspectives 2022
Documentary Film
China
2017
5 minutes
Chinese
Subtitles: 
English

A giant ginger mountain landscape that five cooks spent a week to make: Once magnificent culinary works of art were created in Chinese restaurants. Food was associated with a wealth of money and time. The world today is short-lived, customers have become few and far between. Chefs talk about the connection between food culture and socio-economic change in China.

André Eckardt

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Tang Han, Xiaopeng Zhou
Producer
Tang Han, Xiaopeng Zhou
Kids DOK 2022
Filmstill Shirampari: Legacies of the River
Shirampari: Legacies of the River
Lucía Flórez
Ricky is a boy from the Ashéninka tribe who lives with his family in the Peruvian Amazon Forest. He wants to overcome his fears and goes hunting for a huge catfish.
Filmstill Shirampari: Legacies of the River

Shirampari: Legacies of the River

Shirampari: Herencias del río
Lucía Flórez
Kids DOK 2022
Documentary Film
Peru,
Spain,
USA
2022
15 minutes
Ashéninka
Subtitles: 
English, German (Overvoice)

Ricky is a boy from the Ashéninka tribe who lives with his family deep in the Peruvian Amazon Forest. But even here, the children’s favourite pastime is watching videos on their mobile phones. One day, Ricky is faced with the task of overcoming his fears and going hunting for a huge catfish that can only be caught by hook. This is where his journey to adulthood begins.

Lina Dinkla

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Lucía Flórez
Cinematographer
Diego Pérez
Editor
Dana Bonilla
Producer
Chémi Pérez
Sound
Irazema Vera
Sound Design
Martin Baus
Score
Martin Baus
Filmstill Silent Love

Silent Love

Silent Love
Marek Kozakiewicz
Panorama Middle and Eastern Europe 2022
Documentary Film
Germany,
Poland
2022
72 minutes
Polish
Subtitles: 
English

The rules in rural Poland are clear: Every man must have a woman; every dancer must have a female dancer. The pubescent Miłosz feels safe here, especially after his mother’s death. His sister Agnieszka, who is in a long-distance relationship with her friend Majka, does everything to obtain custody of her little brother. Gradually, a new family model is revealed, documented by Marek Kozakiewicz as an attempt that is as restrained as it is determined.

The windmills behind the houses rotate steadily, standing in place, signalling stability. But the lives of Miłosz and his 35-year-old sister are in turmoil. They are facing a red-tape marathon to make Agnieska his legal guardian: Both have been orphans for a few months. Director Marek Kozakiewicz depicts the establishment of a new family no one expects much applause for in conservative Poland. Because for Agnieszka and her partner, who is ten years older, the determination to try living together manifests tentatively. Without kisses, without celebrations, the decision almost casually becomes reality – the women are exploring the boundary between platonic tenderness and enforced secrecy. And Miłosz, too, seems to realise only slowly what the relationship between Majka and Agnieszka really is.
Carolin Weidner

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Marek Kozakiewicz
Script
Marek Kozakiewicz
Cinematographer
Marek Kozakiewicz
Editor
Anna Garncarczyk, Agata Cierniak
Producer
Agnieszka Skalska, Alexandre Tondowski
Co-Producer
Ira Tondowski
Sound
Marek Kozakiewicz
Score
Bartosz Bludau
Broadcaster
Thomas Beyer, Catherine Le Goff
Winner of: MDR Film Prize
Filmstill Silver Bird and Rainbow Fish

Silver Bird and Rainbow Fish

Silver Bird and Rainbow Fish
Lei Lei
Competition for the Audience Award 2022
Animated Film
USA,
Netherlands
2022
104 minutes
Chinese
Subtitles: 
English

The tumultuous 1960s in China as a collage of archival images, clay figures and interviews. Lei Lei lets his father and his grandfather talk, about bicycles and bank clerks, about life in the countryside, re-education and class enemies. Their memories generate a multicoloured surreal world that is an enchanting fantasy of the time before and during the Cultural Revolution.

In his second feature-length film, artist and animation filmmaker Lei Lei once more takes up experiences of family members and uncovers a piece of national history via private stories. For more than six years, he collected family photos, postcards, propaganda images and old films. On this backdrop he forms and moves his characters made of gum-like pastel modelling clay, whose colourful, almost childlike appearance supports the impression that this is where a grandson imagines the anecdotal memoirs of his ancestors. But this imaginative animation is anything but naïve: It takes the time to accommodate the detours and pauses in the narrative and takes us – by means of a restrained soundscape, too – deep into a universe where one can lose oneself.
Marie Kloos

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Lei Lei
Script
Lei Lei
Cinematographer
Lei Lei
Editor
Lei Lei, Patrick Minks
Producer
Isabelle Glachant, Lei Lei
Co-Producer
Bruno Felix, Janneke van de Kerkhof, Femke Wolting
Score
Tessa Rose Jackson, Darius Timmer
Animation
Lei Lei
World Sales
Lya Li
Kids DOK 2022
Filmstill Sister
Sister
Kasia K. Pieróg
Two sisters travel to the realm of clouds on a paper plane, in search of the big tree with the golden leaf. Slowly they get closer to each other and their goal.
Filmstill Sister

Sister

Siostra
Kasia K. Pieróg
Kids DOK 2022
Animated Film
Poland
2022
12 minutes
without dialogue
Subtitles: 
None

Two sisters travel to the realm of clouds on a paper plane. They are looking for the big tree with the golden leaf. Their plane has to be mended again and again, and the big sister is worried. When she falls ill, the little sister takes control. Slowly they get closer to each other and their goal on this arduous journey.

Lina Dinkla

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Kasia K. Pieróg
Editor
Kasia K. Pieróg
Producer
Marcin Podolec
Sound
Kacper Zamar
Score
Hubert Zemler
Animation
Kasia K. Pieróg, Jakub Baniak, Agnieszka Czachór, Przemysław Świdada, Dudek Pulit, Michalina Musialik, Adrianna Matwiejczuk, Karolina Kajetanowicz, Alicja Grotuz
Filmstill Sliver Cave

Sliver Cave

Yin mu
Caibei Cai
International Competition Short Film 2022
Animated Film
China
2022
14 minutes
Chinese
Subtitles: 
English

Bizarre animations of strange beauty on a metal plate, set to Free Jazz. Light reflexes. Lines and circles that take on human or insect form, merge and dissolve. Sometimes a voice from offscreen gives directions, demands a new plate. Then everything starts again – but differently. The realization dawns slowly: This is an expedition to an underworld that generates silently communicating ghost lights.

Anke Leweke

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Caibei Cai
Script
Caibei Cai
Cinematographer
Leilei Xia, Suwen Chen
Editor
Caibei Cai
Producer
Caibei Cai, Shuolu Si
Animation
Caibei Cai, Jie Shen
Winner of: Mephisto 97.6 Audience Award
Filmstill Slow Light

Slow Light

Slow Light
Katarzyna Kijek, Przemysław Adamski
Competition for the Audience Award Short Film 2022
Animated Film
Poland,
Portugal
2022
11 minutes
English
Subtitles: 
None

Born blind, the hero of this film turns seven before he begins to see images from the past that soon follow him like a curse. Like the stars in the night sky, what he sees has often long since passed away and gone out. In this tragic masterpiece by the directing duo Kijek/Adamski, the almost tangible pastel-coloured cut-out technique of the present-day narrative contrasts with delicate black and white 2D animations that represent the shadows of what is lost.

Christoph Terhechte

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Katarzyna Kijek, Przemysław Adamski
Script
Katarzyna Kijek, Przemysław Adamski
Cinematographer
Katarzyna Kijek, Przemysław Adamski
Editor
Katarzyna Kijek, Przemysław Adamski
Producer
Piotr Szczepanowicz, Grzegorz Wacławek
Co-Producer
Przemysław Adamski, Katarzyna Kijek, Bruno Caetano
Sound
Philip Lenkowsky, Carlos Abreu, Miguel Gonçlaves
Score
Piotr Kaliński
Animation
Katarzyna Kijek, Przemysław Adamski, Ala Nunu, João Gonzalez, Jakub Kaczmarek, Bartosz Stępnik, Hugo Sequeria
World Sales
Luce Grosjean
Nominated for: mephisto 97.6 Audience Award
Time to Act! 2022
Filmstill Sog
Sog
Jonatan Schwenk
A demonstration set in an apocalyptic fantasy world with parable-like references to reality of how creatures (can) react when they are confronted with existential misery.
Filmstill Sog

Sog

Sog
Jonatan Schwenk
Time to Act! 2022
Animated Film
Germany
2017
11 minutes
without dialogue
Subtitles: 
None

With his multiple award-winning animation, Jonatan Schwenk has created a haunting parable about compassion and solidarity. Mute creatures with burning eyes suddenly find themselves confronted with the distress of another species. At first their reaction is hesitant and stoic. But when the other species’ misery begins to disturb their peace of mind, they take action … “Sog” captivates with many creative ideas on the level of animation, succeeding in creating archaic images that look both abstract and realistic. Without a single word, the film makes us experience what a lack of empathy can lead to and that there are always at least two options for action.

Luc-Carolin Ziemann

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Jonatan Schwenk
Script
Jonatan Schwenk, Merlin Flügel
Cinematographer
Iván Robles Mendoza
Producer
Jonatan Schwenk
Sound
Jonatan Schwenk
Animation
Jonatan Schwenk
Soul-Things 2022
Filmstill Son of Satan
Son of Satan
J.J. Villard
Children who play judges teach the neighbour’s boy a lesson. A scenario of bullying, based on Charles Bukowski, shows murderous group dynamics in rough comic book style.
Filmstill Son of Satan

Son of Satan

Son of Satan
J.J. Villard
Soul-Things 2022
Animated Film
USA
2003
12 minutes
English
Subtitles: 
None

A harrowing scenario of bullying based on a short story by Charles Bukowski, whose language is translated authentically into a rough comic book style. A children’s gang teach the neighbour’s boy a lesson. It’s their duty, the self-styled righteous ones tell themselves. What starts out like a game in a framework of dominance and banal irrationality escalates into murderous group dynamics.

Malte Stein

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
J.J. Villard
Cinematographer
J.J. Villard
Editor
J.J. Villard
Producer
California Institute of Arts
Animation
J.J. Villard
Filmstill Steakhouse

Steakhouse

Steakhouse
Špela Čadež
Slowenian Animation 2022
Animated Film
Slovenia,
Germany,
France
2021
10 minutes
Slovenian
Subtitles: 
English

Coupledom has its own dynamics. Her professional obligations do not tick by the clock, his cooking and love are extraordinary, but, alas, precisely timed. This all too familiar incompatibility is condensed into murky, acrid roast fumes. What was intended as a pleasant evening for two ends civilized, but bloody: black humour, “well done”.

André Eckardt

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Špela Čadež
Script
Gregor Zorc
Cinematographer
Špela Čadež
Editor
Iva Kraljević
Producer
Tina Smrekar, Špela Čadež
Co-Producer
Emmanuel-Alain Raynal, Pierre Baussaron, Fabian Driehorst
Sound
Johanna Wienert
Score
Olfamož, Tomaž Grom
Animation
Špela Čadež, Anka Kočevar, Zarja Menart, Clémentine Robach
World Sales
Luce Grosjean