Film Archive

Jahr

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Fati’s Choice

Le choix de Fati
Fatimah Dadzie
International Competition 2021
Documentary Film
Ghana,
South Africa
2021
45 minutes
English
Subtitles: 
English

A beach reminds us of Fati’s recent past. She came to Italy by sea, without papers, pregnant for the fifth time. Longing for her children, she returned to Ghana six months later – without her husband. The people around her can’t understand this decision. “You’ve created a mess,” a friend says. “How do I tell people?” a sister asks. But Fati wants to provide for her family, even though she still has to liberate three of her children from the custody of her in-laws.

Numerous recent documentaries have been dedicated to the experiences of people who arrive in the EU and get caught in the degrading conditions of asylum politics, but this work by Ghanaian director Fatimah Dadzie offers a change of perspective. In Fati’s hometown, Europe is considered a paradise – and what fool would voluntarily run away from there? The decision has lost the returnee all prestige. Her social exclusion is shown here by relatives as talking heads, directly in front of the camera. But when the film overlays everyday images of care work or street hawking with Fati’s voiceover, it gives a voice to its steadfast protagonist.
Jan-Philipp Kohlmann

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Fatimah Dadzie
Script
Fatimah Dadzie
Cinematographer
Yao Ladzekpo
Editor
Gloria Adotevi
Producer
Don Edkins, Tiny Mungwe
Co-Producer
Hamid Yakub
Sound
Kofi Sefa
Score
Tito Marshall Gomez
World Sales
Bérénice Hahn
Filmstill Loving in Between

Loving in Between

Loving in Between
Jyoti Mistry
International Competition Documentary Film 2023
Documentary Film
Austria,
South Africa
2023
18 minutes
English
Subtitles: 
None

“Folks, I’m telling you, birthing is hard and dying is mean – so get yourself a little loving in between.” This advice of the African-American civil rights activist and jazz poet Langston Hughes precedes Jyoti Mistry’s found footage storm of images and runs like a guiding line through the archive material, a panopticon of revelries: parties, boxing matches, visits to the beach and above all, time and again, testimonies of lived queer sexuality. Sometimes clandestine, sometimes quite public.

Mistry mirrors the uninhibitedness of her sources in the way she arranges them – not neatly staggered but boldly mixed. The associative editing often virtually leaps into the images, linking them with purple colour explosions and three-dimensional animations of shoals of fish. On the soundtrack, a spoken word performance joins multi-channel dubbed noises and countless variations of the jazz standard “Diga Diga Doo.” This is how the film wrests its testimonies from the past and returns them to their inherent liveliness and transgressive explosive power.

Felix Mende

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Jyoti Mistry
Script
Jyoti Mistry, Napo Masheane, Kgafela oa Magogodi
Editor
Nikki Comninos
Producer
Florian Schattauer
Sound Design
Peter Cornell
Score
Nishlyn Ramanna
Animation
The Kinetic
World Sales
Gerald Weber
Kids DOK 2021
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Njel, the Separation
Félix Mbog
Manuela was four years old when her parents went abroad to work. She is growing up with her grandparents in Cameroon and has learned to cope with absence.
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Njel, the Separation

Njel, la séparation
Félix Mbog
Kids DOK 2021
Documentary Film
Cameroon,
South Africa
2021
22 minutes
French
Subtitles: 
German Subtitles for deaf and hard-of-hearing

Manuela lives in Cameroon and was four years old when her parents went abroad to work. She’s eleven now and preparing for her first graduation. She is growing up with her grandparents and, despite leading a good life, had to struggle with grief for a long time. Now she has learned how to cope with absence and how to be together despite the long distance.

Lina Dinkla

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Félix Mbog
Producer
Don Edkins, Tiny Mungwe, Cyrille Masso
World Sales
Bérénice Hahn
Extended Reality 2023
Filmstill No Place But Here
No Place But Here
Dylan Valley, Annie Nisenson
In 2017, the “Reclaim the City” initiative occupied an unused hospital in Cape Town. Their symbolic protest against the housing shortage became a new home for hundreds of people.
Filmstill No Place But Here

No Place But Here

No Place But Here
Dylan Valley, Annie Nisenson
Extended Reality 2023
XR
South Africa
2022
16 minutes
Afrikaans,
English
Subtitles: 
None

In 2017, the “Reclaim the City” initiative occupied an empty hospital in the Woodstock district of Cape Town. Their symbolic protest against the housing shortage became a new home for hundreds of people: the “Cissie Gool House”. The work conveys intimate insights into an unusual housing project that combats criminalisation by politics and the public.

Lars Rummel

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Producer
Dylan Valley, Annie Nisenson, Alex Hendricks, Valentia Fisher
Production Company
Electric South
Editor
Stephen Abbott
Animation
Shukry Adams, Tara Weber
Sound
Joshua Yon
Sound Design
Rob Brinkworth
Key Collaborator
Faghmeeda Ling, Karen Hendricks, Quintin Moos, Amanda Gericke, Tsukie Bhalindela, Darren Christian, Gear Sponsorship
Director
Dylan Valley, Annie Nisenson
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Stay Up

Reste debout
Aïssata Ouarma
International Competition Short Film 2021
Documentary Film
Burkina Faso,
South Africa
2021
38 minutes
French
Subtitles: 
English

The opening scene shows the anger: It’s about rape. The observing documentary by Aïssata Ouarma is more composed, though, focused on dealing with the trauma and the attempts to come to terms with it through art. The heavily pregnant Mariam attends a theatre education workshop. The camera follows her and her empathetic trainer in moments of mental and physical exertion designed to free her soul – and that of her unborn child – for good.

Borjana Gaković

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Aïssata Ouarma
Script
Aïssata Ouarma
Cinematographer
Abdul Aziz Diallo, Barou Ouédraogo
Editor
Djibril Sanogo, Ernest Kabore
Producer
Don Edkins, Tiny Mungwe
Co-Producer
Sékou Traoré
Sound
Issiaka Diallo
Score
Féïçale Diara
World Sales
Bérénice Hahn
Kids DOK 2021
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The Summer Before Seventh Grade
Kristen van Schie
On a hot June day, the two friends Ádel and Berci, both twelve years old, are lying on a meadow. It’s the summer holidays and they talk about everything that crosses their minds.
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The Summer Before Seventh Grade

The Summer Before Seventh Grade
Kristen van Schie
Kids DOK 2021
Documentary Film
South Africa,
Hungary
2020
9 minutes
Hungarian
Subtitles: 
German Subtitles for deaf and hard-of-hearing

On a hot June day, the two friends Ádel and Berci are lying on a meadow, looking at the clouds. It’s the summer holidays and they are talking about everything that crosses their minds. Berci has a lot of imagination and is looking forward to the next school year. Ádel, on the other hand, is more anxious and worries. The clouds drift past, as fleeting as the summer.

Lina Dinkla

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Kristen van Schie
Cinematographer
Kristen van Schie
Editor
Kristen van Schie
Producer
DocNomads
Sound
Kristen van Schie, Eduardo Saraiva