D
Film Archive
The investigations of the London-based Forensic Architecture collective are always based on two premises: First, state violence leaves traces. Second, decision makers have the power to erase these traces. Their reconstruction of the NSU’s murder of Halit Yozgat was one of the most spectacular works of documenta 14 and nominated for the Turner Prize. The method of their counter investigations: digital modelling, audio analysis, timeline comparisons. Their goal: synthesizing an incident in a precisely defined space-time continuum. Here: What happened on 6 April 2006 within a time span of 9 minutes and 26 seconds in a room of 77 square metres?
Ralph Eue
Ralph Eue
The annotations to the films in the Official Selection were written by the members of the selection committee and guest authors. All quotes from DOK Leipzig catalogue articles must be identified as such and cite the author’s name. Some original titles and names have been transcribed resp. transliterated. We apologise that we cannot cite individual image sources and rights in our festival publications or festival coverage. Please note that the visual material is published exclusively for the purposes of promoting specific films or festival programmes. No transmission to third parties is provided and would only take place with the explicit agreement of the owners of the rights. The rights to the images lie with the respective copyright owners.
An Islington Resident
Max Colson
The London rapper Melanin 9 is a highly critical observer of how the British hip-hop scene reaffirms media stereotypes.
An Islington Resident
Max Colson devotes a photo series and a short documentary to the London rapper Melanin 9. The black musician is a highly critical observer of how the British hip-hop scene reaffirms media stereotypes. Colson is faced with a similar problem: How can he adequately portray his protagonist in documentary terms?
André Eckardt
André Eckardt
The annotations to the films in the Official Selection were written by the members of the selection committee and guest authors. All quotes from DOK Leipzig catalogue articles must be identified as such and cite the author’s name. Some original titles and names have been transcribed resp. transliterated. We apologise that we cannot cite individual image sources and rights in our festival publications or festival coverage. Please note that the visual material is published exclusively for the purposes of promoting specific films or festival programmes. No transmission to third parties is provided and would only take place with the explicit agreement of the owners of the rights. The rights to the images lie with the respective copyright owners.
Ceremony
Phil Collins
What does Manchester in 2017 have in common with the Russian revolution? Friedrich Engels. His theories form the starting point for reflections on the state of contemporary Great Britain.
Ceremony
Documentary Film
Germany,
Ukraine,
UK
2018
67 minutes
subtitles:
English
Credits
Siniša Mitrović, Natasha Dack Ojumu
Phil Collins
Mica Levi, Demdike Stare, Gruff Rhys
Neus Ollé-Soronellas, Joseph Briffa, Jonathan Stow, Alex Large, David Bewick, Pedro Labanca, Federico Funari, Phil Collins, Siniša Mitrović, Matthias Schellenberg
David Charap, Andreas Dalström
Phil Collins
Jochen Jezussek
What do 2017 Manchester and the Russian Revolution 100 years earlier have in common? Friedrich Engels. Before he wrote the Communist Manifesto with Karl Marx, the philosopher and entrepreneur had lived for a few years in the northern English industrial capital of the 19th century. Taking Engels’ communist theories as a starting point, the artist Phil Collins reflects on their topicality: What is the “condition of the working class in England” – the title of one of his main works – today? Wouldn’t Engels be more likely to write about the “working poor”? What are the differences between the past and present “tyranny of capital”, which still seems to have our societies, our life, thinking and actions firmly in its grip? Is that why communism has become a conceivable ideal again?
And Engels himself, too, gets to return to Manchester, in the shape of a statue whose transport from a Ukrainian village to its new home in the former industrial capital of the world the film follows – a many-layered socialist road movie from one of the outer edges of the EU to the (soon to be) other.
Frederik Lang
And Engels himself, too, gets to return to Manchester, in the shape of a statue whose transport from a Ukrainian village to its new home in the former industrial capital of the world the film follows – a many-layered socialist road movie from one of the outer edges of the EU to the (soon to be) other.
Frederik Lang
The annotations to the films in the Official Selection were written by the members of the selection committee and guest authors. All quotes from DOK Leipzig catalogue articles must be identified as such and cite the author’s name. Some original titles and names have been transcribed resp. transliterated. We apologise that we cannot cite individual image sources and rights in our festival publications or festival coverage. Please note that the visual material is published exclusively for the purposes of promoting specific films or festival programmes. No transmission to third parties is provided and would only take place with the explicit agreement of the owners of the rights. The rights to the images lie with the respective copyright owners.
Construction Lines
Max Colson
The luxury real estate project in London goes three floors deep underground. The neighbours imagine perverted orgies and apocalyptic scenes.
Construction Lines
The luxury real estate project of a foreign multimillionaire in London goes three floors deep underground and offers lots of food for bizarre speculations among the neighbours. Using the “SketchUp” planning software, Max Colson visualises all the perverted orgies and apocalyptic scenes imagined by the concerned citizens. The cropped 3D model drifts untethered in the vacuum of prejudice.
André Eckardt
André Eckardt
The annotations to the films in the Official Selection were written by the members of the selection committee and guest authors. All quotes from DOK Leipzig catalogue articles must be identified as such and cite the author’s name. Some original titles and names have been transcribed resp. transliterated. We apologise that we cannot cite individual image sources and rights in our festival publications or festival coverage. Please note that the visual material is published exclusively for the purposes of promoting specific films or festival programmes. No transmission to third parties is provided and would only take place with the explicit agreement of the owners of the rights. The rights to the images lie with the respective copyright owners.
Dark Origins: Mephisto (Preview)
Calum Bowden
A few kilometres underground our flashlights are the only source of light. About thirty years ago, at a place with seemingly impossible living conditions, scientists discovered a hidden ecosystem...
Credits
Calum Bowden
Calum Bowden
Jesse Siminski
Calum Bowden
Tamas Pall
Tamas Pall, Anastasia Semenoff
Tamas Pall
A few kilometres underground our flashlights are the only source of light. About thirty years ago, at a place with seemingly impossible living conditions, scientists discovered a hidden ecosystem that fundamentally changed our understanding of life. Among its inhabitants is the “Mephisto worm”. To explore its dark world at eye level we become as small as the creature.
Lars Rummel, Marie Hinkelmann
Lars Rummel, Marie Hinkelmann
The annotations to the films in the Official Selection were written by the members of the selection committee and guest authors. All quotes from DOK Leipzig catalogue articles must be identified as such and cite the author’s name. Some original titles and names have been transcribed resp. transliterated. We apologise that we cannot cite individual image sources and rights in our festival publications or festival coverage. Please note that the visual material is published exclusively for the purposes of promoting specific films or festival programmes. No transmission to third parties is provided and would only take place with the explicit agreement of the owners of the rights. The rights to the images lie with the respective copyright owners.
De Artificiali Perspectiva or Anamorphosis
Brothers Quay
At the time when the world was discovered, anamorphosis formed a counterpoint to natural representation in Renaissance painting.
De Artificiali Perspectiva or Anamorphosis
Credits
Atelier Koninck QbfZ
Brothers Quay
Leszek Jankowski
Brothers Quay
Brothers Quay
Brothers Quay
Brothers Quay, Roger Cardinal
Larry Sider, Colin Martin
Witold Schejbal
Brothers Quay
At the time when the world was discovered, anamorphosis formed a counterpoint to natural representation in Renaissance painting. Forms are undistorted and decoded into a meaningful image only from a certain perspective. A captivating filmic exploration of a phenomenon that, like animation, reveals a different reality by deceiving the eye.
André Eckardt
André Eckardt
The annotations to the films in the Official Selection were written by the members of the selection committee and guest authors. All quotes from DOK Leipzig catalogue articles must be identified as such and cite the author’s name. Some original titles and names have been transcribed resp. transliterated. We apologise that we cannot cite individual image sources and rights in our festival publications or festival coverage. Please note that the visual material is published exclusively for the purposes of promoting specific films or festival programmes. No transmission to third parties is provided and would only take place with the explicit agreement of the owners of the rights. The rights to the images lie with the respective copyright owners.
Hydebank
Ross McClean
Sheep in front of barbed wire, cared for by a young man who is serving a long sentence in a Northern Irish prison for violent crimes. A look into a touching and poetic world in-between.
Hydebank
Documentary Film
Ireland,
UK
2019
17 minutes
subtitles:
English
Sheep bleat. A young man feeds the small flock while it’s still dark and takes expert care of a newborn lamb. A rising chorus of aggressive male voices in the background. Sheep and men live in a juvenile prison near Belfast. Behind the gates of the sheepfolds and the pasture a high security fence reinforced with NATO wire looms in the morning sky. A mosaic of impressions from a touching and poetic world in-between.
Silvia Hallensleben
Silvia Hallensleben
The annotations to the films in the Official Selection were written by the members of the selection committee and guest authors. All quotes from DOK Leipzig catalogue articles must be identified as such and cite the author’s name. Some original titles and names have been transcribed resp. transliterated. We apologise that we cannot cite individual image sources and rights in our festival publications or festival coverage. Please note that the visual material is published exclusively for the purposes of promoting specific films or festival programmes. No transmission to third parties is provided and would only take place with the explicit agreement of the owners of the rights. The rights to the images lie with the respective copyright owners.
In Absentia
Brothers Quay
The pain-driven state of mind of a woman who was undergoing psychiatric treatment. Convulsive writing movements, black graphite and surging sounds of Karlheinz Stockhausen.
In Absentia
Animated Film
UK
2000
20 minutes
subtitles:
_without dialogue / subtitles
Credits
Atelier Koninck QbfZ, BBC, Pipeline Films!
Brothers Quay
Karlheinz Stockhausen
Brothers Quay
Brothers Quay
Brothers Quay
Brothers Quay
Marlene Kaminsky
The Prinzhorn Collection contains two closely written pages of imploring repetitions of words by a woman who was undergoing psychiatric treatment in the 1910s. Her pain-driven state of mind “materialises” in the film in convulsive writing movements, in the black graphite of the pen and in animated shapes of light set to the surging sounds of Karlheinz Stockhausen.
André Eckardt
André Eckardt
The annotations to the films in the Official Selection were written by the members of the selection committee and guest authors. All quotes from DOK Leipzig catalogue articles must be identified as such and cite the author’s name. Some original titles and names have been transcribed resp. transliterated. We apologise that we cannot cite individual image sources and rights in our festival publications or festival coverage. Please note that the visual material is published exclusively for the purposes of promoting specific films or festival programmes. No transmission to third parties is provided and would only take place with the explicit agreement of the owners of the rights. The rights to the images lie with the respective copyright owners.
Institute Benjamenta or This Dream People Call Human Life
Brothers Quay
Jakob enters the Benjamenta siblings’ servants’ school. The protagonist of Robert Walser’s novel “Jakob von Gunten” becomes an observer of a place that lies still and dreams.
Institute Benjamenta or This Dream People Call Human Life
Feature Film
Germany,
Japan,
UK
1995
105 minutes
subtitles:
German
Jakob enters the Benjamenta siblings’ servants’ school. The protagonist of Robert Walser’s novel “Jakob von Gunten”, which was published in 1909, becomes an observer of a place that lies still and dreams. The pupils still take mysterious exercises, for example the canon of the singing forks. But the soul of the institute glows in hidden chambers. The Brothers Quay’s first feature film features a brilliant cast, but breathes the spirit of animation. Just as Walser’s language personifies matter and states of being and objectifies persons, objects, light and the forest take over that role in the film.
André Eckardt
André Eckardt
The annotations to the films in the Official Selection were written by the members of the selection committee and guest authors. All quotes from DOK Leipzig catalogue articles must be identified as such and cite the author’s name. Some original titles and names have been transcribed resp. transliterated. We apologise that we cannot cite individual image sources and rights in our festival publications or festival coverage. Please note that the visual material is published exclusively for the purposes of promoting specific films or festival programmes. No transmission to third parties is provided and would only take place with the explicit agreement of the owners of the rights. The rights to the images lie with the respective copyright owners.
Le Medina: Notes from the Focus Groups [excerpt]
Max Colson
A housing project in Rotterdam comes up against cultural limits. A flight through a 3D design illustrates how the architectural concept borrows from Arab urban architecture.
Le Medina: Notes from the Focus Groups [excerpt]
From “Le Medina” to “Le Medi” – a housing project in Rotterdam comes up against cultural limits. A flight through a 3D design illustrates how the architectural concept borrows from Arab urban architecture. Speech bubbles with comments by potential buyers are crowded between the lines of the drawing. For all their love of the exotic – the acceptance of foreign lifestyles only reaches as far as the Mediterranean.
André Eckardt
André Eckardt
The annotations to the films in the Official Selection were written by the members of the selection committee and guest authors. All quotes from DOK Leipzig catalogue articles must be identified as such and cite the author’s name. Some original titles and names have been transcribed resp. transliterated. We apologise that we cannot cite individual image sources and rights in our festival publications or festival coverage. Please note that the visual material is published exclusively for the purposes of promoting specific films or festival programmes. No transmission to third parties is provided and would only take place with the explicit agreement of the owners of the rights. The rights to the images lie with the respective copyright owners.
Maska
Brothers Quay
The king watches the creation of his android through the eye of a window. The “thing” discovers itself as a female, sentient being.
Credits
Se-ma-for Film Production, Polish Cultural Institute
Brothers Quay
Brothers Quay
Brothers Quay
Brothers Quay
Brothers Quay
Janusz Czubak
Brothers Quay
The king watches the creation of his android through the eye of a window. The “thing” discovers itself as a female, sentient being, but recognises that it is only a perfectly programmed seduction machine for court intrigues. To accompany Stanislav Lem’s tale, the Brothers Quay develop stylised stages that end in nothingness. They are populated by puppets who communicate – with glances of deception.
André Eckardt
André Eckardt
The annotations to the films in the Official Selection were written by the members of the selection committee and guest authors. All quotes from DOK Leipzig catalogue articles must be identified as such and cite the author’s name. Some original titles and names have been transcribed resp. transliterated. We apologise that we cannot cite individual image sources and rights in our festival publications or festival coverage. Please note that the visual material is published exclusively for the purposes of promoting specific films or festival programmes. No transmission to third parties is provided and would only take place with the explicit agreement of the owners of the rights. The rights to the images lie with the respective copyright owners.
Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin
Werner Herzog
Once again, Werner Herzog goes on a journey to make an intimate film not only about a friend but about himself – a curious dreamer and indefatigable nomad.
Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin
Credits
Lucki Stipetić, Steve O’Hagan
Werner Herzog
Louis Caulfield, Mike Paterson
Marco Capalbo
Werner Herzog
Bruce Chatwin and Werner Herzog are brothers in spirit. One of them a legendary writer, the other a legendary filmmaker, two stubborn men. Both loved and still love adventures, especially hiking. Or, as Herzog likes to describe his obsession for long walks: “The world reveals itself to those who travel on foot.”
Chatwin died of AIDS in 1989. His filmmaking friend visited him shortly before he died to say farewell. It took thirty years before the German dedicated a very personal documentary portrait to the Brit. He follows in Chatwin’s footsteps, travelling – in his familiar casual and exploratory way – to the locales of the writer’s work, always carrying the old chestnut-brown leather backpack Chatwin gave him as a parting gift. He goes to the end of the world to South America to follow his friend’s impressive book “In Patagonia”, to the Australian outback to learn about the Aborigine song traditions that inspired Chatwin’s “Songlines”, and finally to the writer’s foggy homeland of Wales. Once more Werner Herzog sets out on a journey to ultimately realise an intimate film not only about a companion but most of all about himself – a curious dreamer and indefatigable nomad.
Julia Weigl
Chatwin died of AIDS in 1989. His filmmaking friend visited him shortly before he died to say farewell. It took thirty years before the German dedicated a very personal documentary portrait to the Brit. He follows in Chatwin’s footsteps, travelling – in his familiar casual and exploratory way – to the locales of the writer’s work, always carrying the old chestnut-brown leather backpack Chatwin gave him as a parting gift. He goes to the end of the world to South America to follow his friend’s impressive book “In Patagonia”, to the Australian outback to learn about the Aborigine song traditions that inspired Chatwin’s “Songlines”, and finally to the writer’s foggy homeland of Wales. Once more Werner Herzog sets out on a journey to ultimately realise an intimate film not only about a companion but most of all about himself – a curious dreamer and indefatigable nomad.
Julia Weigl
The annotations to the films in the Official Selection were written by the members of the selection committee and guest authors. All quotes from DOK Leipzig catalogue articles must be identified as such and cite the author’s name. Some original titles and names have been transcribed resp. transliterated. We apologise that we cannot cite individual image sources and rights in our festival publications or festival coverage. Please note that the visual material is published exclusively for the purposes of promoting specific films or festival programmes. No transmission to third parties is provided and would only take place with the explicit agreement of the owners of the rights. The rights to the images lie with the respective copyright owners.
Playhouse
Adda Elling
A lesbian relationship and the playful exploration of the dynamics between the presentation and representation of female role patterns on film and in reality.
“So now we’re gonna play a game. – Is it a game? – It depends on how you look at it …” Two lovers in a secluded holiday home. Over a summer dinner, Line and Rosie discuss issues of power and the representation of women and female sexuality on film. A game in front of and behind the camera begins, in the course of which they change roles more and more seamlessly. Who creates which level of reality and who bears responsibility for how a scene is perceived?
Luc-Carolin Ziemann
Luc-Carolin Ziemann
The annotations to the films in the Official Selection were written by the members of the selection committee and guest authors. All quotes from DOK Leipzig catalogue articles must be identified as such and cite the author’s name. Some original titles and names have been transcribed resp. transliterated. We apologise that we cannot cite individual image sources and rights in our festival publications or festival coverage. Please note that the visual material is published exclusively for the purposes of promoting specific films or festival programmes. No transmission to third parties is provided and would only take place with the explicit agreement of the owners of the rights. The rights to the images lie with the respective copyright owners.
Speaking for the Dead
Peiman Zekavat
A disastrous fire in a London residential tower block. A director discovers that there is a difference between seeing yourself as a filmmaker or as a media representative and news supplier.
Speaking for the Dead
Documentary Film
UK
2019
14 minutes
subtitles:
No
Credits
Colin Farley
Peiman Zekavat
Peiman Zekavat
Nick Bridge
Rob Szeliga
On 14 June 2017, the Grenfell Tower in the London borough of North Kensington went up in flames. The fire in the 24-floor council housing complex, which killed 72 people due to safety deficiencies, attracted attention beyond the borders of the UK. Director Peiman Zekavat’s subject is the attitude of the media system in the face of a disaster. In the midst of media hype and outrage he struggles for a decent position as a filmmaker – an attempt at empathy.
Ralph Eue
Ralph Eue
The annotations to the films in the Official Selection were written by the members of the selection committee and guest authors. All quotes from DOK Leipzig catalogue articles must be identified as such and cite the author’s name. Some original titles and names have been transcribed resp. transliterated. We apologise that we cannot cite individual image sources and rights in our festival publications or festival coverage. Please note that the visual material is published exclusively for the purposes of promoting specific films or festival programmes. No transmission to third parties is provided and would only take place with the explicit agreement of the owners of the rights. The rights to the images lie with the respective copyright owners.
Stille Nacht III: Tales from Vienna Woods
Brothers Quay
The observation of a mechanical theatre of dreams, a strange ritual between a bodiless hand, a spoon and a deer turned into a table.
Stille Nacht III: Tales from Vienna Woods
Animated Film
UK
1992
4 minutes
subtitles:
_without dialogue / subtitles
Credits
Atelier Koninck QbfZ
Brothers Quay
Brothers Quay
Brothers Quay
Brothers Quay
Brothers Quay
Brothers Quay
Sounds of unknown origin appear in the white noise of radio waves, incomprehensible and yet moving. A shot rings out in a seemingly forgotten archive, half chamber, half forest. The filmic observation of a mechanical theatre of dreams, a strange ritual between a bodiless hand, a spoon and a deer turned into a table in suspension.
André Eckardt
André Eckardt
The annotations to the films in the Official Selection were written by the members of the selection committee and guest authors. All quotes from DOK Leipzig catalogue articles must be identified as such and cite the author’s name. Some original titles and names have been transcribed resp. transliterated. We apologise that we cannot cite individual image sources and rights in our festival publications or festival coverage. Please note that the visual material is published exclusively for the purposes of promoting specific films or festival programmes. No transmission to third parties is provided and would only take place with the explicit agreement of the owners of the rights. The rights to the images lie with the respective copyright owners.
Stille Nacht IV: Can’t Go Wrong Without You
Brothers Quay
While Alice is trying to escape from the physical world, the rabbit nibbles at the skin wings of the anatomical angel and defends an egg in a bird’s cage against the devil.
Stille Nacht IV: Can’t Go Wrong Without You
Animated Film
UK
1993
4 minutes
subtitles:
_without dialogue / subtitles
Credits
Atelier Koninck QbfZ
Brothers Quay
His Name is Alive
Brothers Quay
Brothers Quay
Brothers Quay
Brothers Quay
Shot in the aesthetics of the silent film era, this animated music video for the U.S. band “His Name Is Alive” weaves many icons of surrealism into a dark psychological, very physical incident. While Alice is trying to escape from the physical world, the rabbit nibbles at the skin wings of the anatomical angel and defends an egg in a bird’s cage against the devil.
André Eckardt
André Eckardt
The annotations to the films in the Official Selection were written by the members of the selection committee and guest authors. All quotes from DOK Leipzig catalogue articles must be identified as such and cite the author’s name. Some original titles and names have been transcribed resp. transliterated. We apologise that we cannot cite individual image sources and rights in our festival publications or festival coverage. Please note that the visual material is published exclusively for the purposes of promoting specific films or festival programmes. No transmission to third parties is provided and would only take place with the explicit agreement of the owners of the rights. The rights to the images lie with the respective copyright owners.