The 20th edition of the DOK Co-Pro Market welcomes 35 documentary projects from 30 countries that will have the opportunity to find international financing and co-production partners. This year sees a further increase in the number of entries, totalling 366 projects. 

This year’s selection features a number of projects that lens intimate family stories to examine broader themes marking nations, from societal shifts to events of profound socio-political consequence, such as civil wars and military conflicts. Joël Jent’s “Rebellion of Memory” zeroes in on a family of three from different camps of Peru’s last armed conflict. In “Kafka in Belgrade” (WT), Maša Nešković trains her lens on her stepfather and notable filmmaker, Goran Marković, navigating the familial ties against the backdrop of Serbia’s turbulent history. Three projects from Algeria offer layered personal narratives, embedded in the country’s troubled history. In “My Dad’s a Farmer”, filmmaker El Kheyer Zidani returns to Algeria, revisiting his family's struggles during the country’s 90s civil war. The theme of return to Algeria is also dominant in the two French-Algerian co-productions, Camélia Gadhgadhi’s “Bitter Seed” (Amok Films, “Wake Up On Mars”) and Assia Tamerdjent’s “Hana, Algeria and Me”.

Some projects depict liberation struggles and assorted forms of resistance against oppressive forces. In the vein of exploring new ways to tell a larger story, Esther Vital uses animation as a documentary language in her visually striking animation documentary “If I Die” to reveal the horrors of a clandestine torture centre of the Brazilian military dictatorship. Following former pacifists in Myanmar, including a celebrated poet and human rights activist, Aung Naing Soe’s “When a Poet Goes to War” sheds light on the tragic realities of war as they take up arms to fight the military junta. Delving into the theme of activism, “The Wind’s Thirst” by Alejandro Valbuena chronicles the struggle of Wayuu leaders facing the threat of wind turbine installations on their lands. A tonally different but no less critical story is explored in Manuel Inacker’s “The Land We Breathe” (Restart, which was at the Co-Pro Market 2018 with “Museum of the Revolution”) traces the endeavour of a devoted trio trying to protect Dalmatia on the Croatian coast amid the onslaught of tourists and looming climate collapse.

Several titles in this year’s lineup approach the theme of sports as an element of healing, empowerment, and community-building. In Jacopo De Bertoldi and Petna Ndaliko Katondolo’s “Fists of Peace”, former child soldier Kibomango morphs an abandoned stadium into a boxing gym in the DRC’s Goma for war-scarred youths. Kan Muftic’s “Blackbelts” contemplates the human condition and disability, inserting the viewer into the lives of persons, often sidelined by society, as they turn to taekwondo. Another poignant story featuring sports comes from Nupur Agrawal and Shivajee Biswanath. In their project “Downhill Kargil”, unfolding in a remote Himalayan town in India, two Muslim teenage girls are set on playing ice hockey in the face of the changing environmental and socio-political milieu.

Presenting topically different narratives, a number of projects in the selection embrace the theme of music and singing. Walter Fasano’s “Popol Vuh: A Cosmic Journey” takes us on a sonic voyage with the iconic German band of Popol Vuh, using expansive archival material, while Nona Giunashvili’s “Sacred Songs” crafts a choral portrait of four female singers straddling tradition, religion, and artistic expression in a Georgian village. Emotive testimony is at the heart of another project relating to music, Amine Boukhris’ “Solo”, which tells an incomprehensibly personal story of Solo Akmal, a young rapper in Tunisia who was abandoned by his mother to live among Daesh (IS).

This year’s lineup also showcases three compelling documentary series projects: Daphné Leblond and Lisa Billuart-Monet’s “The Free Speech Rises” (Les Films d’Ici, co-produced by Iota Production), ​​Rafael Valdeavellano and Nicolas Acuña’s true crime series “Letelier File” (La Ventana Cine), and Philipp Diettrich and Sara Woldeslassie’s “From Here”.

The selection includes five promising projects that the DOK Industry team scouted at trusted partner training initiatives and film markets: Andrei Kutsila’s “Letters”, Amílcar Patel’s “Africa AI”, Emmanuelle Mayer’s “Woman in White”, Kan Muftic’s “Blackbelts”, and Yuriy Shylov’s “Entr’actes”.

Some of the directors and producers invited to this year’s Co-Pro Market have previously had their projects presented and/or their films screened at DOK Leipzig. Stefilm (Co-Pro Market 2017 with “Exemplary Behaviour”, a Golden Dove winner at DOK Leipzig 2019) is returning to the festival with their new project “Queerinale, Who Will Take Care of Me? by Matteo Castellino, which follows a group of gay seniors in Rome creating a safe space for LGBTQ+ people in difficulty. Filmmaker from the US Milton Guillén (Co-Pro Market 2019 with “On the Move”) will introduce his new project “My Skin and I”, co-directed with Fiona Guy Hall. German filmmaker Marita Stocker (DOK Leipzig 2019 with “What to Do With All This Love”) will return to the festival with her new project “Sitting the Month” (Eikon Media).

The 20th edition continues to see immense international interest from beyond the European borders, welcoming this October directors and producers from the US, five countries from Central and South America, five Asian countries, and five African countries. 

The DOK Co-Pro Market 2024 is set to take place from 28 October to 29 October in Leipzig, with complementary online meetings on 5 November.

This year’s selection process was carried out by Jia Zhao (Chinese-Dutch film producer, founder of Muyi Film and Silk Road Film Salon), Marcella Jelić (founder of Split Screen), and Ümit Uludağ (producer and CEO of CORSO), with Brigid O’Shea (director of DAE), Guevara Namer (coordinator of the DOK Co-Pro Market), and Nadja Tennstedt (director of DOK Industry).

Overview of Selected 35 Projects:

Africa AI | Director: Amílcar Patel | South Africa | KAMVA Collective
Bitter Seed | Director: Camélia Gadhgadhi | France, Algeria | Amok Films, Libre Image
Blackbelts | Director: Kan Muftic | Switzerland | PANIMAGE
BOOM! | Director: Laura Plancarte | UK | The Republic of Park Royal, LP Films
Chunyu: A Death Foretold | Director: Fan Yang | China, Canada | Walking in the Mountains, Electric Shadow
Downhill Kargil | Directors: Nupur Agrawal, Shivajee Biswanath | India | AutumnWolves Media
Entr’actes | Director: Yuriy Shylov | Ukraine | Alarm Productions
Fists of Peace | Directors: Jacopo De Bertoldi, Petna Ndaliko Katondolo | Italy, DR Congo | AntropicA, Alkebu
The Free Speech Rises | Directors: Daphné Leblond, Lisa Billuart-Monet | France, Belgium | Les Films d’Ici , Iota Production
From Here | Directors: Philipp Diettrich, Sara Woldeslassie | Germany | PINKY SWEAR FILM
From Radvanka | Director: Tomi Hazhlinsky | Ukraine | Contemporary Ukrainian Cinema
The Gary Project | Director: Luchina Fisher | USA | Little Light Productions
The Goldfather | Director: Decio Matos Jr. | Brazil | CAPURI
Hana, Algeria and Me | Director: Assia Tamerdjent | France, Algeria | Making of Films, Urubu Films
Hope is a Word | Director: Maria Galliani Dyrvik | Norway, Nigeria | Smau media
If I Die | Director: Esther Vital | Brazil, France, Spain | O Par Produções, Marmitafilms, Midralgar
Kafka in Belgrade (WT) | Director: Maša Nešković | Serbia | Marienbad film
The Land We Breathe | Director: Manuel Inacker | Croatia, Germany | Restart
Left Behind | Director: Nasib Mahamud Farah | Denmark | Emjay Productions
Letelier File | Directors: Rafael Valdeavellano, Nicolas Acuña | Chile | La Ventana Cine
Letters | Director: Andrei Kutsila | Poland, Germany | DocEdu Foundation, DOCDAYS Productions
My Dad's a Farmer | Director: El Kheyer Zidani | Algeria, Germany | Z§K Production, jip Film & Verleih
My Skin and I | Directors: Milton Guillén, Fiona Guy Hall | Nicaragua, Germany, USA | Mayana Films, Solaris Film
not-yet-here | Director: Giorgio Bosisio | Italy | Studio x01
Oh, Heart Don’t Be Afraid | Director: Ana Kvichidze | Georgia, Germany | Moonbow Production, parabellum film
Popol Vuh: A Cosmic Journey| Director: Walter Fasano  | USA | Good ‘n Proper
Queerinale, Who Will Take Care of Me? | Director: Matteo Castellino | Italy | Stefilm International
Rebellion of Memory | Director: Joël Jent | Switzerland, France, Peru | Aaron Film, Les Films d’Ici, Amazona Producciones
Sacred Songs | Director: Nona Giunashvili | Georgia | 17|07 Productions
Sitting the Month | Director: Marita Stocker | Germany | eikon media
Solo | Director: Amine Boukhris | Tunisia, France, Qatar | Donia Films, Dynamo Production
Umbrellas of the Acrobats | Director: Mukesh Subramaniam | India | Elsewhat
When a Poet Goes to War | Director: Aung Naing Soe | Thailand, Hong Kong | Singing Cicadas, 101fps
The Wind’s Thirst | Director: Alejandro Valbuena | Colombia | Curare Films
Woman in White | Director: Emmanuelle Mayer | Israel | Emmanuelle Mayer Films

Amid optical-kinetic wonders, existential musings and shadow parades on the phenakistiscope, this year DOK Leipzig once again presents big names and exciting insider tips from the animation film industry.

At Animation Perspectives, curator André Eckardt will bring two internationally acclaimed young female animation artists to the stage to present their works and share insights into their studios and methods. At first glance, Gudrun Krebitz and Moïa Jobin-Paré’s styles could not be more different. Work by Krebitz, who was born in Graz and lives in Berlin, ranges from freely drawn animated films to expansive installations, while her masterfully laconic and poetic texts lead viewers into the idiosyncratic inner lives of her mostly female characters. Montreal-based Jobin-Paré, who also works as a sound artist, approaches from the opposite direction, editing photos discovered on her adventures with animating traces like layer scrapings.

What they have in common is the intensity and sensuality with which they describe their protagonists, through which they also comment on the world around them. Jobin-Paré and her shadowy proxies creatively appropriate the world by carving bright colours into the images of a dreary cityscape, breathing life into the wasteland. Krebitz's characters strive to orient themselves in the haze of other people's voices and opinions, ultimately preferring to dream at home, entrusting their thoughts to the moon. They are as self-confident as they are elusive, and as stubborn as they are poetic—rounded out by a cigarette's length of existentialism.

On Friday evening during the festival week, DOK Leipzig invites you to Animation Night at the Schaubühne. Also curated by André Eckardt, this night is all about one of the delightful beginnings to animation art: the phenakistiscope, a combination camera and record player. Initially used for the scientific visualisation of a pumping heart, the 19th century technique has long since become part of contemporary club culture. From the hallucinatory visualisation of an electronica track by Max Cooper, to early works of computer animation, all the way back to historical 19th century thaumatrope optical illusion toys, this event will offer fascinating glimpses into the possibilities of animation. To top off the evening, British artist duo Sculpture, who collage snippets of found magnetic sound tapes, will perform a live set.

DOK Leipzig Solidifies its Animation Industry Programme

Along with the thrilling events dedicated to the art of animation in the public programme, DOK Leipzig is further solidifying its programme of animation industry activities during the 67th festival edition. Coming prominently into focus with the dialogue series Animation Perspectives on Thursday, animation remains at the centre stage on the festival Friday. Visual artist and animation artist Isabel Herguera, to whom DOK Leipzig pays homage at this year’s edition, will hold a Masterclass, shedding light on an intriguing interplay between individual and dialogue-based creativity, using select clips from her body of work. A number of dedicated formats for animation film will further take place, including Animation Lab DOK Leipzig (which kicks off on the Monday of the festival in collaboration with CEE Animation), the networking event Animation Meets Doc (which boosts mutual exchange and networking opportunities between documentary and animation film professionals), and the Animation Night.

Underlying the festival’s continued strong focus on animation, director of DOK Industry at DOK Leipzig Nadja Tennstedt says: “Since 2023 DOK Leipzig has awarded a Golden Dove for a feature-length animated film. We are very excited about this extension and have taken it as an opportunity to further develop the animation offerings at DOK Industry this year.” Tennstedt notes, “The focus remains on artistic animation films with a distinctive style and perspective and, of course, on projects that blend animation and documentary elements. With our different offerings we particularly want to promote networking and collaboration between documentary and animation professionals.”

Following a successful inaugural edition, DOK Industry is once again partnering up with CEE Animation (CEE Animation Forum, the largest industry platform for European animated projects in the CEE region) to present the second edition of Animation Lab DOK Leipzig. Documentary producers developing their first animated documentary (short, feature, or series) will hone their knowledge of the production and distribution of animated documentaries in the four-day residential workshop. The workshop will be led by seasoned producer Jean-François Le Corre (Vivement-Lundi!, “Flee”) and multidisciplinary artist Uri Kranot (ANIDOX), accompanied by the CEE Animation team.

DOK Industry further expands its animation industry programme with a case study by Jean-François Le Corre, thus strengthening the focus on animation and connecting Animation Lab DOK Leipzig with the festival’s industry offerings. Le Corre will present a work-in-progress of “Suzanne”, an internationally co-produced animated documentary feature by Joëlle Oosterlinck and Anaïs Caura, which traces the life of the trailblazing Suzanne Noël, deftly using 2D animation and colorised archives. The event is open to accredited guests only.

Please find the full list of films in the programmes described above here: 
Film Lists Animation Perspectives + Animation Night

The 67th edition of DOK Leipzig will pay homage to the two esteemed women filmmakers, French director Dominique Cabrera and Spanish animation artist Isabel Herguera. The festival will also honour the memory of late German director and writer Thomas Heise with a lineup of films, an evening event, and this year’s DEFA Matinee.

Dominique Cabrera’s formidable career has spanned 40 years as has devoted herself to assorted forms of expression, alternating between fiction and documentary, short and long form films. Her films have been screened at numerous international film festivals and have garnered awards at Cannes, the Berlinale, Toronto, Locarno, among others.

Cabrera’s commitment to social issues is central to her documentary work. Her early documentaries have often focused on voices of marginalised people, such as those in France’s banlieues and nearby towns. Her sensitivity toward those she portrays is palpable, for example, in “Chronicle of an Ordinary Suburb” (1992).

Cabrera’s oeuvre consists entirely of personal films, some of which explore with various degrees of intensity her daily experiences and her Algerian-French background as a ‘pied-noir’. It is not uncommon for her films to tackle such complex issues as mental and physical illness, and mortality. Her first feature-length documentary, the video diary “Tomorrow and Again Tomorrow” (1997), deals with her own hopes and fears, yet it remains in all aspects universally relevant.

“Her films are consistently about recognising oneself in the other and the other in oneself,” notes festival director Christoph Terhechte.

Rounding out Cabrera’s retrospective are her feature film “The Milk of Human Kindness” (2001), which deals with ruptures within families, and her documentary “Hi Mister Comolli” (2023). In the latter, Cabrera bids farewell to her terminally ill friend Jean-Louis Comolli, a former editor of Cahiers du cinéma, who, akin to her, had to leave Algeria after the country gained independence. The two converse about life, death, love, and their shared fondness of cinema.

Cabrera’s masterclass on 31 October will be preceded by a screening of Chris Marker’s seminal experimental film “La Jetée” (1962). This film inspired Cabrera’s latest work “La Jetée: The Fifth Shot” (2024), which will celebrate its world premiere in this year’s International Competition Documentary Film at DOK Leipzig.

Isabel Herguera’s oeuvre incorporates such works as “Los Muertitos” (1994), “Ámár” (2010), and “Black Box” (2016), which offer a poignant take on socio-politically urgent themes. In 2023, Herguera presented her first feature-length animated film, “Sultana’s Dream”, as an out of competition title in DOK Leipzig’s section for international animated films. Curator Franka Sachse of the festival’s selection team notes how Herguera’s personal creative style makes her more recent films “visually unique”, detailing that “translucent colour fields [are] set off against porous ink strokes in rich black, unconventional perspectives and an expressive animation”. The composition and mood of Herguera’s films also reflect her background in the fine arts. She studied in Düsseldorf under Fluxus pioneer Nam June Paik, specialising in animation only later. DOK Leipzig’s homage to Herguera charts the trajectory of her work, with the first part of the homage dedicated to her short films, from her student days to her work as a co-creator, and the second—to her films that showcase her role as an inspirer and mentor. A professor of animation at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne, Herguera mentors students around the world, alongside collaborating with artists in the development of ideas and providing support to film projects as a producer.

On the festival Friday, 1 November, Herguera will hold a masterclass, discussing an interplay between individual and dialogue-based creativity, using selected documentary and making of clips.

With “Thomas Heise (1955–2024): Odds and Ends”, DOK Leipzig will pay tribute to the work of the celebrated German film director and author. The programme will include three feature-length documentaries, which all centre on fractured lives and which themselves represent fragments of Heise’s work that defies any categorisation.

In “The Iron Age” (1991), Heise reflects on his student project lensing four young people from Eisenhüttenstadt who rebelled against the ideology of the GDR. “Barluschke” (1997), one of Heise’s lesser-known films, portrays an enigmatic man who adopted a new identity for different employers and phases of his life: he was an agent for the Stasi, then the BND and the CIA; he was a trafficker of East German military hardware after the fall of the Berlin Wall; and he was also a father, a failing husband, and a homosexual. In his monumental final film, “Heimat Is a Space in Time” (2019), Heise turns to a narrative that encompasses not only his family’s history but also that of an entire country.

“We’re interested in watching these three works with the audience in Leipzig, a large part of which undoubtedly had experiences similar to those of Thomas Heise and his protagonists,” says Jan Künemund, a member of the selection committee for the German Competition, who worked alongside festival director Terhechte in putting together the section. “Heise’s films reveal an important quality of documentary filmmaking that can also be relevant in view of the current political state of affairs: seeing and examining circumstances without immediately trying to interpret or categorise them.”

On 1 November, DOK Leipzig will also host an evening in honour of Heise at the CineStar. Excerpts from the previously unreleased footage, which Heise was last working on, will also be screened. The event will be moderated by film publicist Ralph Eue, a former curator DOK Leipzig, and filmmaker and author Cornelia Klauß, who has helmed the Film and Media Arts section at Berlin’s Akademie der Künste since 2017.

The DEFA Matinee on 2 November will present Heise’s documentary “Volkspolizei” (1985) and his DEFA production “Imbiß Spezial” (1990). His long-time companion Peter Badel will be in attendance.

On 18 and 19 November, festival partner 3sat will broadcast Heise’s films “Stau, jetzt geht’s los” (1992) and “Heimat Is a Space in Time” (2019) as part of its regular programming.

The complete schedule for DOK Leipzig, including all dates, will be available on 10 October. Tickets will go on sale at the same time.

The DEFA Matinee was conceived in collaboration with the DEFA Foundation. The Thomas Heise programme is made possible with support from 3sat and German Films.

Please find the full list of films in the programmes described above here: Film List

DOK Leipzig is launching the fifth season of the DOK Industry Podcast on 3 July. From its start, the podcast are in collaboration with the Programmers of Colour Collective (POC2) and the What’s Up with Docs podcast, the seven new episodes will be released in the run-up to the festival in autumn.

The DOK Industry Podcast offers a dedicated space for dialogue and debate to meaningfully address the status quo of the film industry in terms of position of power and lack of representation.   Its episodes aim to create pathways into criticism, alternative perspectives and works from filmmakers, curators, artists and writers from marginalised groups.  It strives to act as a platform where listeners explore the nuances of a complex reality, engage,  empathise and seek courage through truthful conversations between sparring partners. 

“Since its first season five years ago, the DOK Industry podcast was conceived as an inspirational tool for change in the international documentary landscape,” reminds Nadja Tennstedt, head of DOK Industry. “In the current reality marked by harrowing wars and social, humanitarian, political and ecological crises, it can be difficult to not feel stuck but forge ahead in mapping possible futures. All the more, It’s a privilege and great pleasure to amplify the voices of our curators and speakers who envision and work towards a more just, inclusive and collaborative industry where access for marginalized professionals is a priority and decision-making power is genuinely redistributed.”

The curators of this year’s DOK Industry Podcast are Lucy Mukerjee, Themba Bhebhe, Toni Bell, Weronika Lewandowska, Shakira Refos, Meena Nanji, Sunil Sadarangani, Judy Kibinge, Mungai Kiroga, Emily Rogers, Erika Dilday and P. Mudamba Mudamba.

In the first episode of the new season, Shakira Refos talks to Lanaa Dantzler, scriptwriter, filmmaker and alumna of the  Black Girls Film Camp, about her experience in the training programme, the impact on her professional and personal journey and how she envisions her future as an emerging filmmaker in the film industry. The camp provides a mentorship programme where young Black women seek support in a dedicated, safe space for producing a (first) short film. The conversation continues with filmmaker Contessa Gayles stretching out more insights about the importance of pipeline programmes such as fellowships, art residencies and labs and how to find empowerment and success outside academia.  

Another episode turns the spotlight on filmmaking industry in India. Producer, journalist and festival curator Sunil Sadarangani invites producer Apoorva Bakshi, activist Srishti Bakshi and filmmaker Selvamani Selvaraj to discuss the current documentary film scene based on their experiences and the story arc of the documentary film "WOMB: Women of My Billion" and the documentary series "The Hunt for Veerappan".

Focusing on the Kenyan film industry, Judy Kibinge, Mungai Kiroga and P. Mudamba Mudamba talk about DOCUBOX,  an initiative that has been a dynamic hub supporting filmmakers from the region for more than ten years. They dive deep into  their journey as initiators of a grassroots movement that has created a wide range of opportunities for its independent filmmakers, including the first of its kind film grant in sub-Saharan Africa for creative documentaries, the East African Documentary Film Fund. 

Inney Prakash, Jean-Marie Teno, Pratibha Parmar and Meena Nanji examine initiatives from Cameroon and the United States for creating discursive spaces for films outside the commercial structures that have an impact on  the visibility and narratives in the content of streaming services and established festivals. Together they discuss new ways of presenting, sharing and distributing films that are experimental and more radical than those of mainstream cinema.

American Documentary is a well-known nonprofit media arts organization in the United States. Part of their programming is POV, the longest-running showcase for independent nonfiction films broadcast on PBS. Emily Rogers and Erika Dilday, part of the AmDoc editorial team, invite BIPOC filmmakers and protagonists who have worked with POV to probe the complexities of working in the industry as a BIPOC storyteller, the considerations and responsibilities in telling stories for and by communities of colour, and the nuances of navigating life after one’s story is published.

Curator, XR creator, researcher, and lecturer Weronika Lewandowska is hosting a podcast episode with a focus on immersive audio, showcasing new dimensions of XR storytelling through spatial sound, to complement this year's DOK Industry programme DOK Exchange XR.

This podcast is supported by Docs in Orbit, a podcast hosted by a community of international filmmakers, and film.macht.kritisch – The Podcast about the *Other* Cinema from programmer  Canan Turan.

The DOK Industry podcast is funded by Creative Europe, BKM, MDM and the City of Leipzig.

All episodes are available on the DOK Leipzig website as well as on Spotify, Apple and Google Podcasts.

First episode of the fifth Podcast season: DOK Industry Podcasts