DOK Leipzig 2022

An impressive student film, world premiering in DOK Leipzig’s German Competition, about the Mozambican contract workers in the GDR who were forced to return after German reunification, and the children they left behind. These include children like Sarah, who has been questioning her Afro-German identity and now is taking her own child to Mozambique for a family visit.

Pepe Danquart discusses his new documentary, about the international acclaimed German artist Daniel Richte. “He has a great knowledge about painting, about the history of art. He knows a lot about politics. He reads regularly the newspapers. He has a certain approach to reality,” the director tells BDE of his subject’s intelligence and very wide frame of reference.

Submerged hints of suffering slowly surface in Faustine Cros’ absorbing and gently moving, and deftly insightful, A Life Like Any Other (Une vie comme une autre) as she uses archival material shot by her filmmaker father, as well as her own intimate interviews, to delve into her mother’s barely noticed depression that ultimately led to a suicide attempt that traumatised the entire family.

Five Golden Doves and four Silver Doves to be awarded by the juries of the International Competitions, the German Competitions and the Competition for the Audience Award. The three juries, each comprised of distinguished professionals from the world of film and the arts, along with an audience jury, will be in charge of awarding the prizes. 

Head of Industry Nadja Tennstedt fills in Business Doc Europe on what to expect this week during the 65th edition of DOK Leipzig. “We always strive to create a welcoming, efficient and relaxed space for our guests. Emerging talents and seasoned professionals alike come here to meet at eye-level, find collaborators for current projects, forge new connections, get inspired and immerse themselves in the festival and the documentary community.”

You won’t find many bigger collections at DOK Leipzig Archive market than that of Sweden’s SVT Archives. It has over 400,000 hours of material in its vaults. Some of this is very recent. Some dates right back to the birth of cinema in 1896. Maria Bergmark talks Business Doc Europe through the SVT offer. “It’s not just from Sweden but from all over the world,” she says.

Heinz Emigholz’ multi-layered and meditative architectural essay Slaughterhouses of Modernity juxtaposes literal modernist slaughterhouses in Argentina from the 1930s with the newly built replica of the Berliner Schloss and the triumphant works of Bolivian architect Freddy Mamani. The question is: who or what is being slaughtered here?

The UK-based Imperial War Museums will be on the front line during DOK Leipzig’s Archive Market, representing a collection with 25,000 hours of moving images. “People think of us as a military collection but really our collection reflects life in the 20th and early 21st century,” Film Curator Fiona Kelly tells BDE. “We’re trying to get people to think of us a resource for social and cultural history as well as military history.”

Elizabeth Klinck can justly be called one of the doyennes of the film archive world. She will be at DOK Leipzig for the inaugural edition of the DOK Archive Market, kicking off today, Oct 20, where she will also be chairing case studies and a masterclass. Before all that, she took time to expound on her life in the sector with BDE.  

DOK Leipzig (17-23 October) is a festival for documentary…and for animated film. Ask artistic director Christoph Terhechte about his choice of opening film for the 65th edition and he suggests that the “animated” part of the proposition is sometimes overlooked. Hence the decision to go for Alain Ughetto’s animated feature No Dogs Or Italians Allowed in 2022.