Leipzig 23

October 9 sees the presentation to industry of eight new German documentary projects, either completed or as works-in-progress, and therefore poised for international roll-out. One of the projects will be awarded the D-Facto Motion Works-in-Progress Prize, which will provide post-production services valued at €10,000.

The homage includes the first two chapters of his While the Green Grass Grows, which competes for the Golden Dove at DOK Leipzig, as well as his Picture of Light (1994) and Gambling, Gods and LSD (2002). “Peter Mettler is a traveller who is constantly sifting through the layers of time and space and the continuum of the filmmaking process,” says programme curator Annina Wettstein. DOK Leipzig will also be showcasing the work of animator Tess Martin.

On the face of it, the images we see in the post-war home films of Rose, the grandma of German director Annika Mayer, reflect nothing other than domestic bliss, good health and affluence, all set against a backdrop of the country’s economic recovery. But the footage we see hides 23 years of domestic violence, which is revealed by 90-year-old Rose as she is shown once more the Super-8 chronicle of her earlier life. The director talks to BDE.

The cinematic diary draws upon Swiss-Canadian Peter Mettler’s own memories and family relationships as it looks at life cycles and the way the world is constantly changing. One Hundred Four won German Doc Competition while the Audience Jury awarded The Mother of All Lies. The Silver Dove for best feature-length doc by an up-and-coming director, was awarded to Hovhannes Ishkhanyan for Beauty and the Lawyer.

The astute, elegant and insightful observational gaze of Austrian documentary-maker Nikolaus Geyrhalter is focussed on Covid-1 and lockdown in his new film The Standstill (Stillstand). The documentary offers a haunting and thoughtful examination on this dark and challenging period as it impacted on his home country of Austria, and Vienna in particular.

Andreas Hartmann and Arata Mori’s D-Facto Motion Works-in-Progress Prize-winning project tells of the Japanese phenomenon of ‘night moving’ companies that help people to vanish without a trace. “From the beginning I was kind of very fascinated with this idea of the possibility to restart your life, but also very intrigued about the consequences of leaving everything behind,” co-director Hartmann told the Leipzig audience.

Doc, fiction and animation luminaries include Radu Jude, Anne Isensee, Steven Markovitz and Serpil Turhan, who will deliberate over films in the International Documentary, International Animation and German competitions. A jury of film buffs, cineastes and festival goers will decide on films in the audience Competition. Seven Golden Doves and two Silver Doves will go to films in the four competitions.

A raft of films in the Panorama section reflect the current state of a region under the influence of Russia, while the Focus: Post-1991 Slovenian Documentary Films section will screen outstanding Slovenian films made over the past three decades. 5x5 Shorts from the East is being presented together with an array of CEE partners while the Doc Alliance Award will screening 3 long and 3 short docs from the region.

After Katharina Pethke returned to her job at the art academy after giving birth she began to realise that what makes her tick an artist was not so easily reconciled with her new role as a mother. Her own mother and grandmother before her gave up their careers as artists to stay home. And now her mum thinks Katharina should do the same. The director examines this dilemma in her feature doc Reproduction.

The project-based training programme, run by the Institute of Documentary Film (IDF), will take place 6 - 11 October 2023 in Germany for the first time, in collaboration with DOK Leipzig. “It brings us great joy to welcome the talented creative teams of documentary feature films and documentary series along with the knowledgeable and inspiring professionals who will be guiding and mentoring these teams," says DOK Industry Head Nadja Tennstedt.