During the opening of the second Dokumentale, Berlin’s multi-faceted celebration of non-fiction and documentary storytelling, festival directors Vivian Schröder and Anna Ramskogler-Witt announced that the festival would forthwith be changing name, dropping the ‘k’ and morphing into the newly coined Doxumentale.
The festival explained its rationale in a statement.
“The name Dokumentale stands for the festival’s passionate engagement with documentary formats — logically derived from the German word dokumentarisch and combined with the common festival suffix ‘-ale’. A major player in the German cultural sector, however, sees the name as being too similar to its own brand. Despite earnest efforts by the Dokumentale team to reach a constructive solution, no agreement could be found. To avoid a drawn-out legal dispute, the festival directors chose to change the name, even though they do not agree that any trademark infringement has occurred. The festival materials and publications will now be gradually updated to reflect this.”
The statement continues: “The new ‘dox’ is more than a pragmatic solution: it is a tribute to the international documentary film festival community, where ‘dox’ has long been established as shorthand for ‘documentary’.”
Festival directors Vivian Schröder and Anna Ramskogler-Witt expressed how, “Doxumentale is a declaration of love—for our former name, for documentary media, and for the power of constructive collaboration. In an industry already facing structural challenges, we see little value in wasting energy on legal battles. We would instead like to extend our deepest thanks to all our supporters, partners, and friends, who have stood by us unconditionally during this difficult time.”
The second Doxumentale (12–22 June) opened at the Festival Centre at Atelier Gardens with Glanz & Widerstand, a ballet performance by the Berlin Ballet Company exploring the intersection of research and documentary film, attended by numerous filmmakers and media creatives.
Until 22 June, the festival will be presenting over 40 documentary films, 10 live podcast sessions, 9 non-fiction readings, a family-friendly children’s and youth programme, and three showcases of photography and video works. The festival’s D’Hub industry programme also kicked off June 12, running to 15 June.
