DOK.fest München Podcast. Im Kino. Zuhause. Archiv

FRAGMENTE AUS DER PROVINZ

Germany 2024 – Director: Martin Weinhart

We are colourful. We are diverse and committed – but all you ever read in the headlines is: the Nazi village.” This film does things differently. It takes us through the everyday occurrences in an existential struggle for power, freedom and open reporting. A film about neo-Nazi strategies and East German counter movements that show us how you can oppose the threat of right-wing extremism. Morgane Remter

 

Biography

The multi-award-winning director Martin Weinhart has made over 30 multi-layered and socially relevant films and series since studying film in Munich. He also studied philosophy and ethnology as well as psychology.

2UNBREAKABLEGermany 2023 – Director: Maike Conway

Breakdancing is about more than dancing; it is an identity and an attitude that allows breakers to face life’s challenges with confidence. Injuries become an opportunity to develop further. We follow Joanna and Serhat as they take part in their battles for Olympic qualification. The two share similar backgrounds and are pursuing a future in breakdancing. An emboldening, moving film. Morgane Remter

 

Biography

Director and author Maike Conway has been working primarily as a freelance documentary filmmaker since 1996. After being nominated several times, her film IBRAHIM UND JEREMIA received the Grimme Audience Award in 2017 and she won the Bayerischer Filmpreis for CORINNES GEHEIMNIS.

THIS IS MY MOMENT

Belgium, France, Netherlands 2024 – Director: Lieven Corthouts

Cycling fans are elated when Biniam Girmay becomes the first cyclist from an African country to win a stage of the Giro d’Italia in 2022. The film accompanies Girmay over two years on his difficult path through this still deeply European sport: as a young talent from Eritrea via the world federation training camps to his first moments of success. Daniel Sponsel

 

Biography

Lieven Corthouts is a self-taught filmmaker who travelled the world before living in Ethiopia for 10 years, during which time the two feature documentaries MY FUTURE and LITTLE HEAVEN were made. Together with academy award winning director Orlando von Einsiedel he made the Netflix documentary CONVERGENCE: COURAGE IN A CRISIS.

THE PICKERS

Germany, Greece, Portugal 2024 – Director: Elke Sasse

All types of fruit and vegetables are available to us year round – but the effects on the workers who make this possible are ignored. Their picking speed is more important than their living conditions. It quickly becomes clear that Europe is dictated to by the market and not by the people. In THE PICKERS, the camera reveals endless swathes of farmland and the people who suffer for our luxury. Katharina Dolles

 

Biography

In her films, Elke Sasse often deals with global and socio-political themes such as the connections between trade policy and migration. Sasse has won several international awards, including the Prix Europa 2016 for her film #MYESCAPE. 

OUR LAND, OUR FREEDOM#

Germany, Kenya, Portugal, United States 2023

https://www.dokfest-muenchen.de/films/our-land-our-freedom

In search of the remains of her father, the Kenyan Mau Mau freedom fighter Dedan Kimathi, his daughter Wanjugu meets her father’s former comrades-in-arms. To this day, the veterans are still waiting for the return of their dispossessed land by the Kenyan government and the former colonial power of Great Britain. Wanjugu strives to continue her parents’ fight for freedom and justice. Barbara Off

 

Biography

Kenyan filmmaker and editor Zippy Kimundu completed a Master's degree at NYU Tisch School of the Arts. She founded Afrofilms International: a women-led film and TV production company and creative collective in Kenya.

Meena Nanji is a Kenyan filmmaker who produces, writes and shoots documentary films and experimental videos. She also organises and curates film screenings and festivals.

Petra Lataster-Czisch und Peter Lataster ist die Hommage des DOK.fest 2024 gewidmet. Die feinfühlige Annäherung an ihre Protagonist*innen ist Dreh- und Angelpunkt ihrer Arbeit. Im Gespräch mit den beiden geht Filmemacherin Rebecca Zehr auf eine Spurensuche, wie diese Nähe überhaupt entstehen kann, was Vertrauen auf einem Film-Set bedeutet und wie Privates und Berufliches sich vermutlich nie ganz trennen lässt.

Biografie

Petra Lataster-Czisch wurde in der DDR in Dessau geboren. Sie arbeitet als Drehbuchautorin und Regisseurin. 

Peter Lataster, geboren in den Niederlanden, ist als Kameramann tätig. Gemeinsam bilden sie seit 1989 ein Filmteam. Mit Lataster Films gründeten sie 2001 ihre eigene Produktionsfirma.

EINHUNDERTVIER

Germany 2023 – Director: Jonathan Schörnig

104 refugees, 80 minutes, 6 cameras shooting in parallel. This sea rescue in real-time unfolds over a gruellingly long period of time. Eventually all the refugees from the overloaded, rapidly deflating dinghy are on board the “Eleonore”. Meticulously documented and told entirely from the point of view of the rescue team, this film demonstrates the urgency of humanitarian operations in the Mediterranean. 

 

Biography

Leipzig-born director Jonathan Schörnig gained early experience in television and film. In 2015, he graduated as a media designer for image/sound and won the FineX trainee award. He then worked as a cameraman and is currently studying at the Bauhaus University in Weimar.

A dialogue on decolonisation between Africa and Europe

In a panel discussion following the film THE EMPTY GRAVE, we brought together the common threads of the four African Encounters films. With the filmmakers from Africa and Europe, we will discuss their views on colonial history. How does colonialism continue to shape our relationship today? And what does the reworking of history have to do with change and progress?

Panelists:

Cece Mlay (co-director THE EMPTY GRAVE), Tanzania

Cece Mlay is a Tanzanian director and works as a creative supervisor at the production company Kijiweni Productions in Dar es Salaam. THE EMPTY GRAVE, co-directed with Agnes Lisa Wegener, is her documentary feature film debut.

Agnes Lisa Wegner (co-director THE EMPTY GRAVE), Germany

Agnes Lisa Wegner lives in Mannheim, Germany. She studied American and African-American Studies and Film Studies in Berlin and at Harvard University.

Zippy Kimundu (co-director OUR LAND, OUR FREEDOM), Kenya

Kenyan filmmaker and editor Zippy Kimundu completed a Master’s degree at NYU Tisch School of the Arts. She founded Afrofilms International: a women-led film and TV production company and creative collective in Kenya.

 

Lieven Courthouts (director THIS IS MY MOMENT), Belgium

Lieven Corthouts is a self-taught filmmaker who travelled the world before living in Ethiopia for 10 years, during which time the two feature documentaries MY FUTURE and LITTLE HEAVEN were made. Together with academy award winning director Orlando von Einsiedel he made the Netflix documentary CONVERGENCE: COURAGE IN A CRISIS.

Raoul Bagopha (expert Misereor), Germany/Cameroon

Dr. Raoul Bagopha comes from Cameroon, studied political science and works in the International Cooperation Department of the Episcopal agency Misereor. There he is involved in various working groups on the topic of decolonization.

SHAHID

Germany 2024 – Director: Narges Kalhor

Nomadic cinema that tells marvellous stories. What if your surname Shahid means martyr, incorporates generations of political traumas and seems to be getting in the way of your future? Are the hurdles bureaucratic or personal? Which are your own and which belong to others? SHAHID is an artistically interwoven film about a post-migrant family history and about the freedom to transcend genre boundaries in filmmaking. 

 

Biography

Narges Kalhor, born in Tehran, is studying film in her home country and at HFF Munich. She does cross-media work with art installations and experimential storytelling in film.

FILMSTUNDE_23

Germany 2023 – Director: Jörg Adolph, Edgar Reitz

An 8th grade class of schoolgirls embarks on a voyage of discovery. They want to understand how film works. Because, as their teacher Edgar Reitz explains, filmmaking is not simply achieved by turning on the camera and recording something. At first they are passive, but they soon dare to take their first steps and master the technology. At a reunion many years later, we find out what effect these first film classes had. 

 

Biography

Edgar Reitz is a renowned filmmaker, known among other things for the Heimat film series. He is the founding father of German auteur film and has published numerous texts on film theory and the future of cinema.

Jörg Adolph works as a freelance documentary filmmaker, writes film reviews and teaches. In his films, he often accompanies artistic creative processes.

ECHOES FROM BORDERLAND

Germany 2023 – Director: Lara Milena Brose

Ferida, a Bosnian, lives within sight of the EU’s external border. Every day she witnesses refugees’ desperate attempts to reach the EU and her memories of violence and war come flooding back. Nahid is 15 years old and is stranded here after fleeing the Taliban. In this hypnotic narrative, the fading echoes of Ferida’s stories and Nahid’s voicemails intertwine. Jan Sebening

 

Biography

After a degree in philosophy and two years in Central America, Lara Milena Brose is studying documentary film directing at HFF Munich. People and their fates in harsh realities are central to her work. She is a founding member of the AK49 collective.

THE ANDERSSON BROTHERS

Sweden 2024 – Director: Johanna Bernhardson

The film world of the star director Roy Andersson is inhabited by people who are incapable of emotionally connecting to each other. He seems to feel the same about his brothers in real life. THE ANDERSSON BROTHERS, made by his niece, the filmmaker Johanna Bernhardson, is a lovingly told family chronicle about stubborn men and a tale that seeks to bring about reconciliation before it is too late. 

 

Biography

Johanna Bernhardson, who studied set design, worked on SONGS FROM THE SECOND FLOOR (2000) by Roy Andersson as a set designer and prop master. Her films have been shown on Swedish television and at national and international film festivals. THE ANDERSSON BROTHERS is her first feature-length documentary film.

THE SILENCE OF 600 MILLION RESULTS

Germany 2023 – Director: Sophie Lahusen

An unwanted pregnancy – what now? A screenlife film that shows nothing more than the various screens of a young woman looking for an answer. With great panache and a little mockery, this short film shows how we are exposed to a flood of apparently ‘valuable’ clues that point in different directions while scrolling through the expanse of the internet. But which way is right? 

 

Biography

Having grown up in a German-French family of musicians, Sophie Lahusen initially studied art history before focusing on documentary film after traveling, internships and journalistic work. Alongside her studies, she also works as an end-of-life caregiver.

RESTORATION

Germany 2023 – Director: Gudrun Gruber

Trauma research has become more visible in recent years, but what if the trauma is directly in front of you? Sabrina’s anxiety, panic attacks and seizures could only be endured by her family because Sabrina did one thing: she never gave up on herself. A film about a courageous woman who insists on not being defined only by her past but on determining her own future. 

Biography

Gudrun Gruber studied fine arts at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and documentary film directing at the HFF in Munich. Here she realized several short films as well as three feature-length films. RESTORATION is her graduation film.