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Doc Leipzig Competition Films Announced

Doc Leipzig (29th October - 4th November 2007) has announced its competitive line-up. The International Competition, Documentary (Quality, Provocation & Hollywood) consists of 22 entries and includes topical social processes such as the phenomenon of the so-called “shrinking cities” depicted in Doel is alive by Tom Fassaert (Belgium) and How to Save a Fish from Drowning by Kelly Neal (Great Britain), the situation of young offenders in prison – portrayed very cautiously in It’s Always Late For Freedom by Mehrdad Ouskouei (Iran) and in an unusual form and a heavy atmosphere in Behave by Maria Ramos (Brazil) – or the still extremely problematical situation of the women of Afghanistan as shown in Stone Silence by Krzystof Kopczynski (Poland). The challenge to documentary film makers and the not always easy position between distance and closeness is the subject of courageous, sometimes provocative productions: Rain in my Heart by Paul Watson (Great Britain) or Jean Paul by Francesco Uboldi (Italy), whose observations of terminally ill and dying people are often haunting.

The German Competition, themed Coming Home, includes Alexander Riedel's film, using unenhanced images to tell in a quite disingenuous manner of the frustration and hopes of young girls in a Munich home for asylum seekers (Run Out); whilst Sandra Prechtel and Sascha Hilpert reconstruct the politically motivated ruination of a hopeful career in sport in the GDR with Sportsfreund Lötzsch. Family, a career in art and fame – all this is experienced in duplicate by the conductor Otmar Suitner who comes originally from Austria and works in the GDR as the “wanderer between two worlds” in A Father's Music. His son Igor Heitzmann tells his father’s unusual story from a very emotional point of view.

For the 50th DOK Leipzig Festival there is a new category: 'Generation DOK' is the name of the new international competition for the next generation of documentary filmmakers, which enables an exciting glimpse into the future of the genre. The main award is the 'Talent Dove' which, together with a prize of 10,000 euros to be used as push-start financing for the winner’s next film project, has been presented since 2004 by the Media Foundation of the Sparkasse Leipzig for an outstanding documentary film by a young filmmaker. 18 films from 15 countries have found their way to this new competition. The selection proves how innovative, cheeky, imaginative, serious, political and arousing the work of young documentary filmmakers can be. And it brings together some of the next generation’s best talent from all over the world: the films come from countries such as Cambodia, Denmark, Jordan, Lithuania, Israel, the Czech Republic, the Russian Federation and Germany.

Lastly, the International Competition Animated Film, covers the most interesting, innovative and convincing animated films of the past year – 38 films from 20 countries. This year an amazingly large number of films in the competition has also been created by young filmmakers and students.

For the full programme, see the Doc Leipzig website.

Related Pages

Doc Leipzig in DFGDocs/Festivals
Rain in My Heart in DFGDocs/DocReviews

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