For eight days, seven youth journalists came together to cover the 69th edition of DOK Leipzig in a total of 17 articles. They’ve had an intense few days: they wrote articles, shot videos, recorded audio pieces, and, of course, watched countless films at the festival.
In her documentary *Free Zone*, Jasmine Alakari follows a young Iranian anarchist named Abtin, who lives in Greece after fleeing his country. There, in the Exarchia neighborhood of Athens, he is active as an activist, squatting in houses and advocating for the rights of refugees—all while risking the loss of his residency status.
This year’s edition of DOK Leipzig kicked off at the Schauspielhaus. The festival was officially opened there with a screening of the film “Guten Abend, du Schöne.” DOK Spotters Malou and Vanja were there and share their impressions of the opening event from their perspective as festival reporters.
The documentary “Auber 89” focuses on the conflict between young and old. Through archival footage of renovation debates from the 1980s, clear differences between the needs of younger and older residents are revealed. The DOK Spotters met with director Giuseppe Schillaci for an interview and spoke with him about his film.
At this year’s opening of DOK Leipzig, not only was Ina Borrmann’s “Guten Abend, du Schöne” screened, but the stop-motion short film “Zellenkumpel” by Melle Windig was also shown beforehand. We were able to interview the stars of the evening and were joined not only by the director but also by his lovingly crafted puppets: the grumpy raccoon Sam and his good-natured companion, the manatee Bob.
At the heart of “The Nights” is La Pichi, who lives in Buenos Aires, whose life is told in a fairy-tale-like manner through various stories. We conducted an interview with director Ana Bovino and La Pichi, in which we discussed, among other things, change as a constant in life and in film.
In Florinda Ciucio’s short film “In Memory of,” we are immersed in a Gaza that no longer exists as it once did—a Gaza from the memories of Mohammed Imrani. Using only a pencil, paper, and his voice, Mohammed transports us to a city that has been destroyed. He does not use colors in his drawings; he lost them because of the war.
In the ARD TopDocs competition, various production teams compete against one another with their ideas for new documentaries. Out of a total of 52 submissions, three projects made it to the finals. The winning team will have the opportunity to bring its film idea to life with up to 300,000 euros in funding from ARD. The DOK Spotters were there for the finals.
Nazieh, Shazieh, and Hanieh from Afghanistan actually wanted to go to Germany with their family. But then they were separated: their mother traveled to Germany, while the sisters remained in a refugee camp in Greece. The film “Moving Sisters” tells their story. We met with two of the sisters and the director for an interview.
DOK Leipzig has a new festival director this year: Ola Staszel. She is no stranger to the festival industry as she has held a leadership position at the German-Polish-Czech Neisse Film Festival since 2014. She is now embarking on her first DOK Leipzig as festival director.
Paul Dallas’s short film *Division* centers on a man named RC, who is forced by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to leave his apartment and the country within a matter of days. Who is RC, and what inspired Paul Dallas to tell this particular story? The director answers these and other questions in our interview.
“Weißer Rauch über Schwarze Pumpe,” the documentary film by Martin Gressmann and Peter Badel, follows the small town of Schwarze Pumpe in Saxony. To learn more about his film and the people in “Weißer Rauch über Schwarze Pumpe,” we had the opportunity to interview Martin Gressmann.