Film Archive

Animation Perspectives 2024

Achill

Gudrun Krebitz
A woman in love ventures out of her cocoon to go out into the mundane world of “dead language.” Two universes meet in raw, intimate drawings, shimmering stones and overpainted video sequences.
Filmstill Achill
Filmstill Achill

Achill

Achill
Gudrun Krebitz
Animation Perspectives 2024
Animated Film
Austria,
Germany
2012
9 minutes
German,
English
Subtitles: 
None
The truth is hidden behind blurs, but the allure of secrecy fades as the clarity increases. A woman in love ventures out of her cocoon to go out into the mundane world of “dead language.” Accompanied by a restless musical motif by Marian Mentrup, “Achill” boldly balances on the thin line between two universes – with raw, intimate drawings, shimmering stones and overpainted video sequences.
André Eckardt

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Gudrun Krebitz
Cinematographer
Moana Vonstadl
Producer
HFF München
Sound Design
Marian Mentrup
Narrator
Nicolette Krebitz, Lola C. Bohle, Sean Uyehara
Camera Lucida 2024

Among the Palms the Bomb, Or: Looking for Reflections in the Toxic Field of Plenty

Lukas Marxt, Vanja Smiljanić
The Salton Sea, a former nuclear testing ground on the brink of ecological collapse. The few people who still live here are campaigning to protect the abandoned area.
Filmstill Among the Palms the Bomb, Or: Looking for Reflections in the Toxic Field of Plenty
Filmstill Among the Palms the Bomb, Or: Looking for Reflections in the Toxic Field of Plenty

Among the Palms the Bomb, Or: Looking for Reflections in the Toxic Field of Plenty

Among the Palms the Bomb, Or: Looking for Reflections in the Toxic Field of Plenty
Lukas Marxt, Vanja Smiljanić
Camera Lucida 2024
Documentary Film
Austria,
Germany
2024
86 minutes
English
Subtitles: 
English
Where the sandy beach of the Salton Sea, the biggest lake in California, begins to crunch harder, it does not even consist of sand any more: Millions of dead fish, plants and insects pile up on the shore to form a highly toxic substance. This is how Derek explains it, a member of a Cahuilla tribe that managed to escape an attempted genocide in the 19th century to the Salton Sea and now sees itself as a protective force for the once flourishing but increasingly deserted area and its outcasts.
Derek is one of the many locals whose trails Lukas Marxt and Vanja Smiljanić calmly follow, gliding with them through the desolate landscapes. In the process, they pick up slivers of nuclear history time and again: During the Second World War, the area was a test site for the bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The experiments continued through the Cold War; the armed forces are still training here. The film finds its starting point and end two states away: The nuclear devices were sent on their way from Wendover, Utah. The local Airfield Museum pays tribute to their development. Once, the camera performs an almost weightless dance around a model of the Hiroshima bomb “Little Boy” on display there, to the sounds of the indestructible World War classic “We’ll Meet Again.”
Felix Mende

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Lukas Marxt, Vanja Smiljanić
Cinematographer
Lukas Marxt
Editor
Vanja Smiljanić, Lukas Marxt
Producer
Lukas Marxt
Co-Producer
Sonic Acts Biennial
Sound Design
Marcus Zilz
Score
Jung An Tagen
World Sales
Gerald Weber
Young Eyes 2025

Blue – A Black European Tale

Mwita Mataro, Helmut Karner
All creatures in Greenland are green, except Bluekid. In this partly animated handicraft world, Mwita Mataro reflects on experiences of racism in Austria with children and experts.
Filmstill Blue – A Black European Tale
Filmstill Blue – A Black European Tale

Blue – A Black European Tale

Austroschwarz
Mwita Mataro, Helmut Karner
Young Eyes 2025
Documentary Film
Austria
2025
98 minutes
German
Subtitles: 
English

In his early twenties, Mwita Mataro set himself three big goals: become a rock star, make a film, and then found an art school in Tanzania. He has already accomplished the rock star part – he is the frontman of a band. And this film is his directorial debut. There was a choice of many subjects, something beautiful like friendship, for example. But there is one thing that bothers him more than his white film colleagues, and that is the colour of his skin. So what does it mean to grow up as a Salzburg native with Tanzanian roots, as a Black Person of Colour in predominantly white Austria? To investigate this, he has teamed up with young BPoCs to create the animated fantasy world Greenland: a place where all the potato creatures are green except Bluekid and his blue family. They paint themselves green to be less conspicuous, but since this does not always work out, Bluekid experiences rejection and marginalisation.

In his documentary essay, Mataro reflects on a daily reality based on colours: racism, alien attributions, otherness, blues experiences in Greenland. He listens to children and adults, lets the audience participate in talks with pedagogues, psychologists and politicians and opens up in front of the camera at home. With “Austroschwarz”, Mataro also comes one step closer to his third goal.

Tina Jany

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Mwita Mataro, Helmut Karner
Script
Mwita Mataro, Helmut Karner
Cinematographer
Jasmin Schwendinger
Editor
Christin Veith
Producer
Stephan Herzog, Andrea Elaiza Arnold
Sound
Cristi Iorga
Sound Design
Eli Frauscher
Score
Nicola Mpunga
Animation
Vladimir Savić
Nominated for: Gedanken Aufschluss Prize, Young Eyes Film Award, Leipziger Ring
Filmstill The Artist in the Machine

The Artist in the Machine

The Artist in the Machine
Claudia Larcher
International Competition Short Film 2022
Animated Film
Austria
2022
4 minutes
without dialogue
Subtitles: 
None
Her “artificial assistant” is what Claudia Larcher calls the AI that digitally analysed her analogue “Baumeister” series of collages and generated this film from them. Creator or servant spirit, the machine makes architectural sketches waft biomorphically and enlivens (i.e. animates) rigid shapes. The Japanese Metabolists who called for the fluid renewal of their buildings, the organic growth, deformation and decay of architecture, would have liked “The Artist in the Machine”.
Christoph Terhechte

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Claudia Larcher
Cinematographer
Claudia Larcher
Editor
Claudia Larcher
Producer
Claudia Larcher
Sound
Claudia Larcher
Animation
Artificial Assistant No. 2
World Sales
Gerald Weber
Nominated for: mephisto 97.6 Audience Award