A variety of global and local protest movements have been instrumental in bringing the mounting climate crisis to the forefront of public debate.

In its 65th edition, DOK Leipzig will present two programmes of films that examine this climate activism, be it at traffic junctions in London (“Rebellion”, 2021), in the treetops of the Dannenröder Forest (“Barricade – Pictures of an Occupation”, 2021), in the Argentinian salt flats (“Oro Blanco”, 2018) or in the forests of the Philippine island of Palawan (“Delikado”, 2022). Starting off the film programme “Time to Act! Our House Is on Fire” will be a free preview screening of the documentary “Rebellion” on the Friday before the festival (14 October 2022, 7 pm, Cinémathèque Leipzig). The film portrays the environmentalist movement Extinction Rebellion.

The “Re-Visions” section complements this thematic emphasis. Titled “Sow the Wind and Reap the Storm”, it will explore the effects of the climate crisis on the Global South while revisiting two former festival films that have lost none of their topicality. “New Eldorado” (2004) tells of impending environmental degradation as well as forced resettlement resulting from gold mining in Romania. “Are You Listening!” (2012), which opened DOK Leipzig ten years ago, profiles the inhabitants of a village in Bangladesh that was destroyed by floods.

This year’s Homage is dedicated to the renowned Serbian documentary filmmaker Mila Turajlić. Her works reflect on the history of Yugoslavia and the non-aligned states, which she explores along the intersection of national consciousness, personal memories and found footage. Employing diverse forms of artistic expression – from lecture performances to video art to essay films – she attempts to counteract the fading of the collective memory of her country of origin. The programme includes her internationally acclaimed productions “Cinema Komunisto” (2010) and “The Other Side of Everything” (2017), as well as the film “Innocence Unprotected” (1968) by the late Yugoslav director Dušan Makavejev, which is Turajlić’s carte blanche selection for this year’s festival. In her master class, she will discuss strategies of artistic research in filmmaking and her fascination with archives. Additionally, one of Mila Turajlić’s latest documentary films will be presented in this year’s International Competition.

A total of four film programmes, each multifaceted in terms of content and technique, will be dedicated to the art of animation. Alongside classical animation techniques and linear narratives, numerous experimental works dissolve the boundaries between animation, visual art, documentary film and performance art.

The programme “Slovenian Animation. The Conquest of Poetic Space” brings together outstanding contemporary short animated films from Slovenia. The focus is on works by the internationally renowned filmmaker Špela Čadež, including her puppet animation “Lovesick” (2007), the short shadow play “Last Minute” (2010) and the two cutout animations “Nighthawk” (2016) and “Steakhouse” (2021), as well as a puppet animation recap of the Netflix series “Orange Is the New Black”. The 3-D animation “The Box” (2017) by Dušan Kastelic, considered a master of this technique, and short films by the talented newcomers Leo Černic and Miha Reja are among the other works that will be screened. In a master class, Čadež will give insight into her distinctive style of eavesdropping on reality to lift stories and characters from it and create animated poetic spaces for them.

The starting point and centrepiece of the event “Dancing in the Dark. Hysteresis & Company” is “Hysteresis” (2021), the latest work by renowned animation artist Robert Seidel, which will be presented at Leipzig’s Schaubühne Lindenfels on 21 October. In a live performance, the movements of the queer Australian dancer Tsuki and the AI-based animation of Robert Seidel’s drawings will merge to the music of sound artist Markus Popp alias Oval. In straddling these different art forms, this experimental work creates room for diverse associations. An in-depth discussion with the audience will be devoted to the making of “Hysteresis”. The performance will be preceded by a programme curated by André Eckardt and Robert Seidel featuring films by other artists on the interrelation of body, movement and animation.

In the fourth edition of the “Animation Perspectives” dialogue setting, directors Veneta Androva and Tang Han will discuss their work as artists. The event includes a screening of two works from the previous two editions of DOK Leipzig: Veneta Androva’s fictional computer-animated vision of the future, “AIVA” (2020), in which the male mentality of an engineer absurdly seeks to program gender equality into the art market, and Tang Han’s Silver Dove-winning “Pink Mao” (2020), a humorous examination of the 100-yuan note. While maintaining an ironic distance, both artists examine roles in society and pose the question of how the term “animated film” may be understood. As fundamentally different as their artistic styles may be, parallels can be found in their basic interdisciplinary approach, which explores the boundaries of animation.

Last but not least, in the programme “Soul-Things. Through the Hells of Animation”, DOK Leipzig will present films that delight in the disturbing and the repressed. This programme was created around the short film “Thing” (2021) by animation artist Malte Stein, which was screened at the festival in 2021. In addition to this film, this series, curated by Malte Stein and André Eckardt, brings together twelve others that confront the viewers with their own vague anxieties. Time and again, the focus is on characters whose conflicts from childhood and youth reverberate in adult life. Included are: a music video by Björk, a film adaptation of a short story by Charles Bukowski, East Asian animation art and films by David Lynch and Jan Švankmajer.

DOK Leipzig would like to thank the Slovenian Cultural Information Centre in Berlin and the Slovenian Film Centre for supporting the film programme “Slovenian Animation. The Conquest of Poetic Space”.

The entire film selection of the programme presented here is available for download in the PDF of the press release.