2013 Munich DOK.fest
Partial list of the films at the 2013 Documentary Festival in Munich. I managed to see 21 of the films in this year's incredible program, the best of which were:
"Meine keine Familie"
"Gulabi Gang"
"Mein Weg nach Olympia"
"Miles & War"
"Nägel mit Köpfen"
"Soldier on the Roof"
"Vater Vater Kind"
"Meine keine Familie"
"Gulabi Gang"
"Mein Weg nach Olympia"
"Miles & War"
"Nägel mit Köpfen"
"Soldier on the Roof"
"Vater Vater Kind"
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- DirectorNishtha JainTorstein GrudeStarsSampat Pal DeviRam DulariDevratiIn Bundelkhand, India, a revolution is in the making among the poorest of the poor, as the fiery women of the Gulabi Gang empower themselves and take up the fight against gender violence, caste oppression and widespread corruption.
- DirectorDamien OunouriStarsMohamed El Hadi BenadoudaDuring the Algerian Revolution, my great-uncle El Hadi joined his sister in France and became an active member of a secret FLN armed group. Settling of scores, attempted murder, hiding, imprisonment and finally deportation back to Algeria in 1962, his personal journey tells the story of countless ex-fighters for Algerian independence, and echoes the current effervescence of the Arab World. Today, at the age of seventy, El Hadi reveals this dark part of his life for the first time.
- DirectorSylvain L'EspéranceAfter several failed attempts to reach Europe, Cesar, Felou and Erik find themselves in Bamako, Mali deported, dejected, disoriented, but still driven to pursue their dreams. Meanwhile Ami, like so many other young women in Africa, fights with unshakable determination to escape a life of unfulfilment and forge a brighter future for herself and her children. Through their words, through poetry, theater and song, they begin to build atop the ruins of their shattered ambitions. They strive to express the inexpressible, share the unsharable, and in so doing heal their wounds, lift their spirits and rekindle their sense of hope. They stand up against the multiple forces that surround them and seek to suppress them. Their words are power.
- DirectorKaoru IkeyaStarsNaoshi Satô
- DirectorViviane BlumenscheinStarsAki KaurismäkiChino LabordePablo GrecoFinns have a quirky sense of humour - and are a bit shy. But: Tango is THE folk music of the Finns. The documentary discovers the Finnish tango from the viewpoint of the singer Chino Laborde, the guitarist Diego "DIPI" Kvitko and the bandoneonist Pablo Greco. The three Argentine musicians travel to Finland to find out whether Aki Kaurismäki is telling the truth when he asserts that tango music was invented in Finland.
- DirectorJasna Krajinovic12-year old Anton is spending his summer holidays at Kaskad military training camp, where he and 60 other Russian children are subjected to tough exercise regimens created by President Putin for the fight against Muslim Chechens.
- DirectorBiene PilavciA documentary about the power of family.
- DirectorKlaus StanjekStarsInge BaumeisterWalter BeckRuth BluhmeSounds From the Fog chronicles the odyssey of a gay musician in Nazi Germany. Director Klaus Stanjek's cheerful Uncle Willi lived with his family, except when he was touring as a musician across Germany. Only when Willi turned 90 did his nephew Klaus Stanjek detect what his whole family had hidden: that Uncle Willi has spent eight years in Nazi camps and that he was gay. In a radical personal approach, veteran filmmaker Stanjek follows the complex turns that his family takes when they confront his Uncle Willi's secret. The result is a personal and political portrait of his beloved uncle, a talented singer and accordion player, that is one part historical inquiry and one part fascinating detective story.
- DirectorMarlo PorasA tale of two sisters living in the shadow of two Chinas.
- DirectorBarbara MillerStarsYoani SanchezFarnaz SeifiZeng JinyanHow to start a revolution with a laptop.
- DirectorMichal MarczakStarsTommy Hol EllingsenLeona JohanssonDany DeVeroBerlin's Fuck for Forest is one of the world's most bizarre charities: based on the idea that sex can change the world, the NGO raises money for their environmental cause by selling home-made erotic films on the Internet.
- DirectorEmma DavieMorag McKinnonStarsNeil PlattA documentary follows the last months of Neil Platt, a young father with terminal and debilitating motor neuron disease (MND).
- DirectorAnne ThomaStarsUrsina LardiToday's wars and conflicts are increasingly complex and incomprehensible. Often, they are caused by local civil conflicts with global repercussions in the power struggle over territories and resources. This is why politicians employ those who understand the language, have access to expert knowledge and know how to be discrete. They employ experts, who turned making peace into a new, private business model. If you want to put an end to war, you have to talk to the fighters! An exclusive group of international consultants are dedicated to this idea - it is their business, and their mission
- DirectorEsther HertogIn the West-bank city of Hebron, a major holy place to both Jews and Muslims, some 800 extremist Jewish settlers live in the midst of a Palestinian population of over 120,000. In this tense situation, where the military watches day & night over the Jewish community from city rooftops, all foreign media are mistrusted and access almost impossible. Over a period of three years, Dutch Israeli visual-anthropologist Esther Hertog lived with regularity amongst the settlers, and was slowly allowed to film their lives from within their community. After winning two separate competitions at IDFA 2012 (Dutch doc & First appearance), the Jury commented: This unique documentary accomplishes a seemingly innocent and lighthearted approach that manages to both relate the daily lives of Jewish settlers, and their belief system, and shed light on the lives of the Palestinians surrounding them. Soldier on the Roof has captured unique scenes of the settlers real, sometimes even surreal daily life, by showing the absurdity of choices where logic and reality are overtaken by dogma and entrenched hatred.
- DirectorJohn AppelA documentary on the drama caused by Anders Behring Breivik in Norway. Survivors and relatives of victims tell their personal experience.
- DirectorMia DonovanStarsRebekka ArmstrongMeriesa ArroyoAnita CannibalIn the Spring of 2004, an ambitious and naive Montreal girl named Lara Roxx headed to LA and tried her luck in the adult movie business. Within two months of working in this industry she contracted the most virulent form of HIV while performing sex in front of the camera. Miss Roxx's story created a public sensation, but it's when the media hype dies that Inside Lara Roxx begins - in a psychiatric ward in Montreal. Inside Lara Roxx follows this young woman through a tumultuous five-years period as she struggles to build a new identity and find hope in the wake of her past.
- DirectorBrigitte PoupartStarsDave Saint-PierreDave St-PierreThe phone calls home. Adonor has been found. Dave's new lungs are on the way. He has two hours to get to the hospital. The story of a man waiting to be reborn or to die.
- DirectorWang BingThree young sisters live and work in extreme poverty in the harsh environment of Yunnan, a province on the Sino Burmese border area of China.
- DirectorAndreas WolffStarsAhadoKlaus HartmannKrzysztof KotiukIn 2009, the German container ship "Hansa Stavangar" had been seized by Somali pirates for four months. After its release, magazine covers showed a captain happy to have escaped the barbarian terror. This film shows the deeper layers, the invisible story behind the headlines, recounted from two protagonists' points of view: The pirate leader, Ahado, an eloquent, intelligent young man, and the captain, Krysztof Kotiuk. The former, who grew up amidst mortar shelling in Mogadishu, expecting to die at any moment, has nothing to lose. The latter will be left with nothing in the end. When weeks pass with no help from Germany, the captain decides to approach the opponent in a desperate attempt to save his crew. When both crew and company turn their backs on him, Ahado becomes his only confidant. Step by step the tragedy of two people is revealed - the pirate and the captain are destined to be enemies in a war that we're all a part of. Yet, they grow to form a close bond in the end. What's left when the roles we play, all moral categories and certainties implode? When you slide from a position of strength to one with no way out? And what is it like for those who have no choice in the first place? A psychological drama that addresses existential questions of war and human understanding.
- DirectorNiko von GlasowStarsNiko von GlasowGreg PolychronidisMatt StutzmanThe film director Niko von Glasow undertakes a journey to athletes, who compete at the Paralympic Games in London 2012. He himself is a short-armed avowed hater of sport who cannot understand how anyone could take on such an odeal voluntarily. Even more since everyday life for people with a disability is most often challenging enough.
- DirectorMoritz SiebertWhat to do in a secular society, when nobody wants to become a priest anymore? The German catholic church decided to recruit its priests from far away. Cyriac is one of almost 500 priests from India currently carrying out their service in Germany. Hardly able to speak German, he finds himself in a tiny village in Bavaria. Harvest Hand tells the story of Cyriac's struggle for recognition an his process of coming to terms with his role in a society that stopped to believe. The film focuses on his visits to the sick and elderly - encounters which are characterized by mutual speechlessness and strangeness. Cyriac's growing unease with the old people's loneliness and his own marginal authority engulf him in a deep crisis.
- DirectorHelena TrestíkováStarsSamuel JirásekJan KettnerPetr KettnerCovering a span of 35 years in the life of Honza, a man born 'on camera' in 1974.
- DirectorWolfram HukeStarsWolfram HukePope Benedict XVIYou find yourself turning 30 without being initiated into the mysteries of love. What happened? LOVE ALIEN is a filmmaker's radical, subjective look at his life's problem. Accompanied by his camera, he explores the unknown world of lovers. On this journey he encounters relationship counselors, wardrobe consultants, partygoers, Valentine's Day shoppers, a neighbor's cat, his own family - and women. A filmmaker's cinematic attempt to find his first girlfriend.
- DirectorPaul-Julien RobertStarsFlorence DesurmontClaudia MuehlOtto MuehlCommunal property, free sexuality, dissolution of the nuclear family - these were the basic principles of the Friedrichshof, the largest commune in Europe founded by the Viennese Actionist Otto Muehl at the beginning of the 1970's. In my fathers, my mother and me the director Paul-Julien Robert, who was born into this commune, embarks on a personal journey into his past. Including archive material made public for the first time in this film, the director confronts himself and his mother with the question 'What is family?'.
- DirectorFranziska von Malsen