POLISH FILMS AT THE FESTIVAL DOK LEIPZIG
On October 31, starts the 59th edition of the festival DOK Leipzig. This year, a strong representation of Polish productions will appear in Leipzig: seven films will vie in the competitions, eight will appear in the non-competing sections, and twenty-seven will be shown in a special retrospective.
DOK Leipzig is one of the leading events in the world of documentary and animated film. Every year, in Leipzig, the latest film productions from several dozen of countries from all continents are presented. This year, over 3 300 films were submitted to DOK Leipzig. From among this number, in the official selection, about 160 films were chosen to participate in the festival, and about 125 films went to the special programmes. In total, nearly 300 films will be shown at DOK Leipzig, including as many as 41 Polish film productions!
In the international feature-length documentary and animated film competitions, the film "Communion" by Anna Zamecka will compete for the awards, whereas four Polish films, two documentary films and two animated films, are invited to the short film competition. In Leipzig, the films "Close Ties" by Zofia Kowalewska, "Three Conversations on Life" by Julia Staniszewska, "Pencilless Case" by Magdalena Pilecka and "Super Film" by Piotr Kabat will vie in the competition. Both documentary films and the animated film by Piotr Kabat will have their international premières at DOK Leipzig.
Also in the competition, but this time, dedicated to German short documentary films, one can watch the film "Patriotic Lesson" by Filip Jacobson, the German-Polish co-production, and the Polish-Russian film "Convictions" by Tatiana Christova will compete for the awards in the Next Masters Competition.
In the international programme for feature-length documentary and animated films, there are three Polish productions: "21 x New York City" by Piotr Stasik, "Two Worlds" by Maciej Adamek and "Intensity of Watching" by Andrzej Sapija. The documentary films by Piotr Stasik and Maciej Adamek, though its were not included in the competition section, are nominated for the MDR Film Prize for films from Eastern Europe.
Polish films found their place also in the short film programme; "Pussy" by Renata Gąsiorowska, "The Gentle Giant" by Marcin Podolec and the Polish-Russian co-production "In Another World" by Anna Bedyńska are invited to this section.
Polish productions will appear in the section Kids DOK, too. There, "Daniel" by Anastazja Dąbrowska will have its international première, and the programme includes also "Two Worlds" by Maciej Adamek and "You Can't Hide From the Truth" by A.a.v. Amasi, produced in Poland, Great Britain and Zimbabwe.
At this year's edition of the festival DOK Leipzig, there is a retrospective of Polish documentary film entitled "Seven sins and other confessions in Polish documentary films." Almost 30 films will be shown in Leipzig!
It is one of the largest reviews of Polish documentary film abroad. The programme includes films made from the half of the 1950s, belonging to the so-called "black series," as well as the latest documentary films produced in 1990s and at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Among them, there are the classics of the genre, such as: Krzysztof Kieślowski, Marcel Łoziński and Bogdan Dziworski. You can read more about the retrospective here.
These are not all Polish features at DOK Leipzig. For several years, the festival co-operates with Krakow Film Foundation, and this co-operation results in, among others, special Polish programme at the film market DOK Market. During this year's edition of Doc Lab Poland, "Volte," directed by Monika Kotecka and Karolina Poryzała, was honoured with the invitation to Co-Pro Market, whereas in the section Doc Preview, there is the project "Over the limit" by Marta Prus, produced by Telemark, which has already been successful during pitchings.
The full programme of the festival is available on the website of DOK Leipzig.