DOK Leipzig has announced the full competition programme for its 65th edition, running from 17-23 October. Seventy-four feature-length and short animated and documentary films, 48 of which are world or international premieres, will be competing for the Golden and Silver Doves in the International Competitions, the German Competitions and the Competitions for the Audience Awards.

“The films at this year’s festival confront us with genuine social realities, but they also teach us that documentary images must be approached with scepticism,” says festival director Christoph Terhechte. “At a time when deepfakes are circulating online, DOK Leipzig regards itself as a platform that enables a critical discussion of the way images are being created and the forms of truth that are resulting from this.”

The International Competition Long Documentary and Animated Film is showcasing 13 works. Several of these are based on archival research, including Tropic Fever by Mahardika Yudha, Robin Hartanto Honggare and Perdana Roswaldy, on Dutch colonists in Indonesia; and Ciné-Guerrillas: Scenes from the Labudović Reels [+leggi anche:
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The selection also features new pictures by established filmmakers, such as Sasha Kulak's A Hawk as Big as a Horse and Nikolaus Geyrhalter's Matter Out of Place [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Nikolaus Geyrhalter
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intervista: Theo Montoya
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The Competition for the Audience Award Long Documentary and Animated Film features nine titles, including the world premieres of Pamela Meyer-Arndt’s Rebels, on three artists who opposed the GDR; Maksym Melnyk's Three Women [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Elwira Niewiera e Piotr Ro…
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Finally, nine titles will be competing in the German Competition Long Documentary and Animated Film, including Katharina Pethke’s Uncanny Me, which examines how reality is depicted, and The Homes We Carry [+leggi anche:
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scheda film], in which director Brenda Akele Jorde reflects on her identity as the daughter of a German mother and a Mozambican father. The other seven films are Blue Sky White Clouds by Astrid Menzel, Daniel Richter by Pepe Danquart, Pastor Lothar Stops by Tilman König, Miyama, Kyoto Prefecture by Rainer Komers, Slaughterhouses of Modernity by Heinz Emigholz, Dead Birds Flying High by Sönje Storm, and She Chef [+leggi anche:
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Across all of its sidebars and competitions, the festival is presenting a total of 255 films and XR experiences from 55 countries, including 67 feature films and 179 short films. The full programme can be browsed here.