The 67th DOK Leipzig opens this week with the world premiere of director Thomas Riedelsheimer’s feature documentary Tracing Light. .
Now in his fifth year as artistic director of DOK Leipzig, Christoph Terhechte talks about what he considers the key elements of this year’s program, the importance of raising the profile of animation, and how the festival will evolve. told the screen.
This year’s festival received over 3,300 entries. What were the common trends you observed?
Political documentaries that tackle specific issues, such as the rise of far-right movements in many countries, have declined. More and more films are focusing on what enriches our society, and many of them also focus on the beauty of nature and why we need to protect it.
For me, the festival program is about bringing together as many voices as possible and showing the wide variety of shapes and diversity of our world.
Which countries offered particularly strong proposals?
I’m glad that Chinese and Latin American films have a strong presence.
Of course, we give priority to films from Central and Eastern Europe, as traditionally there has been a special emphasis on films from Central and Eastern Europe, and that is why many people come to Leipzig to see these films.
France has always been the strongest country in terms of producing and participating in international co-productions, but it is necessary to ensure that there are not too many French films in the program.
Why did you choose Isabel Helguera and Dominic Cabrera as subjects for this year’s homage?
We want to honor people who are less well-known to our viewers. The choice of Isabel Helguera, whose “Sultana’s Dream” was shown in Leipzig last year, is a reflection on the importance of collaboration, that we should not only be geniuses alone, but also engage in creative dialogue with others. It is consistent with our focus.
Dominique Cabrera is one of the most criminally underrated European documentary filmmakers, perhaps because she has always moved between fiction and documentary. Her approach is very cinephile, so her masterclass will be about the relationship between cinephilia and documentary. This is encapsulated in her new film, La Jetée, The Fifth Shot, which is about director Chris Marker, the history of film, and even her family history. Because her cousin thinks she’s in the fifth shot of the movie.
What was the reaction from the animation community to the decision to include Golden Dove in Best Animated Feature Film last year?
They were certainly happy to have another festival taking them seriously. In the past, animation has often felt like a fifth wheel, but we want it to be an important wheel in the vehicle. We aim to combine animation and documentary on equal footing.
Our goal in the competition was the Japanese film “Ghostcast Anzu”, which at first looks like a children’s film but later has very frightening elements, from the Hungarian animadoc “Pelican Blue” to Heinrich Sable’s “ The idea was to have five films that were as different as possible, up until “Pelican Blue.” Memory Hotel was born after about 25 years. “Olivia & The Clouds” is an animated film from the Dominican Republic that doesn’t happen in everyday life. Last but not least, I am very interested in how “Animaria Paradoxa” will be discussed, as it includes many live-action elements.
Your contract as Artistic Director and Managing Director has been extended until the beginning of 2028. How do you see DOK Leipzig developing in the future?
I always have a lot of ideas, but structurally I think we’ve arrived at what we wanted to do last year. We had big plans when we started five years ago, but then the pandemic hit and we had to adjust. I’m still happy with the decision to reduce the size of the festival and reduce the number of films shown, but that doesn’t mean there will be fewer seats. The idea from the beginning was to give animation a bigger role, but that only became possible once we were able to travel again after the pandemic.
