DOK Leipzig is one of four internationally renowned film festivals which presents a “Best of” programme at EXPO 2010.
The magnolia is the official symbol of Shanghai, the booming metropolis whose EXPO 2010 is to present an unparalleled spectacle to the world from1 May to 31 October. When the Magnolia International Documentary Awards (MIDA) will be awarded in June – as part of the Shanghai International Film Festival -, that occasion will make the event far exceed its original importance as the biggest platform for meetings between the Asian documentary film and television industry and its European and North American counterparts. For the first time, documentary films will be screened at the biggest cinemas in this city of 18 million inhabitants – a spectacular event in a country where documentaries are rarely ever screened in public. The organisers have every reason to expect not just huge local crowds, but above all visitors of the Expo that will be coming from all parts of this huge country.
DOK Leipzig, which presented itself and its films at the Yangtze River to great acclaim before, will be part of this spectacle: It is one of four internationally renowned film festivals selected to present the avant-garde of the genre to the MIDA and EXPO visitors in “Best of” programmes. The only German representative in Shanghai, Leipzig once more confirms its status as the biggest and most important documentary film event and one of the leading festivals in Germany. Apart from Leipzig, the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) will be the only other festival representing the European industry in China. The other festivals invited to present programmes are the Yamagata International Documentary Festival from Japan and the Taiwan International Film Festival.
An attendant event to the public screenings will be organised on 7 and 8 June, when the EAA (European, American and Asian) Documentary Forum will bring together outstanding directors, producers, critics and representatives of the documentary film industry and its leading festivals on three continents in an international “summit”.
DOK Leipzig will be represented in Shanghai by Dr. Grit Lemke, head of documentary film programming. She will take part in the “Summit of European, American and Asian Documentary Film Festival Presidents” and will also present seven programmes featuring nine films from ten countries to the Chinese audience; films that have left their marks on the festival and the genre in recent years, some of which premiered in Leipzig. The line-up includes outstanding and multiple-award winning productions like “The Mother” by Pavel Kostomarov/Antoine Cattin, “Kinder. Wie die Zeit vergeht” (Children. How Time Passes) by Thomas Heise or “Chemo” by Pavel Lozinski. “Cyanosis” by the Iranian filmmaker Rokhsarah Ghaemmaghami will represent the animated documentary (Animadoc), a sub-genre at home in Leipzig. In addition, “Shanghai Fiction”, Busso von Mueller’s and Julia Albrecht’s epic of a mind-boggling metropolis which had its world premiere in Leipzig in 2009, will celebrate its Chinese premiere as part of the “Best of DOK Leipzig” programme.
DOK Leipzig is again organising the programme in co-operation with the Goethe Institute, the Department of Culture and Education of the German Consulate General in Shanghai, which is planning to repeat the complete Leipzig “Best of” programme in Shanghai at a later date.
The "Best Of" - programme includes the following films:
Cyanosis by Rokhsareh Ghaemmaghami, Iran 2007, 32 min
Special Mention Generation DOK 2008
Chemo by Pavel Lozinski, Poland 2009, 58 min
MDR Prize for the Best Eastern European Documentary 2009
The Mother by Pavel Kostomarev/Antoine Gattin, Russia/Switzerland 2007, 80 min
MDR Prize for the Best Eastern European Documentary 2007
Children. How Times Flies by Thomas Heise, Germany 2008, 86 min
Silver Dove 2008
The Arrivals by Claudine Borries/Patrice Chagnard, France 2009, 111 min
Golden Dove 2009
Shanghai Fiction by Julia Albrecht/Busso von Müller, Germany 2009, 133 min
Merely a Smell by Maher Abi Samra, Lebanon 2007, 10 min
Golden Dove 2008
Pizza in Auschwitz by Moshe Zimmermann, Israel 2008, 66 min
Award of the Youth Jury 2008
