The Dependents

Source: DOK Leipzig

‘The Dependents’

Eight feature documentaries will have world premieres in the international feature competition of DOK Leipzig, which runs from October 17-23 in Germany.

World debuts in the 13-strong international competition include Sofia Brockenshire’s The Dependents, an Argentina-Canada co-production about the life of an official in the Canadian Immigration Service.

Scroll down for the full competition selection

Brockenshire previously co-directed One Sister, a fiction film that debuted in Biennale College – Cinema at Venice Film Festival in 2016.

The international competition section will also launch Joseph Mangat’s Divine Factory, a Filipino-US-Taiwanese co-production that looks at the economic, social and religious conditions of the Philippines through the example of a factory near Manila for statues of Catholic saints.

Nine films will compete in the German feature competition. Eight of these are world premieres, including Astrid Menzel’s Blauer Himmel Weiße Wolken (English translation: Blue Sky White Clouds), in which two grandchildren take their dementia-suffering grandmother on a 10-day canoe trip.

A separate audience award feature competition has nine titles, including the European premiere of Kim Hopkins’ A Bunch Of Amateurs, about the Bradford Movie Makers amateur filmmaking club. Having won the audience award at Sheffield DocFest earlier this year, the film will be released by the newly-formed MetFilm Distribution in the UK and Ireland on November 11 

Each of the three feature competition sections – international, German and audience award – also has a parallel shorts competition. The complete DOK Leipzig 2022 competition programme consists of 74 films, 48 of which are world or international premieres.

Now in its 65th edition, the full festival is screening 255 films and XR experiences, from 55 countries; including 67 feature films and 179 shorts.

Earlier this month, new documentaries from Jasmila Zbanic, Ziad Kalthoum and Susanne Kim were among 34 projects selected for the DOK Co-Pro Market.

DOK Leipzig 2022 feature competitions 

International competition

Anhell69 (Col-Rom-Fr-Ger) dir. Theo Montoya

Ciné-Guerillas: Scenes From The Labudović Reels (Ser-Fr) dir. Mila Turajlic

The Dependents (Arg-Can) dir. Sofia Brockenshire*

Divine Factory (Phi-US-Tai) dir. Joseph Mangat*

A Hawk As Big As A Horse (Fr) dir. Sasha Kulak*

The Invisible Frontier (Mex) dir. Mariana Flores Villalba*

Landscapes (Arg) dir. Hernan Fernandez*

A Life Like Any Other (Bel-Fr) dir. Faustine Cros*

Matter Out Of Place (Austria) dir. Nikolaus Geyrhalter

A Night Song (Can) dir. Felix Lamarche

One Mother (Fr) dir. Mickael Bandela

Perhaps What I Fear Does Not Exist (Leb) dir. Corine Shawi

Tropic Fever (Indonesia-Neth) dirs. Mahardika Yudha, Robin Hartanto Honggare, Perdana Rosawldy*

German competition

Blauer Himmer Weiße Wolken, dir. Astrid Menzel*

Daniel Richter, dir. Pepe Danquart*

The Homes We Carry, dir. Brenda Akele Jorde*

König hört auf, dir. Tilman Konig*

Miyama, Kyoto Prefecture, dir. Rainer Komers*

Schlachthäuser der Moderne, dir. Heinz Emigholz

Die toten Vögel sind oben, dir. Sonje Storm*

Uncanny Me, dir. Katharina Pethke*

Wanderjahre, dirs. Gereon Wetzel, Melanie Liebheit*

Audience award competition

A Bunch Of Amateurs (UK) dir. Kim Hopkins

Drei Frauen (Ger) dir. Maksym Melnyk*

Fragments From Heaven (Mor-Fr) dir. Adnane Baraka

Die Frau Des Dichters (Ger) dir. Helke Misselwitz

Das Hamlet-Syndrom (Ger-Pol) dirs. Elwira Niewiera, Piotr Rosolowski

One Road To Quartzsite (US) dir. Ryan Maxey

Rebellinnen – Fotografie. Underground. DDR. (Ger) dir. Pamela Meyer-Arndt*

Revolution 21 (Pol) dir. Martyna Peszko*

Silver Bird And Rainbow Fish (US-Neth) dir. Lei Lei