We celebrate documentary cinema! Our vision for DOK.fest München 2021 was a dual festival edition that would bring our programme to the big screen and, with an online counterpart, to your screen at home. But in view of the continuing uncertain development of the COVID-19 pandemic, we had to change our plans: The 36th DOK.fest München 2021 will once again take place online. We are extending the festival by one week until 23 May.
130 of the year's best international documentaries on screen
Four major competitions present the highlights of international filmmaking. The guest country series DOK.guest Canada shows Canadian society away from the political headlines. In the retrospective we discover five decades of DEFA documentary film and with the homage to Helena Třeštíková we present the work of a renowned Czech director.
The industry platform DOK.forum @home offers case studies, workshops, panels and a marketplace that brings together filmmakers and decision-makers from German-speaking countries – live and online.
The festival programme and advance ticket sales will be available on our homepage at the end of April 2021.
Statements on DOK.fest München 2021 @home
Festival director Daniel Sponsel: "We are aware of our multiple responsibilities: On the one hand, we definitely want to return to the cinemas. The team has prepared a dual edition with great commitment and effort. On the other hand, the situation has deteriorated again and we have a social obligation. We are in lockdown until mid-April, there are travel restrictions and the further forecasts do not make us optimistic. Even if it should be possible to hold cultural events at the beginning of May, it is no longer possible to organise a festival that meets the high expectations, given the necessary lead time, the logistical challenges and the costs. We are therefore presenting our programme online on the digital screen: great films, numerous interesting film talks and a supporting programme worth seeing."
Judith Gerlach, Bavarian State Minister for Digital Affairs: "Last year, DOK.fest München took on a pioneering role: The festival proved that great content also attracts interest online and was thus able to tap into large new audience groups. As difficult as the current situation is: DOK.fest München is in the best position to present its programme on the digital screen. That is why we are happy to support the online version this year with over 350,000 euros. We are happy to have such a modern, forward-looking and large film festival in Bavaria. It will be even nicer when we can hopefully watch exciting films together in the cinema again at the next edition."
Dieter Reiter, Lord Mayor of the City of Munich: "The team around Daniel Sponsel has been planning on two tracks for months and has tried everything to bring its programme to the cinemas in Munich at the beginning of May. Unfortunately, presence events are not feasible at the moment. We also support the new plans with the funds provided, especially since the experience of the last edition was positive all around. And so, together with all documentary film fans from Munich and all over Germany, I am looking forward to the festival in May. In this difficult lockdown period, it is even more valuable that DOK.fest München offers windows into fascinating, foreign worlds."
Dorothee Erpenstein, Managing Director of FilmFernsehFonds Bayern: "As much as we would like to finally see all the great documentaries in the cinema again, to participate in professional events and to discuss them together – this year, too, we are only left with encounters in virtual space. I am glad that DOK.fest makes this possible and that we can enjoy a unique programme despite the current situation. I wish Daniel Sponsel and his team a successful festival, many spectators and unforgettable film moments."
DOK.guest Canada
Filmstill from NO VISIBLE TRAUMA © Lost Time Media
Indigenous culture and megacities, monarchy and liberalism. The dream of freedom, but also its contradictions, have shaped Canada like hardly any other country. As part of the Guest of Honour series, DOK.fest München 2021 presents seven documentaries from and about Canada that bring the tensions, but also the unique dynamics of this still young nation in America's North to life.
The Canada Focus is part of Canada's cultural programme as Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2020/21 and is supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, Telefilm Canada and the Government of Canada. In addition to the film series, the Canada Focus includes a delegation of Canadian filmmakers at the DOK.forum Marketplace.
To the DOK.guest Canada programme
DOK.fest Homage 2021: Helena Třeštíková
Portrait of Helena Třeštíková
"You live and live and suddenly you're over sixty." In her films, Helena Třeštíková delves deep into biographies, into private universes. The Czech director is a master of long-term observation, the freestyle of documentary filmmaking. She herself once described her working method as "time-lapse filmmaking". Contemporary history is always reflected and refracted in her films, the macrocosm in the microcosms. Třeštíková, in the spirit of Jean-Luc Godard, does not make political films, but films political. The lives of others reflect on our own lives, on our own small dramas and big moments. Helena Třeštíková's films sharpen the eye for the important details. Often they sharpen the eye for happiness. As part of the homage, we present nine films from different creative phases of the director.
All films of the Homage at a glance
DOK.forum und DOK.education - @home
The industry platform DOK.forum @home offers - live and online - a marketplace that connects filmmakers and decision-makers from German-speaking countries and gets new projects off the ground. In addition, public workshops, case studies and panels on current topics of documentary work take place.
With the "School of Seeing", the DOK.education @home programme offers digital teaching units including film, video seminars and accompanying materials for teachers and students throughout Bavaria. Youtube and camera workshops for children and young people are also offered.