The awarded German documentaries at the 47 Duisburger Filmwoche are:

  • 3sat Documentary Award goes to longterm trilogy EINZELTÄTER by Julian Vogel produced by CORSO Film. "...In this trilogy, director Julian Vogel gives space to the victims and their relatives, accompanying the latter in their lives that have fallen apart at the seams, but above all in the struggle to come to terms with what should actually be done by others. Panning shots of everyday life in Germany confront their experiences of violence and injustice with a normality that must be preserved at all costs.
    Vogel seeks a form that resists conventional television - including cinema formats - to a certain extent and must therefore also be read as a plea for a different, politically conscious documentary work. He works in an open-ended way, taking his time. He alternates documentary and essayistic scenes, and thus emotionality and objectivity. The montage allows closeness and at the same time analytical distance.
    Despite the ambivalence that accompanies any cinematic representation of mourning, Vogel continuously broadens the perspectives. All three parts - in terms of focus, methodology and dramaturgy - stand on their own, but in their 239-minute synopsis, connections, painful gaps and striking, systemic failures are revealed. A struggle for attitude, reappraisal and visibility, which should now also be translated into prime time television programs..." [quote from the jury statement and the members are Britt Beyer, Laura Coppens, Sebastian Höglinger]
  • Newcomer Award Carte Blanche – goes to OPERATION NAMIBIA by Martin Paret
    "...Operation Namibia, which aims to ship 6,000 banned books to the South African-occupied country, fails because it has to fail. Martin Paret conceals nothing and spares no one. With minimal means, he creates a relentlessly powerful undertow without ever sacrificing the humanity of his characters. In correspondence across continents and oceans, a circle of young people opens up to us, smiling at us in photographs. Huddled together in the forced intimacy of the sailing boat, they turn us into insiders. The narration, imagery and soundscape intertwine just as carefully, bringing the photographs to life. The obstacles that push the mission's goal further and further away are sometimes technical and sometimes interpersonal, sometimes health-related and sometimes financial. The multi-perspectivity of the epistolary narrative leaves no room for singular causes. Everyone and no one is to blame at the same time. The straight line that the group envisioned for their journey at the beginning never existed..." [quote from the jury statement and the members are Özge Inan, Lukas Marxt, Dominic Schmid]
  • Special Mention of City of Diusburg goes to KHABUR | XABÛR by by Nafis Fathollahzadeh "...gives back not only a region, but also its past and its nature, its gods and its displaced people the language that was stolen from them. A formally challenging monument to resistance against colonial continuities in occupied Kurdistan that are too rarely questioned..." [quote from the jury statement and the members are Özge Inan, Lukas Marxt, Dominic Schmid]
  • Special Mention ARTE Documentary Award goes to LA EMPRESA by André Siegers. "... The Mexican village of El Alberto, located on the border with the USA, has developed another product for the world market in addition to the production of hand-crocheted exfoliating gloves - the Caminata Nocturna. Every week – and several times before Easter – the village community performs the gruesome stages of border crossings as an amateur drama – and has become famous for it. When a German film crew buys exclusive access to this attraction, the stories begin to overlap. With laconic humility and competence in terms of content, both contractual partners take care of their respective products. A finely constructed confusion..." [quote from the jury statement and the members of the jury are Enoka Ayemba, Christiane Büchner, Stefanie Gaus]

Browse all winners and Jury statements – in German only – here.

 

 

 

 

The 47th edition of the DUISBURGER FILMWOCHE will take place November 6–12, programming 23 documentaries from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Browse the proramme —German only— here.

 

LineUp German documentary productions and co-productions:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

stay tuned by following the festival on FB #df47 or website of the festival.