Festival-Report Leipzig 2002

45th International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Films
15th-20th October 2002

Ecumenical Jury: Thomas Bohne (Germany), Jakob Hoffmann (Germany), Bernadette Meier (Switzerland)

The prize of the jury goes to the film:

Hirtenreise ins dritte Jahrtausend, by Erich Langjahr, Schweiz 2002

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The timing could not have been better
by Ron Holloway, Berlin

The timing could not have been better. Shortly after the 45th Leipzig International Festival for Documentary and Animation Films opened with the hit documentary of the year, Michael Moore’s >Bowling for Columbine< (USA), the German edition of Moore’s bestselling Stupid White Men hit the book stands. The biting, acerbic, stinging >Bowling for Columbine< had been invited to compete at Cannes and was awarded there an especially created “Unique Prize of the 55th Anniversary Festival.” And Stupid White Men, a riotous political satire penned in the journalistic vein of H.L. Mencken and Mike Royko, rode the bestseller list in the New York Times for nearly a year.

How did this hard-nose statement on gun-related deaths in the United States and the ongoing battle with the gun lobby in Congress get made in the first place? Armed with a disarming smile and a wise-crack for any occasion, Michael Moore hardly looks like a master of the provoca-tive documentary statement. But his subtle gift for the reduction ad absurdum in argumentative give-and-take pays off time and again. Without batting an eye, he lets a bonehead gun-toter casually put his foot in his mouth. He trips gun lobbyists up with their own words. He scolds the media for fostering violence, particularly in the destitute black and hispanic neighbourhoods. And he chides Charlton Heston for preaching the gospel of the American Rifle Association on the very doorstep of the high school where the Columbine student massacre took place. In short, Moore is squarely on the side of the poor, the un-employed, the downtrodden - even if it means hedging a bet and stretching the truth every now and then. Ever since he took on Roger Smith of General Motors for aban-doning his hometown of Flint/Michigan in >Roger and Me< (1989) - the film was invited to Leipzig just days after the fall of the Berlin wall - he prides himself on being a self-styled conscience of the nation.

The opening night was also memorable for a stirring address delivered by Andres Veiel, Germany’s award-winning documentary filmmaker (>Black Box BRD<), at the request of festival director Fred Gehler. Veiel underscored Leipzig’s mandate as a leading documentary event. He appraised the revitalized documentary format as a “seismographic instrument” that can effectively analyze the issues and convey the relevant facts to a vexed public. He cited the need for political responsibility in view of the daily threat of an air attack on Iraq. And he praised the DOK-festival “for resisting the impulse of a knee-jerking reaction to current popular themes.”

To a great extent, the key films in the Documentary Competition did mirror Andres Veiel’s spoken convictions - and they provoked thought and discussion on the social and political issues of the day. The Golden Dove for Best Long Documentary was awarded to Erich Langjahr’s >Hirtenreise ins dritte Jahrtausend (Shepherds’ Journey into the Third Millennium)< (Switzerland), the third film in his trilogy on “fundamental questions of mankind and human existence” that, taken altogether, form imagewise an ethnographic picture-book on Swiss farming today. >Shepherds’ Journey into the Third Millennium< is best evaluated in conjunction with his earlier >Sennen-Ballade (Alpine Ballad)< (1996), a poetic ballad on the daily chores of a diary farmer during the summer months, and >Bauernkrieg (Peasants’ War)< (1998), anapocalyptical vision of farming practices threat-ened by an increasingly mechanized agro-industry. Both of these Langjahr documentaries had competed previously at Leipzig.

Running at two hours in length, >Shepherds’ Journey into the Third Millennium< portrays in minute detail the seasonal chores of two shepherds as they lead their sheep from pasture to pasture, in winter and summer, in fairweather or foul. But as these Swiss shepherds enter the third millennium, they are confronted by sprawling new highways and ever-expanding urban communities. Asked why they have chosen a sacrificial existence even although their own families are anchored in traditional farm life, they respond that shepherding as a philosophy of life satisfies a funda-mental longing for freedom. Erich Langjahr’s >Shepherds’ Journey< was also awarded the Ecumenical Prize and the Don Quixote Prize of the International Federation of FilmClubs.

A general theme in this year’s competition? Two awarded documentary filmmakers dug into the family past to discover unknown truths about their fathers. In Michael Gaumnitz’s >Exil in Sedan (Exile in Sedan)< (France) - awarded the FIPRESCI (International Critics) Prize and the Media Trade Union Prize - the director eventually finds out why his father had left Dresden in a hurry shortly after the war to emigrate with his family to the industrial town of Sedan in northeastern France, where ever since the First World War Germans are hardly welcomed, only to return to Germany many years later to spend his last days alone as he drank himself to death. Searching to discover what kind of man his father was, Gaumnitz traces the reasons for his father’s affiliation and downfall as a young Nazi recruit, how in the course of the war he had weathered some frightful experiences as an army pen-artist on the front, how he later had to survive by his wits as a black marketeer in war-torn Dresden, and why he was always just a step ahead of his creditors during his Exile in Sedan. In short, the thin line between perpetrator and victim is effectively rubbed out in this intriguing family document.

The same quest of a son searching to understand his father characterizes Erik Bäfving’s >Boogie Woogie Daddy< (Sweden), awarded the Golden Dove for Best Short Documentary. In his sensitive 13-minute debut film, composed of 3,000 takes, the director portrays a father whose gift for making others laugh with songs and pranks only served to hide a troubled self behind a mask. Along the same lines on a national level Thomas Heise’s >Vaterland (Fatherland)< (Germany), awarded the Silver Dove for Long Documentary, has the director returning to the village community of his youth in eastern Germany, one that had seen better days when the Russians maintained a nearby military airbase and the local pubkeeper could barter for purloined army surplus. Of all the complex documentaries made by Thomas Heise on post-Wende DDR and the downfall of some communities into a social mire and eco-nomic wasteland, >Fatherland< is disturbing for its apocalyptic vision and for posing more questions than attempting any answers at all.