Still: kiss kiss bang bang - Ollie Launspach

International Competition Documentary Film

Ollie Launspach’s kiss kiss bang bang (Netherlands Film Academy) has been selected for the International Competition Documentary Film. In a cinematic love portrait, the director explores the impact of his gender transition on his girlfriend, Sterre Mulder. Ahead of the film’s journey to Karlovy Vary, Launspach spoke about the film in an interview filmed aboard the ferry to Eye Filmmuseum in Amsterdam. Watch the interview here.

Also competing in this section is How to Catch a Butterfly*, directed by Kiriko Mechanicus and produced by Docmakers. The film follows Mechanicus as she writes letters to a young mass shooter, seeking to understand the roots of their mutual obsession. The documentary has been building an international festival presence, including a selection for SXSW, and an interview with Mechanicus was published ahead of the festival. Read the interview here.

Mariia Ponomarova’s Patronymic*, produced by Family Affair Films and represented internationally by Shortsfit, completes the Dutch titles in this competition. On the train trip home to Kyiv, Mariia Ponomarova, searches for her lost patronymic — a middle name connected to her father. Before the film’s premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), she spoke about the project in an interview filmed on the ferry. Watch the interview here.

Kids DOK

In the Kids DOK programme, Cell Buddies brings a Dutch animated short to the festival. Directed by Arjen van der Plas, Hidde Alberts, Jurgen de Smit, Melle Windig and Miguel Reyes, and produced by St. Joost School of Art and Design, the film follows a simple but challenging escape plan: Sam wants to break out of prison but his cellmate Bob isn’t much help. Sales are handled by KurzFilm Agentur Hamburg. The film has also been selected for the official opening ceremony on 26 October at Schauspiel Leipzig.

5x5 Shorts from the East

Boots on the Ground, Hands in the Soil, a graduation project by Karolina Uskakovych (NL co-prod. Royal Academy of Art The Hague), is part of the programme 5x5 Shorts from the East, bringing another Dutch film-school work to the festival. It centres around the remarkable spiritual bond shared by the filmmaker and her charismatic grandmother, Zoya, a proud Ukrainian pensioner who cherishes her non-capitalist peasant lifestyle.

Doc Alliance

Dutch co-production Two Mountains Weighing Down My Chest*, directed by Viv Li and produced in the Netherlands by 100% Docs, has been selected for Doc Alliance. A Chinese wannabe artist drifts between Berlin’s overwhelming alternative scene and her traditional family in Beijing. With sales handled by Mediawan, the film has previously been selected for Berlinale and Visions du Réel.

Homage: Trollfilm

DOK Leipzig also pays tribute to the work of Dutch filmmakers Menno de Nooijer and Paul de Nooijer with Is Heaven Blue? #2, a Dutch co-production with Tri Eye, selected for the programme Hommage: Trollfilm. Time leaves its mark on the bodies of the three De Nooijers, mother, father and son. This is a farewell to their oeuvre, the result of fifty years of making art and living together marked by photography, animation and film.

Read more about DOK Leipzig here.

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*Film is supported by the Netherlands Film Fund