DOK.FEST 2009 - press release

Press release from 23rd April 2009 

Dear Sir or Madam,

DOK.FEST 2009 presents more than 60 feature-length documentaries in the International Competition, the International Programme, in the Horizons section (with films from Latin America and Asia) and in the special HFF and more.

With the brillant 2009 programme, Festival Director Dr. Hermann Barth bids farewell to the festival: "Differing views regarding the concept and financing of the International Documentary Film Festival Munich between the governing association and myself unfortunately became too significant; we were unable to find any mutual solutions."

Barth has been Creative Director and Financial Manager of the International Documentary Film Festival Munich since 2002. He has been responsible for developing the DOK.FEST brand into an internationally acknowledged and networked festival for the artistic cinema documentary and the second most important public festival after FILMFEST in Munich.

You will find information about DOK.FEST on this website: details of all films, sections, dates and cinemas can be found under PROGRAMME and under PRESS you can get online accreditation and download image material. Schedules and the programme leaflet (and the catalogue from 4 May) can also be downloaded there in pdf format.

Please note: Award Ceremony on Sunday 10 May at 7.30 at ARRI cinema!

We look forward to welcoming you and, of course, all the more to reading your articles about DOK.FEST! If you have any questions or need more information, please contact me directly: Tel. 089 / 34 53 98 or press@dokfest-muenchen.de.

Sincerely, Andrea Naica-Loebell (Press Officer)

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Press release, 23.4.2009

2009: Farewell of festival director Dr. Hermann Barth

Festival director Dr. Hermann Barth bids farewell to DOK.FEST after eight years due to strongly differing views regarding the concept and financing of the International Documentary Film Festival Munich between him and the festival’s governing association.

In 2002 the film theorist and journalist took over the artistic direction and financial management of the International Documentary Film Festival Munich from Gudrun Geyer, who had been at the helm of the festival for seventeen years. Since 2002 the festival for the feature-length artistic documentary film has operated under the brand of DOK.FEST. It screens premières alongside new discoveries, films made by new talent and offers, above all, a "best-of" selection of the previous year's productions. DOK.FEST is thus "a festival’s festival" valued by experts as well as by the Munich audience.

Dr. Hermann Barth carried forward the successful work of his predecessor. He succeeded in steadily increasing attendance figures and in strengthening and extending the festival’s international network. In the past twenty years almost all renowned international documentary filmmakers have been guests in Munich. Numerous future "classics" of contemporary documentary filmmaking have been shown there. The catalogues are a Who’s Who of the international documentary film community. DOK.FEST has become in recent years Germany's biggest film festival for feature-length cinema documentaries and with up to 400 professional guests and up to 70 directors attending each year it has increasingly become an international forum for encounters and discussions. Moreover DOK.FEST has actively networked with other international festivals such as Amsterdam, Leipzig, Copenhagen, Vienna, Sheffield, Jihlava, Prague, Kiev, Alba, Florence, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Montreal, Bogotá, Sao Paulo, Mexico City, Tunis, Beirut, Ismailia, Yamagata and the film institutes in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, the Baltic States, Netherlands, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, France, Canada and many more.

In Munich DOK.FEST is a popular and successful festival among audiences. It is the cinema event in spring with an average of 12,000 viewers each year. It is a place where the audience, film art and film industry come together.

In 2009 the festival offers several new highlights. Even before the actual start of the festival it has already shown, in cooperation with Human Rights Watch and ARRI cinema, the very successful programme BEST.DOKS. Films That Matter with eight films on the subject of human rights.

The programming "HFF and more" has been expanded to a "Film School Day."

In the evening there will be a film screening with a party in Muffatwerk  – presented by Bayern 2 Radio’s popular magazine Zündfunk.

The association Raumwandler and DOK.FEST have worked to attract the very young audience with a contest for short documentaries.

Three events with special guests complete the programme:

- Andres Veiel, one of the most, if not the most renowned German documentary filmmaker and his film "The Survivors".

- Gideon Koppel, one of, if not the most subjective filmmakers in the UK.

- David MacDougall, the master of the ethnographic film.

Dr. Hermann Barth's successful balance is reflected not least in press quotes from the coverage of previous years: “A kind of edition deluxe“ (Blickpunkt Film), “Jewels of the genre. International highlights, premières and brilliant films made by new talent” (SZ Extra), “Great people, super films” (In München) or “The pleasure principle reigns, a wealth of colours and sounds” (Süddeutsche Zeitung).

Short biography of Dr. Hermann Barth