doxs! documentary
Five
years ago the Duisburger Filmwoche has included an international documentary
film project for children and teenager in the festival programme. The
response from the audience, the local press and the public has been
overwhelmingly positive in regards to both the films and the forum provided
for discussions during the festival, and the event has more than fulfilled
the expectations of the organizers.
While researching films for the programme it became apparent that the
German production market, in comparison with neighbouring countries
such as The Netherlands or Scandinavia, is lagging behind. After investigation
and discussions with funding institutions and broadcasting stations,
the Duisburger Filmwoche resolved to create a forum to encourage the
making of children’s documentaries which are innovative both in
form and content.
The so-called KinderDokMarkt took place in Duisburg in November 2003,
in cooperation with the dfi (dokumentarfilminitiative im Filmbüro
NW) and was funded by the Filmstiftung NRW. This highly successful event
proved that in the area of children’s documentary filmmaking innovations
have to be made in many fields, such as research, film script development,
support of young talents or even realization of films. The Duisburger
Filmwoche intends to support and develop the above named areas as far
as possible.
doxs! kino:
doxs! kino, the international film programme in the course of the Duisburger
Filmwoche, is the core of all doxs! activities. It is the only festival
in Germany exclusively presenting documentaries for children and teenager.
doxs! kino sets a main focus on a specific region every year (the Netherlands
in 2004, Eastern Europe in 2005 and Danmark in 2006) and has established
a section with films from the Netherlands annually since 2004. The international
films are shown within the scope of form presentations and dubbed if
necessary. Afterwards there are extensive discussions with the students
about the just seen movies.
Furthermore a selection of the films will be presented within a tour
programme for cinema screenings in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
doxs! schule:
In 2004 doxs! therefore started a longterm initiative by launching
a major project with schools in the Duisburg area. doxs! schule for
the first time established an exploration into documentary films and
themes asking children to offer their views and input their ideas. In
cooperation with Duisburg schools, discussions with children about documentary
films were instigated. This was followed by working out specific themes,
which are relevant for them and relate to their surroundings.
In 2005 doxs! schule started a major project in the course of two elementary
schools’ afternoon support in Duisburg. One day a week doxs! provided
a media education in terms of watching documentaries, reflecting the
seen, explaining media techniques and doing topic-related handicrafts.
In the second half of 2006 the project was extended to even three elementary
schools.
Besides doxs! also started a media project (doxs! do it) in of Duisburg’s
secondary schools. The participants were to find a work placement interesting
to them, apply for the job and hold it up for some days. In the course
of the time as well as a few weeks afterwards they gathered in class
once a week in order to exchange thoughts and experiences, this all
being filmed. Here they also learned about the practice by assisting
the filmmaker.
In the long run the aim is to bring about the collaboration between
children and writers in developing scripts interesting to the receivers,
children and teenager themselves.
doxs! on tour:
doxs! on tour diffuses the festival programme supra-regionally and thereby makes documentaries for children and teenager known to a wider public. In 2004 doxs! visited „Zoom“, the museum for children in Vienna, as well as the cinema „Arsenal“ in Berlin in order to present certain films of the festival programme. In 2005 doxs! was invited to „Melez“, an international culture festival in Bochum. Due to a substantial cooperation with the Goethe Institute in Lille doxs! was able to even gain ground in France. For the second time now doxs! is going to showcase a versatile documentary programme for children from 6 years onwards in Lille and Arras. This year doxs! is also going to visit Berlin, Munich and Bochum.
doxs! film package „young heroes“:
For its 5th jubilee doxs! and the Goethe Institute in Munich realise a DVD film package including 26 current documentaries for children and teenager out of 10 european countries. The Goethe Institute in Munich is going to subtitle those films so that subsequently they can be offered to all international Goethe Institutes for educational purposes. The corpus of 5 DVDs is going to be supplemented by a programme catalogue as well as additional information material of the films.
doxs! „Schnitt“ film magazine:
To the jubilee of doxs! the film magazine „Schnitt„ dedicates a main focus on the genre of documentaries for children and teenager. The issue provides a survey of the German documentary film for youngsters and also glances at neighbouring countries such as France and the Netherlands. An article on the DEFA tradition of that genre highlights the historic development.
