Life in Images
Kinoreal Special: 20 Years of dok.at
November 19 to 21, 2020 (postponed)
With a selection of six extraordinary Austrian documentaries made between 1983 and 2017, we celebrate the 20th anniversary of dok.at, the Austrian Documentary Film Alliance, as well as a body of work whose scope and diversity breaks time and again with the conventions of traditional documentary filmmaking.
For the selection, six critics, curators, and journalists were invited to nominate films representing something special for them. Post-screening discussions with the filmmakers will go into detail about these qualities. The directors have also been invited to select a short film in dialogue with their own, turning each screening into a special double feature with surprising combinations. The choices range from documentaries to animations as well as a classic Buster Keaton silent comedy.
While the pairings may not be consciously representative in the expected manner, it is still possible to read into them the qualities of Austrian documentary filmmaking – essentially an auteurist cinema. The core of the selection lies in the diversity of the younger generation, while also reaching back to filmmakers who established a more modern approach to documentaries in the 1980s (Ruth Beckermann, Peter Schreiner). The selection demonstrates the cosmopolitan gaze of a cinema that finds its material as much on its own doorstep as in distant lands (China or Georgia). It also shows how often the major developments shaping our world can be described in the supposedly "small" and private: life in images (and sounds). (Christoph Huber / Translation: Ted Fendt)
In cooperation with dok.at and with special support of the Austrian Film Institute
With a selection of six extraordinary Austrian documentaries made between 1983 and 2017, we celebrate the 20th anniversary of dok.at, the Austrian Documentary Film Alliance, as well as a body of work whose scope and diversity breaks time and again with the conventions of traditional documentary filmmaking.
For the selection, six critics, curators, and journalists were invited to nominate films representing something special for them. Post-screening discussions with the filmmakers will go into detail about these qualities. The directors have also been invited to select a short film in dialogue with their own, turning each screening into a special double feature with surprising combinations. The choices range from documentaries to animations as well as a classic Buster Keaton silent comedy.
While the pairings may not be consciously representative in the expected manner, it is still possible to read into them the qualities of Austrian documentary filmmaking – essentially an auteurist cinema. The core of the selection lies in the diversity of the younger generation, while also reaching back to filmmakers who established a more modern approach to documentaries in the 1980s (Ruth Beckermann, Peter Schreiner). The selection demonstrates the cosmopolitan gaze of a cinema that finds its material as much on its own doorstep as in distant lands (China or Georgia). It also shows how often the major developments shaping our world can be described in the supposedly "small" and private: life in images (and sounds). (Christoph Huber / Translation: Ted Fendt)
In cooperation with dok.at and with special support of the Austrian Film Institute
Due to the developments around COVID 19, the screenings from November 19 to 21, 2020 could not take place as originally planned. They have been rescheduled for April 13 to 16, 2022.
Related materials
Link dok.at
