From left: Producer Gunter Hanfgarn, filmmaker Julia Albrecht, Festival Director Daniel Sponsel, filmmaker Klaus Fried, Mayor Dieter Reiter, Co-Festival Director Adele Kohout, Minister of State Ulrike Scharf, and Thomas Linsmayer, Managing Director of Deutsches Theater (c) Ronny Heine / DOK.fest München
The 40th DOK.fest München celebrated its opening yesterday in front of 1,350 guests at the Deutsches Theater. The audience watched the world premiere of FRIENDLY FIRE in the presence of directors Klaus Fried and Julia Albrecht, producer Gunter Hanfgarn and co-producer Ralph Wieser, the film crew, and some of the protagonists. In the film, Klaus Fried traces the life of his famous father, the poet Erich Fried, who fled from Vienna to London in 1938 to escape the Nazis. Klaus Fried was just 19 years old when his father died in 1988. The film explores Erich Fried through conversations with family members, friends, and associates. The film uses the memories of these people to create a fascinating picture of the poet.
The audience praised the film with extended applause. This family history reflected in the dramatic events of the 20th century is a fitting start to the DOK.fest München programme: Today, on 8 May – the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War – and over the following days, the festival is taking a stand against forgetting and in defence of democratic values with the section “Never Again is Now?”. In a very personal opening speech, festival director Daniel Sponsel pointed out the importance of films for the culture of remembrance: “At school we learned about the numbers of victims of the Second World War and the Holocaust. They were abstract, incomprehensible figures. We actually learned the meaning of these numbers through images, through films.”
The opening ceremony of the anniversary edition provided an opportunity to look back on 40 years of DOK.fest München – a success story with almost 3,000 socially relevant and artistically valuable films and more than 750,000 viewers. The festival has grown particularly strongly in the last 16 years under Daniel Sponsel. He is heading the festival for the last time and will be taking up the post of President of the University of Television and Film Munich in autumn. The festival’s main sponsors and partners paid tribute to his achievements and the festival’s remarkable development.
Dieter Reiter, Mayor of the City of Munich: “Who would have thought in 1985 that DOK.fest München would one day become one of the most important documentary film festivals in Europe? In the meantime, documentaries have almost overtaken feature films, because the craziest stories are no longer written by fiction writers, but by real life. Congratulations on your 40th birthday!”
Minister of State Ulrike Scharf (Bavarian State Ministry for Family, Work, and Social Affairs): “Daniel Sponsel is leaving DOK.fest München. He has shaped it, led it, and lived it. We salute him and his art. A great loss for the festival – and a great gain for the University of Television and Film. I would like to thank him for everything he has built up here, since 2016 together with Adele Kohout at his side. Now she is taking over: This is more than deserved and convincing. As a woman and as Minister for Women's Affairs, I say: a leading European film festival in the hands of a strong woman – congratulations!”
Daniel Sponsel and Adele Kohout (c) Ronny Heine / DOK.fest München
The film FRIENDLY FIRE will be screened three more times at DOK.fest München. Following the screening on Thursday there will be a discussion with Klaus Fried and Julia Albrecht (HFF Audimax, film starts at 6 pm). The festival runs until 18 May at 27 venues throughout Munich. A total of 105 films from 58 countries will be shown. From 12 to 25 May, almost all films can be watched online on the digital screen at www.dokfest-muenchen.de. The festival programme can be found here.
