Documentary film is the focus of Germany’s one-of-a-kind dokKa festival. Unlike other documentary film festivals, dokKa is all about emphasizing the diversity of documentaries.
The choice of the medium (film, sound, installation) is made based on the content, artistic form and engagement with a theme. The combination of cinematic and acoustic works represents a novelty in the German festival landscape—whereby the Karlsruhe documentary festival is positioning itself as a risk-taker and is embracing above all experimental and new forms of expression.
An important component of the festival is the discussion forum set up in the dokKa tent. Each and every festival participant, meaning the artists, directors and authors/writers, take part in these conversations, for which they travel to Karlsruhe. The festival also issues three awards, by an independent jury: the dokKa award, granted by the City of Karlsruhe and set at 1500 euros; the opportunity for an audio documentary to be broadcast, including a rerun, on Germany’s SWR2 radio station; and the 500-euro »dokKa Nachwuchspreis« for emerging talents. As part of the festival, SWR2 will also be hosting its short documentary competition, in cooperation with dokublog.de. Workshops and an industry event will complement the five-day festival program.
