Berlin’s multi-platform documentary festival Dokumentale is back for its second edition, unspooling from 12-22 June. Following a strong debut last year, the event is doubling down on its mission to celebrate the diversity of non-fiction storytelling by expanding across the capital – with screenings, discussions and immersive experiences taking place in cinemas, museums, nightclubs and cultural venues.

Speaking about the festival’s mission and modus operandi, artistic director Anna Ramskogler-Witt explained: “With Dokumentale, we want to show that documentary is not just a genre; it’s a way of engaging with the world. Whether through film, VR, books or podcasts, we’re creating spaces where reality can be experienced, questioned and discussed. Especially in a city like Berlin, this kind of multiplicity feels not just possible, but necessary.”

(El artículo continúa más abajo - Inf. publicitaria)

The festivities will actually kick off on 11 June with Glamour & Resistance, an interdisciplinary homage to Marlene Dietrich. Created in collaboration with the Berlin Ballet Company, the project blends dance, acting and documentary material into a multimedia performance questioning the boundaries of documentary expression. The piece will be accompanied by a film about Dietrich herself.

From 12-15 June, the festival will settle into Berlin’s Atelier Gardens – a historic film studio now reinvented as a hub for social transformation. This first weekend will host open-air screenings, rooftop readings, live podcasts, and a children’s and youth programme. Visitors will also be able to interact with documentary content in new ways, through hands-on workshops, panels and an interactive exhibition. The industry arm, D’Hub, will also run during this opening stretch, offering networking opportunities, master classes and The Good Media Pitch, connecting creators with commissioners and experts across various media fields.

From 16 June onwards, Dokumentale will fan out across the city, with a full slate of more than 40 international documentaries screening in neighbourhood cinemas and cultural institutions. The official competition includes ten titles – nine German and one European premiere – exploring a wide spectrum of themes and styles. Highlights include Karolina Lucyna Domagalska’s Abortion Dream Team [+lee también:
crítica
ficha de la película] (Poland), Havana Marking’s Undercover: Exposing the Far Right (UK), Susanna Edwards’ The Dialogue Police (Sweden/Norway/Denmark), Isabel and Alfredo Alcántara’s The Age of Water (USA), and Nick Chevallier, Leigh Wood and Guido Zanghi’s Wild Coast Warriors (UK), which is also screening out of competition in other sections.

Two standout political pieces will ground the festival in urgent realities: Mariupol: The City that Refused to Die, a harrowing chronicle by Oscar and Pulitzer Prize winners Mstyslav Chernov and Evgeniya Maloletka, and Light – A Look at Serbia’s Protest Movement, a photographic documentation of student resistance curated by O3ONE Art Space and ULUPUDS. Both will be showcased at Atelier Gardens. Meanwhile, German filmmaker Donata Wenders will present her evocative audiovisual series Ode to Handcraft, offering a poetic reflection on the manual knowledge slowly disappearing in the digital age.

Outside the main competition, audiences can explore a wide variety of perspectives: Sandi Simcha DuBowski’s Sabbath Queen (USA) portrays queer rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie; Death Is an Asshole by Michael Schwarz (Germany) follows the unconventional team of undertaker Eric Wrede; while Hermann Vaske’s Creativo Paradiso (Germany) sees artists like Björk, Marina Abramović and Ridley Scott muse on the nature of creativity.

The programme also includes the vibrant D’Lounges series, which will bring documentaries to iconic Berlin venues such as Kunsthaus Dahlem and Dragonerareal, pairing screenings with music and performance.

This year’s expanded focus on children and young adults is another key addition. Alongside school screenings and Bilderbuchkino sessions for younger kids, the festival is premiering a new strand dedicated to documentaries for children, complete with interactive learning workshops designed to introduce younger audiences to documentary as both art and inquiry.

Complementing the film programme are nine non-fiction book readings and ten live podcast recordings. Feminist podcast Feuer & Brot by Alice Hasters and Maxi Häcke will host a live episode examining public life, friendship and social tension. Book presentations include Racha Kirakosian’s Berauscht der Sinne beraubt and Rainer Rother’s Der Deutsche Film, a journey through over a century of German cinema.

The virtual experience section is also gaining traction with seven immersive projects on display. Among them is Soul Paint by Sarah Ticho and Niki Smit, which transforms emotional states into visual 3D experiences, underlining the festival’s eagerness to embrace cross-media experimentation.