Yesterday started the 37. DOK.fest München and it is back in full swing. With its usual fresh momentum, it will be playing in the Bavarian capital from May 4 to 15 and many venues will open their movie theatres again. With 1450 seats, the Deutsches Theater will be the main venue. But there are also many other venues to discover. The already established festival cinemas City, Rio and Neues Maxim will be joined this year by Neues Rottmann. In addition, local venues as diverse and outstanding as the Bellevue di Monaco, the Pinakothek der Moderne, the NS-Dokumentationszentrum or the Harry Klein will be part of the festival.

Filmstill from NAWALNY

As in previous years, the program is again well selected. Yesterday, the film festival opened with the German premiere of NAWALNY. Daniel Roher accompanied Russian opposition figure Alexei Nawalny and filmed, among other things, the sensational telephone conversation between Nawalny and his assassins.

Filmstill from ALICE SCHWARZER

The program also includes the premiere of the portrait ALICE SCHWARZER. The activist, who just last week made headlines with her petition against the delivery of heavy weapons to Ukraine, will be present at DOK.fest on May 7 and 8.

Filmstill from LEONIE

Two films are dedicated to the phenomenon of influencers and "amateur stars". Regina Meurer observes the teenage influencer Leonie in GIRL GANG and Joshua Bongard shows in PORNFLUENCER how a young couple wants to earn money with amateur pornography.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, DOK.fest Munich has proven like no other German film festival that streaming can be an important further development for film festivals, not a competition. The success in 2020 and 2021 proved DOK.fest right, and this year DOK.fest will again show almost 90% of its film lineup on a streaming platform (from May 9 to 24).

This year, when almost all pandemic restrictions have fallen, DOK.fest München is once again doing many things right and can be a forward-looking role model for Filmfest München.