doxs! english

doxs! kino

Being one of the world’s few festivals dedicated especially to children and youth documentaries, doxs! supports a unique mission. It has been held annually since 2002, embedded in the well-known Duisburger Filmwoche. 

doxs! presents contemporary European documentaries with the aim to create a profound dialogue between filmmakers and young audiences. Especially, the festival’s selection pays specific attention to innovative aesthetics as well as to current discourses deserving a critical reflection. The political and educational impact of documentaries is recognised by the festival's own filmprize "GROSSE KLAPPE" – an European award donated by the Federal Agency for Civic Education including the non-theatrical distribution in Germany. 

In 2016 doxs! established the "ECFA Documentary Award", given by the European Children's Film Association, which is Europe's biggest network for children and youth films. It promotes aesthetically and formally extraordinary documentaries that are particularly intended for children aged between 6 and 12 years.

In 2019 doxs! will premiere a new film prize for the best foreign language documentary for the age group 6 to 14, that will be handed out every two years. It is given by the Selbst.Los! Kulturstiftung – Annelie and Wilfried Stascheit and doted with 6000,- Euro. The jury is composed of members of “Freunde der Realität”, an association in Duisburg that supports documentary filmmaking for children and youth."

By supporting schools, as well as cinemas in programming and mediating documentaries, doxs! carries its ambitions throughout the whole year. 

Moreover, the festival constantly develops new pilot-projects, setting the pace and breaking new ground in the industry: Since 2008, doxs! has initiated several formats stimulating the production of documentaries for young audiences. Collaborating with TV stations, initiatives such as "dok you" with the WDR and "doku.klasse" in collaboration with ZDF/3sat have been established to support filmmakers. In cooperation with the Goethe-Institut, doxs! produced the unique DVD collection/edition "Young Heroes", enabeling these festival films to reach a worldwide audience. 

Please refer to our homepage for further detailed information.

doxs! on tour

doxs! on tour is an international touring programme, including some specifically chosen festival films, to establish the culture of documentaries for children and adolescents beyond our own festival’s borders.

doxs! on tour films have already been presented in Arras, Athens, Berlin, Bochum, Bonn, Cologne, Dortmund, Essen, Frankfurt/Main, Hamburg, Kassel, Marl, Munich, Nuremberg, Schwandorf, Stuttgart, Thessaloniki, Wiesbaden, Graz (within the "steirischer herbst"-festival), Feldkirch, Lille, Lissabon, London, Perm, Reykjavik and Vienna.

doxs! schule

doxs! schule is a project in cooperation with schools in Duisburg and North-Rhine-Westphalia. For doxs! schule it is important to participate in media education actively, with the aim to introduce even 6-year-old children to documentary films and other media, as well as the basic work behind it.

doxs! do it

In 2006 doxs! started a project in cooperation with secondary schools. Adolescents have the opportunity to create their own documentary. In the first film "5 in 8 noch 2" five students show their way of finding a job. The teenagers wrote their own scripts and realised their ideas supervised by a professional filmmaker.

Since 2009, doxs! do it is connecting all practical projects of filmmaking, starting at the primary school up to the secondary school. doxs! do it also combines the passive reflections of watching films with active parts of media education.

doxs! hörbilder

In 2007 doxs! launched a project to strengthen teenagers’ awareness for acoustic issues (sound, atmosphere, voice) when visualising a film. The participants create a realistic and autobiographical radio play according to their wishes and in the context of their social environment.

doxs! sprechen+

Since 2007, doxs! is participating in the training of childrens’ language skills, especially for youngsters with migratory background. The aim is to improve their verbal skills and their ability to read fluently. Documentary and film material presents the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding for linguistic matters in film and TV.

doxs! kritik

In 2007 young film critics got the opportunity to review the festival programme from their own point of view for the first time. In cooperation with the online film magazine spinxx.de, doxs! offered workshops where students could learn the essentials of film reviewing. In 2009 doxs! kritik established its first constant school critics-group at a secondary school in Dortmund, where the students write especially about documentaries for young people.

doxs! bilderbildung

The concept connects all film educational workshops for teachers. It can be organised in multi-part presentations, open for all interested teachers or in direct arrangements with individual schools. The workshops offer and define professional, theoretical and practical basic knowledge about (documentary)films and their benefit for school education. Some documentaries, for example, also could be used for foreign language classes.

doxs! young heroes

To celebrate its fifth anniversary in 2006, doxs! and the Goethe Institute Munich edited a DVD package including 26 current international documentaries for children and adolescents. All films are subtitled, so they can be offered to all international Goethe Institutes for educational purposes.

dok you

In cooperation with the "dokumentarfilminitiative dfi", doxs! created a new project to support the production of youth documentaries in Germany. Directors can apply for this project to receive a better qualification for producing documentaries intended for children and youth. Together with these filmmakers, students are provided with the opportunity to realise their own documentary film for kids. The first four productions were presented to the public during the 33rd Duisburger Filmwoche in 2009, the following productions premiered at the editions of 2010 - 2012.