If you haven’t had your documentary film fix this year, then look no further. The Melbourne Documentary Film Festival (MDFF) is back for another year with an awesome selection of documentary features and shorts.
The documentaries on offer tell stories from around the world, as well as quite a few closer to home. MDFF taps into the True Crime trend with the international premiere of ABDUCTED IN PLAIN SIGHT, goes back to the 80s (and Back to the Future) with docs on Grace Jones and George Michael, and also lets us know what Biff Tannen has been up to. It tackles social injustices, animals, and rockumentaries. It explores pop culture and intersectionality. In other words: the length and breadth of the modern human experience.
MDFF runs over 9 days from 6 – 14 July at six venues across Victoria’s capital. Tickets are now on sale via their official site. To make life easier for you, here’s 11 films that we really want to see, and we think you’d dig too.
Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami
Musician. Artist. Androgynous. Bond Girl. Icon. The acclaimed exploration of Grace Jones not only explores her career, but takes us behind the curtain to explore her fascinating life as well. Plus, a music-related documentary is always a mandatory inclusion on any of our festival lists.
Bam Bam
There’s something about sports films that get us going more than the actual sports they are based on. Maybe it’s years worth of pain, loss, victory, and joy condensed into a few hours. Jemma van Loenen’s film follows the journey for Bianca ‘Bam Bam’ Elmir, a Lebanese Muslim girl, who aims to be the first Australian to win a World Amateur Boxing Championship and buck some stereotypes along the way.
Big in Japan
Not to be confused with the Tom Waits song of the same name, this one is about “ordinary Melbourne guy” Dave who heads to Japan to find out if he has what it takes to be super famous. We have our doubts about the ‘ordinary’ part. The successfully crowdfunded film has a definite Louis Theroux vibe, especially when meeting the likes of Adelaide-born cross-dressing, heavy metal-singing sensation Rick “Ladybeard” Magarey.
Abducted in Plain Sight
If you’ve been on Netflix lately, or had a podcast recommended to you, there’s a good chance you know about the world’s obsession with true crime documentaries. An international premiere for the festival, it explores a case of abduction, a sociopathic neighbour, and a system that let down a 12-year-old boy, a family, and numerous others in the wake of tragedy and mystery. This is a must-see!
Living the Game
Takao Goutsu’s Taiwanese/Japanese co-production looks at the world of competitive video gaming by following four players over the course of a year. Specifically looking at Ultra Street Fighter IV players, it taps into a culture that has seen some major shifts and controversies over the last few years. This is also for all the folks following our Asia in Focus feature.
Black Anzac
Another Australian feature, this one sheds a little bit of light on an often forgotten part of our history. Australian filmmaker Tim Anastasi, who has previously featured Queensland’s Aboriginal Annual rugby league Cup in Murri Carnival 2012: The Documentary, takes a look at artist Hego’s exploration of the Indigenous WWI experience through a mural in Sydney.
I Am Famous
If you don’t know who Tom Wilson is, you should make like a tree and get out of here, buttheads. Best known for his role of Biff Tannen (and his extended family) in the Back to the Future trilogy, Ismael Lotz’s film picks up 19 years after the films to see how they impacted his life and where he is now in his career.
Squee! Identifying As A Fangirl
The Squee Project is an online series that explores womanhood, feminism, representation, creativity and production, body image, race, sexuality. From Hansi Oppenheimer (who did The Replacements documentary Color Me Obsessed), she looks at the intersection of geek and feminist culture through interviews with fans and celebrities on the scene.
Life Is Art
It is, isn’t it? Oksana Sokol looks at contemporary Russian artist Anatol Brusilovsky, who manages to find a way to express his love for life even within the confines of the Russian regime.
Decks and the City
it may not seem like a struggle to those outside the world of electronic music, but Australia’s Glen J Scrymgour taps into the barriers that DJ’s, producers, venue owners and patrons face from lawmakers and a conservative society. Probably not a double feature with Gaspar Noé’s Climax.
New Island Home
We did say we like a sports doco, and this one is also an Australian one. Amy Pysden & Daniel Clarke show us what happened when the flailing Dudley United Football Club hired legendary AFL recruiter John Turnbull to come to their Kangaroo Island home, and maybe just change it forever.
