The Melbourne Documentary Film Festival (MDFF) runs from July 6 to July 14, screening a wide range of local and international productions.
The films, which include short and full-length features, will play at Melbourne venues including Cinema Nova, The Backlot Studios and Fitzroy’s Long Play Cinema.
There are a huge amount of titles on the program. If you go to the website and have a look, you’ll see rows and rows of them, scrolling off into infinity. Like this:
With the sheer volume of titles in mind, we thought we’d make it easy for you. We’ve scoured through the program and selected 10 films that look particularly interesting.
Here they are, with descriptions of them taken from the MDFF program.
Kangaroo: A Love-Hate Story
This groundbreaking film reveals the truth surrounding Australia’s love-hate relationship Kangaroo unpacks a national paradigm where the relationship with kangaroos is examined.
Disaster Capitalism
A story that reveals the underbelly of the global aid and investment industry. It’s a complex web of interests that span the earth from powerful nations and multinational corporations to tribal and village leaders. This documentary offers unique insights into a multi-billion dollar world by investigating how aid dollars are spent.
Squee! Identifying As A Fangirl
The Squee Project is a web series that explores topics of womanhood, feminism, representation, creativity and production, body image, race, sexuality and more in pop culture.
Brexitannia
Why did Great Britain vote to leave the EU? Ex-pat Melbourne filmmaker Timothy George Kelly’s doc explores the wider issues behind the shock move from both competing perspectives.
Road to Sparta
Four runners; Four stories; One Greek drama . The Road to Sparta follows the fortunes of four runners, including “UltraMarathon Man” Dean Karnazes, as they attempt to follow in the footsteps of Pheidippides and complete the gruelling 246 kilometre Spartathlon in just 36 hours.
Abducted in Plain Sight
This story is told through re-creations and interviews with the FBI, Berchtold’s brother and Jan’s parents who make troubling, stunning and gut-wrenching revelations for the first time publicly. Abducted in Plain Sight reveals epic failures and untold personal dramas that point to the biggest tragedy of all – that the crimes could have been prevented.
A Crude Injustice
A Crude Injustice focuses on the aftermath of Australia’s biggest offshore oil disaster on the people of West Timor.
Amazonia Damned
Amazonia Dammed tells the story of the Munduruku people’s urgent struggle to protect the heart of the Amazon against one of the largest mega-dam projects on earth.
I am Famous
The short doc picks up 19 years after the Back to the Future Trilogy and finds what Tom Wilson the Actor/Comedian who played Biff Tannen is up to today and how the role has impacted his life for both good and bad.
Limits of Freedom
We are guided through this haunting social issue of youth poverty by ex-street child Sushil Babu Chhetri and passionate social worker Pravin Mahat, as we investigate into the reasons why children are surviving rough on the streets of the Nepalese capital.
For the Melbourne Documentary Film Festival’s full program, head to the official website.
