From environmental issues to stories of triumph and resilience: Your complete list of Australian films screening at MDFF 2023

Freeedom Is Beatuiful.

The Melbourne Documentary Film Festival, held online 1 – 31 July and in-cinema 21 – 30 July, will once again showcase the best of non-fiction cinema from around the world. The festival, known for its commitment to showcasing thought-provoking and socially relevant documentaries, will attract film enthusiasts and industry professionals alike. With its diverse lineup of films, the event has become a platform for independent Australian filmmakers to exhibit their talent and share their unique stories with a wide audience.

This year, Australian filmmakers have made a significant impact at the Melbourne Documentary Film Festival, with a range of captivating films and thought-provoking documentaries covering a wide array of topics. From environmental issues to personal stories of triumph and resilience, Australian filmmakers have brought their unique perspectives to the festival, contributing to the rich and diverse tapestry of the event. These films provide a platform for dialogue, encouraging audiences to engage with important social issues and inspiring meaningful conversations.

The Melbourne Documentary Film Festival continues to be a premier event for documentary enthusiasts and a platform for Australian filmmakers to showcase their talent. Through a captivating selection of films that tackle pressing social issues, this year’s festival has once again highlights the power of non-fiction cinema in sparking conversations and creating positive change. With its commitment to showcasing diverse voices and perspectives, the festival serves as a vital space for filmmakers and audiences to come together and explore the complexities of the world we live in.

Melbourne Documentary Film Festival will run online 1 – 31 July and in-cinema 21 – 30 July. Full details here.

Below, we’ve compiled a complete list of Australian documentaries screening at this year’s festival.

These Two Hands – The Story of Bowen Therapy

The multi-Award-Winning film has yet to have an official premiere screening as we have been waiting for the right festival. It is an inspiring true Australian (Melbourne-based) gem story about a genius that discovered a profound gift of healing through following his observations, intuition, and heart. This man (Tom Bowen) generously gave his life to relieve the suffering of thousands and has left behind a legacy that could change the world. The movie interweaves interviews with health experts attempting to explain how Bowen Therapy works with the narrative of Tom Bowen’s extraordinary story. When a young farmer Ossie falls in love with a beautiful woman, Elaine, he soon discovers she has debilitating health problems and will be a cripple within a few years. Determined to help Elaine, Ossie embarks on a journey into natural therapy that leads him to Tom Bowen. This chance meeting changes Ossie’s life forever. It sparks the beginning of a revolutionary new industry that has now impacted the health of millions of people around the world and is changing the paradigm of how we see the human body.

Surviving Sunset An Actor’s Hollywood Journey

Surviving Sunset An Actor’s Hollywood Journey, is a documentary about the challenging and often unglamorous life of being a working actor.
Shaun Anthony Robinson explores the difficulties of succeeding in the industry and lifts the curtain on many myths. Myths like, everyone thinks that if you are in Hollywood, you are making it. Or that it’s all about red carpets and celebrity events and if you are in Hollywood, you have a better chance of being a success. We only hear about the celebrities who hit the big time but the reality for a working actor, struggling day to day is much different in many ways and the industry can’t survive without them. This film takes a hard and honest look at the acting world, complete with all the real and raw moments through the
eyes of Shaun who is also on his own journey. He’s a fish out of the water jumping into the frying pan! Shaun chats to a range of industry people to gain insights into what actually takes place in La La Land. Featuring Michael G Welch, Christian Isaiah, Aaron Jeffery, Roger Ward, Kym Jackson, Shane Connor, Andy McPhee, Matt Burch, Elle Dawe, Omari Washington, Nathan Sapsford, Alison Headrick and Craig Bennett.

How Are You Travelling?

Their bikes may be loud but a gang of ‘passionate motorcycle riders’ are on a quiet mission of discovery. ‘Psychs On Bikes’, a volunteer group of psychologists, psychiatrists and mental health professionals, travel deep into remote and rural Australia to offer free ‘body and head’ checks. To date, they have collectively completed thousands of one-on-one health checks and travelled over 40,000km – equivalent to the circumference of the equator. With the country emerging from the shadows of devastating environmental disasters and a global pandemic, Psychs On Bikes attempt to take on their biggest challenge yet by circumnavigating Australia. On an epic ‘road trip’ and mental health mission, we join ‘Psychs On Bikes’ into the outback where they visit mining towns, cattle stations, indigenous schools and isolated communities to talk mental health. Outback Australia has the highest suicide rates in the country, particularly for men, so when Psychs On Bikes roll into town it can kick start a ‘life-changing’ conversation. For many, it’s a rare chance to have an ‘honest and open’ conversation with a professional, and for Psychs On Bikes, a chance to hear stories that shape the ‘hearts and minds’ of people living in some of the harshest environments across Australia. How are you travelling? is a documentary about mental health, motorbikes and adventure that presents a simple question we all need to ask ‘ourselves’ and the people we ‘love’.

The Road to Patagonia

The lives of two strangers are changed forever when they cross paths on the surfing adventure of a lifetime, discovering love, downshifting and four charismatic horses.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyVvtIKE2KQ

Kombi Man

In a race against time, a man goes on a fun filled adventure to find a Kombi van, revisit his hippie youth and explore the meaning of life. Meeting a colourful array of characters in the Australian Kombi world, he discovers that Kombis are not only cultural icons of freedom but are now also big business. While attempting to get a clapped out Kombi on the road, he courageously faces his own mortality and embarks on a spiritual journey reminiscent of the 1960s counterculture. With the help of friends and family, and empowered by a sense of urgency and the preciousness of life, he dreams of one last road trip along the spectacular Great Ocean Road.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7Bz0dC6zG4

This Man’s Worth

At the conclusion of fulfilling working lives, two very different men, Graeme and Michael, convinced of their loss of identity and disconnection to the world around them, decide that suicide is their only option. Only one man survives the attempt on his life.

This Man’s Worth

The Burnt Half

The Burnt Half is a powerful, complex, engaging and gripping, character-led, observational documentary. It’s a film that goes to the heart of a shattered community in the wake of the 2020 bushfires that destroyed two-thirds of this idyllic island, which was the jewel in the crown of South Australia and a global tourism icon. Through the film, we travel to Kangaroo Island, a unique, remote community, where we meet some of the individuals most affected by the fires and look at the emotional, psychological, and physical toil these individuals had to endure during the fires and their aftermath. Most pressingly, as the story evolves the film discovers the simmering tension and anger on the island, as many in the community feel the fires could have been avoided, or at least had their impact reduced were it not for meddlesome bureaucrats and legacy fire management practices that stood in the way of front-line responders who had the means to put the fires out before they grew into the inferno that destroyed the island.

Belly of the Beast: A Torquay Story

Belly of the Beast is a feature-length documentary that reveals the famous but untold story of Torquay, Victoria. This is the small town that went global. A quiet coastal community until the booming surf culture swept in and it swelled to become an international surfing mecca that is home to industry brands and colourful personalities. The film follows the early roots of the town with the local Wathaurong Aboriginal community and the first beginnings of the surf life saving club and the surfing scene that followed. As surf culture grew around Australia and the world, Torquay became a major destination for young people following the promise of the waves. This rapid expansion flooded the area with new people and it wasn’t long before a group of Torquay surfers saw an opportunity. Rip Curl and Quicksilver began as local brands that have grown to become some of Australia’s biggest commercial exports, bringing Torquay surfing style to the world. Today, Torquay still hosts the longest-running international surfing competition and the media, money and fame continue to follow it down the highway. Belly of the Beast has unlimited access to Torquay surfing royalty: the people who steered the transformation, the locals who remember the crazy nights and wild summer days, tell us about the characters and the moments that shaped Torquay. The unexpected successes and the painful loses that built a cultural phenomenon, and the future of a town that is more global than ever and faces new struggles as the surfing dream captures the imagination of a new generation

Belly of the Beast: A Torquay Story

Walkatjurra

It is the 70th anniversary of the first nuclear test in indigenous Australian territory and the aboriginal communities call on activists from all over the world to carry out a 200 km anti-nuclear walk through the desert. Among them, the directors of this documentary join to record this walk, which seeks to end the extraction of uranium, the mineral with which atomic bombs are produced. What attitude will we take as humanity in the face of the possibility of creation and destruction?

The Horizon Behind Me

When he was nineteen(1973), Roberto decided to go in search of people living a traditional way of life. Naïve and idealistic, he embarked on what would eventually be a ten-year journey and which, while giving him the opportunity to live within remote and varied traditional societies, would at the same time allow him to travel long distances in an internal journey of self-discovery. Some forty years later, Roberto, prompted by a friend’s son and utilising his original photographs, recorded sound and film footage, reflects on this youthful adventure, the life lessons he learned and the diversity of cultures which in the meantime have radically changed.

Water For Birds

Focused on a small group of teachers and students, Water for Birds offers a unique insight into the successful, replicable educational model developed by non-profit Guria to combat second-generation prostitution in the red-light area of Varanasi, India.

Luku Ngärra: The Law of the Land

Winner of the ‘Change Award’ at the Adelaide Film Festival 2022, this independent Indigenous funded film is an unflinching presentation of how the dominant paradigm has forced itself upon the lives of Australia’s First Nations people, creating chaos and devastation to their everyday lives, their culture and their law. Luku Ngärra: The Law of the Land is set in the Yolngu Nation of Northeast Arnhem Land and is driven by one of the country’s most respected Indigenous elders, Rev Dr Djiniyini Gondarra OAM, who has been a tireless beacon for freedom and justice for his people for the last 40 years. The film will deeply challenge audiences’ understanding of the Yolngu world, their history, culture and their highly sophisticated but often misrepresented Maḏayin System of traditional law. Featuring rare footage of law ceremonies that have been in practise for over 60,000 years as well as an intimate lens into the harsh reality currently facing remote communities in Arnhem Land today, audiences will be compelled to question their own world and the views and structures that come with it. The film is a showcase of Indigenous Australian knowledge and talent with a stunning soundtrack featuring Yothu Yindi, Yirrmal, Mau Power and Shellie Morris, narration by actress Rarriwuy Hick (True Colors, Wentworth) and the supporting voices of Mark Yingiya Guyula (Australia’s First Independent Indigenous MP) and Baykali Ganambarr (winner of the Marcello Mastroianni Award for The Nightingale). Combined with his well-known directness, his wisdom as a spiritual teacher as well as his authority as a senior initiated law man, Dr Gondarra insists that we finally look at the big questions around law and freedom, whilst offering an illuminating message for all of humanity.

The Trust Fall: Julian Assange

A man who risked everything to bring the truth to light.Synopsis:Despite being detained, silenced and hidden from public view in maximum security Belmarsh Prison, multi-award-winning Australian journalist and publisher Julian Assange has become one of the loudest voices for free speech of our times. He has also risked everything to bring truth to light.The disclosures of WikiLeaks and Assange from 2010 onwards ignited a firestorm of controversy and a relentless ongoing pursuit by the most powerful Empire on the planet.‘THE TRUST FALL: JULIAN ASSANGE’ examines the meaning and significance of the insights that WikiLeaks shared with the world, the resulting behaviour of the governments involved, the extraordinary personal risk taken by Assange, and the wider fundamental issues around press freedom that affect all of us and our right to know.Filmed over two years on three continents and in ten cities, the film features an array of luminaries including Daniel Ellsberg, John Pilger, Tariq Ali and Chris Hedges, with the insights of experts including Jennifer Robinson, Jill Stein, Stefania Maurizi and Nils Melzer, in addition to reflections of Assange’s family including Stella Assange, John Shipton and Gabriel Shipton.Examining the motives of this peace activist and innovator, this astounding, shocking and inspiring film invites viewers to embark on a journey of understanding, where the circumstances are unprecedented, and the destination unexpected.“If wars can be started by lies, peace can be started by truth”- Julian Assange

Dig Deeper

Four divergent Aboriginal artists use their personal stories and historical injustice as a driving force to break through and create internationally recognised urban art.

Freedom is Beautiful

Freedom Is Beautiful is the story of two extraordinary Kurdish refugees, Farhad Bandesh and Mostafa (Moz) Azimitabar who fled persecution in Iran & arrived separately by boat into Australia seeking asylum in 2013. Reaching Christmas Island just days after the Rudd Government instituted Australia’s new hard-line offshore processing policy in July that year, they were transferred offshore & subsequently held for almost 8 years by the Federal Government. On Manus Island, where they spent 6 years, they met & formed a close friendship founded on art, music & a shared desire to speak out & resist. In 2019 they were transferred to the mainland & spent 18 months in immigration detention in Melbourne. In 2021, just a month apart, they finally gained their freedom, for the first time in their lives. Moz and Farhad are exceptional, charismatic & articulate men, who from their early years of detention on Manus, rose to become pivotal voices in the collective struggle against an arbitrary regime that unjustly imprisoned thousands of innocent & vulnerable people. During years of captivity in an environment of institutionalised brutality & violence, they experienced health issues, trauma, PTSD. They witnessed suffering and death, were isolated, dehumanised & assailed by a system deliberately designed to humiliate & break them. They refused to succumb. Instead, they found tranquillity through music & art. This not only helped them survive, but also fight back, making connections to the outside world, building networks & perpetually using their voice to fight tirelessly for the freedom of everyone held. Despite their ordeal, they did not give into hatred or resentment. Instead, they grasped onto hope, expressed solidarity with the Australian people & preached love as the way to ‘kill the monsters’ and defeat the system. Beautifully told in their own words, Freedom is Beautiful is an uplifting story of the power of love and our shared humanity.

The Last Two Weeks at Longlee

This documentary provides an extraordinarily personal window into the last two weeks of the life of Victorian artist Lee Stephenson. Shot by the artist’s daughter, at Longlee, her mother’s home in the Goulburn Valley, we watch Lee navigate her own death with varying levels of grace, clarity and humour. We meet Roger, devoted husband and now main carer, mobilising around a headstrong, dying wife; Susie, a dutiful daughter in a time honoured role reversal with her mother, and Domini, Lee’s singer songwriter granddaughter, revealing her own shock at seeing her grandmother “this sick” and still being in her own bed. Assisted by the Victorian palliative home care service, in the thick of COVID restrictions, they work together to grant Lee her final wish – to die at home.

Rainbow Video

Inspired by Tom Roston’s oral history I LOST IT AT THE VIDEO STORE, this playful feature length documentary uses a deep local focus to show how VHS changed art forever. As the video shop era fades to black, RAINBOW VIDEO delves into the eclectic personal collections and practices of some of Melbourne’s most renowned contemporary media artists. Through lively interviews and site studies of many legendary, now defunct video shops, RAINBOW VIDEO uncovers a secret history of a brief but impactful era. For those of us who grew up in the 80s-we were the video generation. Born into the video shop era, our youths passed along with it. And although it was a mass pop-cultural phenomenon, artists, filmmakers and weirdos of all stripes also flocked to these places on a Friday night, and worked in them (or wished they did). Artists and programmers such as Philip Brophy, Ian Haig, Cassandra Tytler, Xanthe Dobbie, Jean Lizza, Diego Ramirez and Spiro Economopoulos delve into their own libraries, and back catalogues, to talk about how they used video shops: as a direct source of material, as an informal, accessible art school, and as a social space to trade in cultural capital. Against a backdrop of 30 years of constantly shifting technology, RAINBOW VIDEO explores a twin history of indie video shops and libraries in Melbourne, and the underground artists that used them.

Juanita Nielsen Now

Loving Grasslands

Landholders and ecologists are working in Hume City Council’s Green Wedge to restore and manage land in harmony with nature, saving critically-endangered grasslands from extinction.