One of the great joys of documentary filmmaking is its ability to introduce audiences to worlds they never knew existed. Joe Kowalski‘s Micronations does exactly that, plunging viewers into a community of self-declared kings, queens, emperors, and presidents who have carved out their own sovereign states in backyards, villages, deserts, and forgotten corners of the…
In an industry built on trends, commerce, and relentless reinvention, threeASFOUR: FULL CIRCLE shines a spotlight on a fashion collective that has spent more than two decades refusing to play by those rules. Directed by Sean Ono Lennon and Brian C. Gonzalez, the documentary follows avant-garde New York design trio Gabi Asfour, Angela Donhauser, and…
Seven years after her last studio album, Sara Bareilles returns to the recording studio surrounded by the friends and collaborators she trusts most. What begins as the creation of a new record soon reveals itself as something far more profound. In Sara Bareilles: Good Grief, director Josh Alexander captures an artist confronting loss in real…
A summer night around a dinner table becomes the launchpad for a murder mystery in Kids Like Me, as 12-year-old Oliver enthusiastically assigns character roles to friends and family with the confidence of a seasoned director. “You’re the jealous mistress, you’re the corrupt cop…” he declares, transforming an ordinary gathering into a sprawling whodunit powered…
Endurance stories are often framed around the finish line – the record broken, the impossible conquered. But In Pieces Together reframes that idea entirely. What begins as Blake Johnston’s attempt to break the world record for the longest continuous surf – a gruelling 40-hour effort – quickly reveals itself to be something far more profound….
There’s a moment in In Pieces Together where the scale of what Blake Johnston is attempting stops feeling physical and starts feeling deeply emotional. On paper, surfing continuously for 40 hours to break a world record sounds almost impossible. But beneath the exhaustion, saltwater and spectacle lies something far more personal: a son trying to honour…
For 80 years, the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race has occupied a rare place in Australian cultural life – a spectacle of endurance that unfolds each summer as the nation watches the fleet charge south into the Bass Strait, one of the most volatile stretches of water on earth. It is a race built on…
Lismore has long worn its floods as a badge of resilience – a town that rebuilds, again and again, along the banks of a river that refuses to be tamed. But in Floodland, director Jordan Giusti looks beyond the mythology of grit and endurance to ask a far more unsettling question: what happens when resilience…
AIDC and Screen Queensland, with the support of Sunshine Coast Council and in association with Sunshine Coast Screen Collective, are proud to reveal the full session program and speaker line-up for this year’s Regionality Sunshine Coast documentary and factual industry event, taking place at Mantra Mooloolaba Beach on Monday 28 July 2025. The very special one-day program…
Every Little Thing follows retired writer and teacher Terry Masear over a summer as she takes in and rehabilitates injured hummingbirds. Shot with stunning close-ups of the birds against the backdrop of Masear’s storied life, this film is a mediation on human-animal relationships and our capacity for care. Bringing this stunning story to the screen…
Seen is a groundbreaking feature-length documentary that not only explores the transformative power of personal healing for parents, but also delves into the scientifically supported effects of such healing on parenting and its impact on child brain development. By focusing on the unexplored aspect of parents confronting their own childhood coping mechanisms, Seen is poised…
The Australian International Documentary Conference (AIDC) has announced its full program for its 2025 event, with over 40 sessions, more than 115 speakers, and 90 industry decision makers taking place in-person at ACMI in Melbourne / Naarm, from 2nd to the 5th of March, 2025, with an online-only international marketplace between the 6th and 7th…
In 2017, aspiring Japanese journalist Shiori Ito went public with the allegation that powerful, and high-profile Washington Bureau Chief of TBS TV station in Tokyo, Noriyuki Yamaguchi, had drugged and raped her after he invited her out to dinner. Yamaguchi was a well-known presence on TV with ties to some of the most powerful people…
Given how she made history as the first deaf person to win an Academy Award for acting, one might think the documentary Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore would be something of a straightforward and celebratory profile on the actress. Shoshannah Stern – who, like her subject, is also a deaf actor and director – certainly…
Over the years LEGO has extended beyond physical building and constructed itself a cinematic universe that includes such figures as Batman, Scooby-Doo, and the Ninjago range. But what about a musical documentary about a multi-faceted performer who’s had his unique hands over everything from hard rock and nu metal to mainstream pop and the Despicable…
A murder case that remains unsolved some near-three decades on, the slaying of 6-year-old beauty pageant phenomenon JonBenét Ramsey still can’t but help earn speculative interest today. And it’s through Joe Berlinger‘s three-part docuseries, Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey?, that new theories, old wounds and investigative frustrations come to light, resulting in an enveloping, oft-unsettling…
When first introduced to the story of CNN war cameraperson, Margaret Moth, Lucy Lawless immediately jumped at the chance. In local lore, Moth was a rockstar and an enigma. Having long eschewed directing, finally here was a story that Lawless could not resist. “It felt like destiny that I should be asked to tell the…
Given her career achievements, and that name alone, it’s quite a surprise that Margaret Moth isn’t more of a well known figure. Working as a full-time camera operator in 1970s New Zealand at a time when no other women held such a position in her homeland, nor Australia, Moth – born Margaret Wilson (she was…
The ocean is already a wild, unbridled space for those of us that can see its dangerous beauty. Such intensity would only be exacerbated when removing the sense of sight, but for Australian surfing athlete Matt Formston it’s his reality, and one that he’s more than willing to exist within. Formston’s impressive athleticism and against-the-odds…
On Sunday 21st of July this year, the world stopped as former US President, Donald Trump, survived an assassination attempt. The last attempted American Presidential assassination attempt was March 30, 1981 when John Hinckley Jr. attempted to assassinate US President Ronald Reagan. This significant world event sparked global interest about history repeating itself. In Queensland, Australia,…
Directed by Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Carlos López Estrada and Academy Award nominated director and cinematographer Zac Manuel, Lil Nas X: Long Live Montero follows the Grammy-winning and trailblazing, rapper, singer, songwriter, Lil Nas X, over 60 days as he embarks on his first ever tour across North America on his debut album tour Long Live…
The Road to Patagonia opens with Matty Hannon – the director, cinematographer, and centre-man – telling how he’s headed to the top of Alaska, which if you know your American geography, is distinctly away from Patagonia, which encompasses the southern end of South America. But worry not, the title is not a metaphor nor figurative. …
“What is this fucking girl’s problem?” As Jennifer Lopez states in the opening moments of The Greatest Love Story Never Told, she’s highly aware of what the media has pondered about the multitude of marriages (4, to be precise) she’s partaken in over the course of her resilient career. And it’s that self-awareness and hopeful…
From the humblest of beginnings, where Australia’s ABC network weren’t sure on investing in their talent, to multi-million selling music artists that sold out Madison Square Garden and can count the likes of Jerry Seinfeld, John Travolta, and Sarah Jessica Parker as fans, The Wiggles defied the expectations of many to form a global brand…
The act of (or is it the art of) lip-syncing is one that practically goes part and parcel within the realms of pop music. Some artists do so because their studio vocals can’t possibly be emulated live. Others rely on such due to demanding dance routines. And then there are those that, well, can’t sing…
Originally conceived as a long short by director Angus McDonald, Freedom Is Beautiful is a timely documentary about the refugee experience in Australia, the cruciality of human rights, and the value in equality for all citizens living under the same rule. Shining a necessary light on the brutal processing regime that takes place on the…
Given how attached John Farnham is to the song “You’re The Voice”, it’s hard to believe that it almost didn’t make the cut for his 1986 signature record, “Whispering Jack”. His 12th album at the time, “Whispering Jack” reignited Farnham’s solo career, and off the back of the aforementioned single, it drove itself to 25…
Following on from 2020’s most watched documentary on Australian television – Freeman, about the life and career of Cathy Freeman – co-directors and life partners Laurence Billiet and Rachael Antony have collaborated for The Giants, a stunning film that celebrates the life of environmental folk hero and gay icon Bob Brown. As the film arrives in…
Even though one of the experts interviewed in Satan Wants You expresses that the 1980’s phenomenon known as “Satanic Panic” is seen as something of a joke through the eyes of today, there’s nothing particularly funny about the accusations that were being thrown around at the time. Perhaps it’s something of an absurdity when looking…
Whilst the general consensus is that the James Bond franchise has its large share of devoted fans – all eagerly awaiting the resilient secret agent’s next global mission – there are those that take a differing view. It’s not that they don’t like the films per se, it’s that each film release comes with the…
