In Austin for the North American Premiere of the film about his own life, The Iris’ Johnny Au meets the final NASA Astronaut to step foot on the moon, Astronaut Eugene Cernan, to talk about the Documentary The Last Man on the Moon. Eugene talks about having his life documented in conversation with Johnny, the…
When it comes to true music icons, it’s fair to say they’re a rare breed – but anyone who knows Mavis Staples will tell you: she’s in a league of her own. With some sixty five years of performances behind her – and more still to come (she’s touring Australia as we publish this piece) –…
Brendan Toller is a rock and roll maniac. Having directed his first film, I Need that Record: The Death (or Possible Survival) of the Independent Record Store, he came into contact with many of rock and roll’s greatest figures, including the lesser known Danny Fields, who was responsible for the success of many iconic bands…
While at SXSW earlier this month, Larry Heath sat down with Jessica Edwards, the director and producer of Mavis! – a new documentary about the legendary Mavis Staples, who just so happens to be touring Australia as we publish this piece. The pair talk about the experiences of making this film, the icon herself and much…
Love Has No Age should be renamed “Love Has No Boundaries”. The documentary short is a blissful romance story spanning over four decades. It’s also a beautifully-shot film and a warm slice of pure joy. The film is directed by Eli Born who has previously directed music videos for the likes of: Jack White, Iggy…
A film about The Dull Men’s Club doesn’t scream “entertaining” but Born to Be Mild is the exact opposite of everything you think it is. The documentary short revels in celebrating the ordinary and mundane. And it’s packaged in such a warm and optimistic style and along with an upbeat soundtrack, this means it is…
The name Danny Fields may not mean much to some people but to those in the know he is “The coolest man in the room”, a number one fan and groupie and even the “Mayor of New York City”. The man seems to have seen and done it all in music, having fully immersed himself…
Underneath what we see in our daily browsing – our emails, Facebook, people’s banal commentary on Twitter – is something called the dark web. It’s like looking under the hood of a car – a mind bogglingly immense and completely unseen part of the Internet that is mostly made up of lines of HTML code….
Boxeadora, a short 16-minute documentary by American filmmaker Meg Smaker, starts with a brief foreword, “Since Castro’s revolution, Cuba has won more Olympic Gold Medals in boxing than any other country in the world”. Pretty mean feat for a small country, considering most of their opponents would be from nations with a lot more financial backing in sports….
How do you look at someone that’s committed a reprehensible act? Can they be forgiven, are they the devil and what do you do if they’ve achieved great success prior to this event? These are the sorts of questions that are raised in the documentary short, unmappable, which is about Denis Wood. The film is…
Above and Beyond is a documentary that follows a ragtag group of skilled American pilots, both Jewish and non-Jewish, who answered the call to aid in Israel’s War of Independence from 1948-1949. This band of brothers, comprised of many WWII veterans, would not only see their lives altered in unexpected ways, but would also leave their…
If you remember the sixties, you weren’t there. But this is no longer a problem thanks to the 10-part documentary series, The Sixties. The program is an informative and in-depth account of a formative and tumultuous decade, especially for America (and it is from this slant and perspective that this TV series is told). The…
Alright, straight up, no word of a lie, Land of the Bears has got to be the cutest, most heart-warming, most excellent display of bears on screen outside an 87-point Buzzfeed post about cutesy bears. Why? Because it’s a beautifully shot documentary – that you can watch in 3D, thanks very much – about a…
Won’t somebody think of the children? This may be Helen Lovejoy’s catchphrase from The Simpsons but it could also be used to sum up the documentary, InRealLife. The film could have asked a series of timely and important questions about the Internet but instead it feels like heavy-handed and judgemental scare-mongering. The film is written…
Brilliant Creatures is a two-part television series that celebrates four iconic Australians. Feminist and libertarian, Germaine Greer; writer/broadcaster/memoirist and poet, Clive James; the late firebrand, art critic, Robert Hughes; and savage satirist Barry Humphries all share things in common. The most important thing is that they left Australian in the fifties and sixties in order…
Ai Weiwei is a fascinating figure, both as an artist and as one of China’s most influential and outspoken dissidents. Ai Weiwei: The Fake Case portrays the oppression and danger that Weiwei encounters as he continues his political activities. Andreas Johnsen’s quietly important documentary picks up where Alison Klayman’s 2012 Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry left…
When you shop at a farmers’ market or eat at a restaurant that displays the food’s providence on the menu (and the ingredients are local and fresh), chances are the name Carlo Petrini doesn’t immediately spring to mind. But he is the man who is responsible for the rise in these things. Petrini is the…
It’s not often that documentary filmmakers manage to capture their subject matter in an unobtrusive, fly-on-the-wall style manner. It’s even rarer for the filmmaker to achieve this while talking about sex, baby, and to show some explicit scenes of the deed without it all turning into sleazy voyeurism. But Love Hotel manages to achieve all…
The name Aaron Swartz may not mean an awful lot to some people. But if you’ve ever used Reddit, openlibrary.net or Creative Commons or if you can remember the real reason why there was an Internet black-out in 2012 then you’ve been touched by his work. Swartz was a gifted computer programmer and activist who…
While any female with internet connection and a love of fashion and style are intimately familiar with street fashion photographer Scott Schuman from The Sartorialist, or fashion blogging powerhouse duo Tash Sefton and Elle Ferguson from They All Hate Us, not many are aware of Ari Seth Cohen’s work on fashion blog Advanced Style. Why?…
The cautionary tale of never taking anything for granted has been featured on film many many times before, but in this feature documentary film, When I Walk, filmmaker Jason DaSilva chronicles his life with Multiple Sclerosis (MS), from the moment his legs failed on him to the present day. And it’s anything but your typical…
The Iris meets the Director and Producer of the Sydney Film Festival 2014 premiere Australian Documentary Tender – Lynette Wallworth and Kath Shelper, respectively. We discuss the film, its future screening on ABC TV, the subject matter (the community of Port Kembla coming together to set up a non-profit funeral business) and the music of…
Humans need water. People are also made of water. And we affect water. The documentary, Watermark looks at the different experiences that society has with water, from celebration to pure science; from duress to progress and through spirituality and work, the many facets of this subject are covered by this ambitious project. But audiences will…
Dior & I could be renamed “Dior & Co.” or “Dior & Us”. The documentary film goes behind the scenes at the French fashion house as the new creative director for Dior Haute Couture, Raf Simons prepares his debut collection. After John Galliano was unceremoniously fired amid controversy (he’d made anti-Semitic comments at a Parisian…
Of all of the films screened at the 2014 Sydney Film Festival, At Berkeley is perhaps the timeliest, considering the recent reveal that the budget here in Australia could see considerable changes to the tertiary education landscape. At Berkeley acts as a peek into how the University of California, Berkeley, is run in the…
When renegade director Anna Broinowski decided to make a film to stop a planned gas mine near her Sydney home she sought help… from North Korea? Anna gained unprecedented access to the North Korean film industry and got hot tips from Kim Jong Il’s propaganda protégés. The story makes Vice Mag’s little North Korean ditty…
Agnès Varda – the Grand Dame of French New Wave Cinema – has lived one rich and vibrant life. And in Les plages d’Agnès (The Beaches of Agnès) this is captured perfectly. The film is a strange documentary that is helmed by the doyenne art house director and lovable eccentric, as she candidly takes us…
Pulp are a band of the people. So it should come as no surprise that the film about their last concert performance in their Sheffield hometown is at times more about their fans and the locals then the self-deprecating group itself. Florian Habicht’s (Love Story) documentary, Pulp: A Film About Life, Death & Supermarkets plays…
The Iris’ Larry Heath talks to Kitty Green, director of Ukraine Is Not A Brothel, about the conception and creation of the documentary, the Ukrainian protest movement, and her goal of creating a new level of intimacy within the film – “I was conscious of making it quite cinematic… I really wanted to get that…
This beautiful documentary offers an insight into the daily life of the National Gallery in London. Unfolding over three hours, Frederick Wiseman with his characteristic unobtrusive touch allows conversations and activities to unfold in real time, giving the viewer the ability to observe in true ‘fly-on-the-wall’ style. The impressive collection housed by the gallery is…
