“Iwas looking for a job in the festival landscape and was surprised to understand that there was no festival dedicated to documentary cinema in Sydney, or Australia,” says David Rokach, director of Sydney’s Antenna Documentary Film Festival, now entering its fourth year.
To some, the word ‘Antenna’ would seemingly refer to documentary film’s function as relator of information. However, as Rokach tells me of the variety of films playing in this year’s lineup, the title corresponds more with the festival’s receptiveness to the many forms of documentary filmmaking: essayistic, experimental, hybrid or cinéma vérité, among many other sub-strands.
“To be honest, I do not see documentary as different from fiction or any other art form,” says Rokach. “When it is good, the role of all these mediums are a reflection of our life. I feel that fiction and documentary are both powerful mediums that can allow great work to be made.” He does give his specific area of interest the edge, though: “I do think that complexities are more powerfully conveyed through documentary.”
The films chosen reflect this, and among the contentious titles bound to spark conversation and debate, Rokach highlights two. “I Will Not Be Silenced tells the story of Australian Charlotte Campbell-Stephen, who is fierce and brave in talking about her horrific gang rape in Kenya, which led to a seven-year battle for justice … The Dog [is the] funny and fascinating story of John Wojtowicz, who robbed a bank to pay for his lover’s sex change operation; the inspiration behind the Al Pacino film Dog Day Afternoon.” Elsewhere in the program, the universally acclaimed Last Days In Vietnam recounts the war’s chaotic final days and the heroic efforts of American soldiers to save as many South Vietnamese lives as possible, while The Internet’s Own Boy tells of the life of the late Reddit co-founder Aaron Swartz, who took his own life last year.
Among the more formally audacious films showing is Maidan, which observes the recent Ukrainian uprising in Maidan Square using only a series of rigorous, (mostly) static-frame compositions. Despite its unyielding and relatively non-manipulative approach, its rewards are considerable, building to a climax of tremendous emotional power. Ditto Joaquim Pinto’s intensely personal diary-film What Now? Remind Me, which tells of the filmmaker’s life with HIV – a must-see for anyone with an interest in both the subject and the poetic possibilities of non-fiction filmmaking.
Rokach also draws attention to three crowd-pleasing gems that might go unnoticed amidst titles with more obvious ‘star’ power (such as Regarding Susan Sontag; the Elliott Smith bio Heaven Adores You; the Scorsese co-directed New York Review Of Books chronicle The 50 Year Argument; and a retrospective of classic Maysles Brothers docos).
“The Creator Of The Jungle is a captivating story that one needs to see to believe. It tells the story of a man who has spent 45 years building a giant playground in the forest. We are very excited to have director Jordi MoratЧ here for a Q&A after the screening … Art And Craft is a beautiful film about an eccentric and talented art forger. It is a smart yet very humorous cat-and-mouse caper about art, originality, obsession and truth … [and] Living Stars is a perfectly composed and endlessly entertaining film. What is unique about this one is that there’s no narrative, just a series of everyday Argentineans dancing in their living rooms, kitchens, backyards, garages and workplaces.”
What Rokach’s programming stresses above all is that documentary shouldn’t be seen as a handicap in relation to fictional filmmaking, and that it can and should be of equal cinematic accomplishment. “By definition, documentary is a cinematic art form and filmmakers should perceive it as such. And by ‘cinematic’, I don’t mean it has to be polished and beautiful.”
Antenna Documentary Film Festival is playing atPalace Verona and Chauvel Cinema, Paddington until Sunday October 19, full program online.
