Outlining an ambitious slate of feature and short documentaries direct from some of the world’s best film festivals, the 2017 Melbourne Documentary Film Festival runs from Sunday 9 to Sunday 16 July.
The festival kicks off on Sunday 9 July at Howler Art Space with an Opening Day Binge Watch of documentaries kicking off at 11.00am with the opening short, Ann Johnson’s The Satellite – which tells the improbable true story of Australia first spacecraft.
With 80 + documentaries in competition screened over 8 days at four venues: Howler Art Space, Long Play, Cinema Nova, and The Laneway Learning Centre. The Melbourne Documentary Film Festival is guaranteed to provide a rich array and diverse mix of documentaries direct from the festival circuit. Guests attending this year’s festival include: Johanna B Kelly (The Gateway Bug), Costa Botes (Candy Man, Forgotten Silver, LOTR), John Pritchard (One Heart, One Spirit) and Jack Thompson (The Man from Snowy River, Breaker Morant).
Selected highlights of this year’s fest include the Melbourne premieres of high profile documentaries, One Heart One Spirit, God Knows Where I Am, Five Days on Lesvos, Miss Kiets Children, and a chance to see Jack Thompson speak about Indigenous issues with The Cinema Travellers. Short documentary highlights include For Flint (direct from Tribecca Film Festival), Road to Webequie (direct from Toronto International Film Festival), and The Fixers from Doxa.
With over 40+ Australian documentaries in competition the Melbourne Documentary Film Festival is one of Australia’s biggest showcases of local documentary talent. Curated sections include Australian, Short Documentary, Music, Foodie, Art, Street Art, Environmental, LGBTI, Aboriginal, Investigative Journalism Documentaries, Pop Culture and World Cinema.
On Saturday 15th July 2017 from 9.00am, The Laneway Learning Centre will host a Master Class on Documentary Filmmaking, Indigenous Filmmaking, and a seminar on distribution from leading Australian distributors geared toward helping established and emerging filmmakers get ahead.
On Sunday 16 July 2017 from 9.00am, The Laneway Learning Centre will a host a new initiative from the Melbourne Documentary Film Festival called Charity Docs where all money generated from ticket sales of that session will be equally donated to the Alzheimer’s Foundation and the RSPCA.
The 2017 Melbourne Documentary Film Festival runs from Sunday 9 to Sunday 16 July. For more information and complete program, visit: www.mdff.org.au for details.
Image: A selection of films screening at the 2017 Melbourne Documentary Film Festival