23 03 2016 - Media release

Great Australian talent on show at Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival

Screen Australia is proud to announce the Australian documentary features and shorts that will screen at the 2016 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival.  Australia is the showcase nation for the ‘Made In’ program, which places a spotlight on filmmakers from a different country each year and provides them with the opportunity to show their work on the world stage.  Hot Docs is North America’s largest documentary festival and is one of the world’s leading documentary events.

Thirteen Australian documentaries will be shown at the festival, including eight feature documentaries and five shorts (as well as a music video from an Australian director).  Putuparri and the Rainmakers, winner of the 2015 CinéfestOZ Film Prize, will have its International Premiere at the Festival and will be shown as part of the Made In Australia program.  From writer/director Nicole Ma and producer John Moore, Putuparri is set in the remote Kimberley region of Australia’s North West, and explores one man’s monumental struggle to fulfil his destiny.

The other Australian documentary features in the festival program are:

• Hotel Coolgardie, from director Peter Gleeson and producers Melissa Hayward and Kate Neylon. Two Finnish backpackers hoping to save some travel money and enjoy an authentic Aussie experience find themselves the centre of attention at an outback pub (World Premiere,  International Spectrum);
• Chasing Asylum, from director/producer Eva Orner, explores the impact of Australia’s offshore detention policies (World Premiere, Made In Australia program);
• In the Shadow of the Hill, directed by Dan Jackson. The residents of Rio de Janeiro’s  largest  slum seek justice for a local man they believe has been murdered by the police (World Premiere, Made In Australia program);
• The Opposition, from director Hollie Fifer and producers Rebecca Barry and Madeleine Hetherton, tells the story of enforced evictions at Paga Hill in Papua New Guinea (World Premiere, Made In Australia program);
• Zach's Ceremony, from director Aaron Peterson, writer/producer Sarah Linton and producer Alec Doomadgee, follows the cultural crisis of a boy raised in suburban Sydney, who seeks to reconnect with his tribal roots and become an Aboriginal man (World Premiere, Made In Australia program);
• Another Country, from writer/director/producer Molly Reynolds, writer David Gulpilil, writer/producer Rolf de Heer and producer Peter Djigirr, tells the story of David Gulpilil and what happened when his way of life was interrupted (Canadian premiere, Made In Australia program).

The Australian shorts selected for Hot Docs 2016 are:

• The Strudel Sisters, by writer/director/producer Peter Hegedus and Jaina Kalifa. Two elderly sisters share the delicate art of making traditional Hungarian strudel and reveal a deeply personal family story about their mother, who taught them everything they know (World Premiere);
• At Midnight, from director Amber McBride and producer Wen Yi Yan. The story of Maria who survived the Nazi assault on Hungary and finally escaped following the invasion of Russians tanks (Canadian Premiere);
• Let’s Dance: Bowie Down Under, by director Rubika Shah and writer/producer Ed Gibbs. The remarkable, forgotten story behind David Bowie's biggest-ever hit record – and how an unlikely journey deep into the Australian outback led to its unprecedented success (Canadian Premiere, Made In Australia program);
• Shadows of Displacement from writer/director Perun Bonser and writer/producer Renee Kennedy lays bare the history of displacement and marginalisation of Aboriginal people in the northwest of Australia.
• Oh Canada, a music video from director Natasha Pincus, inspired by the drowning death of Alan Kurdi and the plight of refugees (Made In Australia program).  

Joining the feature and short documentaries at the festival is Disaster Capitalism, which has been selected to pitch in the 2016 Hot Docs Forum. From Australian production company Media Stockade and director Thor Neureiter, Disaster Capitalism was selected from more than 200 submissions from around the world to pitch at the forum, alongside teams from countries including Greece, USA South Korea, Finland, Pakistan, Canada and Israel.

Two titles from Australian filmmaker Gillian Armstrong’s ground-breaking longitudinal documentary series will also be screened in the Hot Docs Redux program. These films follow three young women as they navigate their paths to adulthood. Smokes and Lollies (1976) introduces the audience to Kerry, Josie and Diana in working-class Adelaide, while 14’s Good, 18’s Better (1981) revisits the three women at age 18.

Richard Harris, Head of Business and Audience at Screen Australia congratulated those attending Hot Docs. “It’s terrific to be able to take so many great Australian documentaries to Toronto this year. The diversity of these stories is a great reflection of what Australia offers to the global market: unique storytelling and masterful filmmaking.”

In conjunction with the Made In Australia program highlighting documentaries from Australia, Screen Australia will host a delegation of Australian documentary makers to the complementary industry conference and market, especially targeting producers with potential projects for the pitching events.

Screen Australia will assist up to five successful Australian producers  with market-ready documentary projects to attend Hot Docs Deal Maker, a one-on-one pitch-meeting program for producers seeking financing from the international marketplace and Distribution Rendezvous, a series of pre-arranged, one-on-one meetings with distributors, sales agents and festival programmers for finished, nearly finished and rough cut films. These filmmakers will be provided with all-access passes, and up to $4,000 each for travel expenses.

“Screen Australia is very happy to be able to offer this extraordinary opportunity for filmmakers to go to Hot Docs this year. They will be on the ground in Toronto, making contacts and learning from some of the best in the industry and it truly is an invaluable experience for them,” Harris said.

Hot Docs will take place in Toronto, Canada from 28 April to 8 May 2016.

For more information on Screen Australia and Australian documentary shorts and features at Hot Docs, please click here