Oh my heart! This inventive and engaging Scottish documentary about small town scammer ‘Brandon Lee’ is more a celebration of humanity than a salacious exposé.
Continue readingMy Old School (2022)
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Everybody’s Oma (2022)
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I cried right through the end of this touching documentary that shines a light on the experience of hidden carers.
Continue readingThe Pawnshop (Lombard) (2022)
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Clips from the US ‘reality’ TV show Hard Core Pawn occasionally appear in my socials and its depiction of pawnshops is firmly rooted in the capitalist myth that those without somehow deserve their lot. The owners unapologetically buy low and sell high and aggressively eject the many grifters trying to con them with worthless or stolen junk. In Lukasz Kowalski’s empathetic observational documentary Lombard, we see poverty in all its forms in Poland’s largest pawnshop.
Continue readingRadiograph of a Family (2020)
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Firouzeh Khosrovani constructs a surprisingly tender collage of her parents’ lives that shows the fractures caused by the Iranian Revolution.
Continue readingThe First 54 Years – An Abbreviated Manual for Military Occupation (2021)
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It is hard not to despair of the world and the depravities that humans will perpetrate as you watch this measured dissection of the mechanics of a military occupation. Avi Mograbi balances the message by having former Israeli soldiers dispassionately recount their part in the occupation of Palestine, illustrating a system that seeks to colonise, dehumanise and deconstruct a nation.
Continue readingStrong Female Lead (2021)
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I was unprepared for the visceral emotion of watching Tosca Looby’s deft collage of media representation of Australia’s first female Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s time in office.
Continue readingTall Poppy (2021)
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So much more than a sport documentary, Justine Moyle has managed to show the exquisite pain and beauty that is the coming of age of Australian park skateboarding star and all-round decent human being, Poppy Starr Olsen.
Continue readingJames & Isey (2021)
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A well-meaning but underwhelming documentary that fails to paint a compelling portrait of its quirky Maori subjects.
Continue readingSisters with Transistors (2020)
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An interesting documentary about the female pioneers of electronic music that succeeds in elevating their names without necessarily providing a context for their work within the wider genre or their impact on contemporary music.
Continue readingPhil Lynott: Songs For While I’m Away (2020)
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The Irish Film Festival Australia is streaming online; a glorious chance to drink Guinness, cook Irish food and immerse ourselves in Irish culture and stories. Emer Reynolds’ warm-hearted hagiography of Thin Lizzy front man Phil Lynott is a welcome elevation of his music and the difficulties of being “the only black boy in Dublin in the 50s” rather than the tragic ignominy of his death.
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