Championing creative documentary cinema
The Antenna Documentary Film Festival is back for 2022, showcasing some of the best documentaries from around the world. Jessica Abelsohn explores the program.
Whether it’s to instruct, educate or record, there’s no denying that documentary films have a special place in the entertainment genre. While documentaries have been around for more than 100 years, social media platforms such as YouTube now mean that anyone and everyone can become a documentary filmmaker.
This year, the 10th Antenna Documentary Film Festival will be taking place early next month, with 50 of the most creative and thought-provoking documentaries from around the world, including several with Jewish themes and directors.
Opening the festival is the Australian premiere of Charm Circle, a portrait of an eccentric New York family, questioning the very bonds that tie families together.
Israeli-born artist Yael Bartana’s work is on full display throughout the festival. Fourteen of Bartana’s works will be presented, in collaboration with the Museum of Contemporary Art, through Yael Bartana – Retrospective.
One of, if not the most controversial of Bartana’s documentaries, And Europe Will Be Stunned, centres on the activities of the Jewish Renaissance movement in Poland. The trilogy addresses the narratives around the Israeli settlement movement, Zionist dreams, antisemitism, the Holocaust and the Palestinian right of return.
The festival also features Two Minutes to Midnight and Malka Germania, both of which are Australian premieres. In Two Minutes to Midnight, Bartana asks the question, ‘what if women ruled the world?’. In the documentary, a panel of fictional characters and real women experts in fields such as defence, law, politics, and psychology are put in a room to decide how to approach a pre-scripted situation, mirroring the typical ‘war-room’ setting which is usually dominated by males.
Supported by the Goethe-Institut, Malka Germania investigates and analyses the contemporary German-Jewish experience through the lens of Berlin’s residents’ dreams, fears and memories.
Another notable documentary being featured is Letter to the Editor by Jewish filmmaker Alan Berliner. The self-confessed ‘news junkie’ analyses how the medium of news has changed over the past couple of decades, from when he was a 23-year-old collecting photographs from the print edition of The New York Times to the era of online engagement.
The Antenna Documentary Film Festival will take place from February 2-13. Bookings: antennafestival.org
comments