Melbourne Documentary Film Festival – Page 2

October 17, 2021July 22, 2022 leebutler Review

Hannibal Hopkins & Sir Anthony (2021) – Refried Leftovers

Hannibal Hopkins & Sir Anthony was seen as part of the Melbourne Documentary Film Festival

This year’s Oscars ceremony might go down as having one of the most insane endings ever, and I’m including that time La La Land won for about 17 seconds. If you recall the ceremony ended up switching the categories around in order to put Best Actor at the end of the show in a move that was clearly anticipating Chadwick Boseman winning for his stellar performance in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. Everyone on social media at the time could see this coming, the ending felt obvious and we all waited with bated breath to see Chadwick’s widow walk up and emotionally destroy us… and then Anthony Hopkins won, wasn’t allowed to give a speech over Zoom because the people producing the show are idiots, and then the ceremony just ended. It was a catastrophe that was, rightly so, the lowest viewed Oscars ceremony in history.

That being said, it did give Anthony Hopkins his second Oscar which puts him in a league of legendary actors who have more than one Oscar to their name, so now seems like a great time to release a documentary about him… It’s such a pity that it feels like this one started production just after he won the Oscar in April and was ready to be presented a month later in May.

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October 16, 2021July 22, 2022 leebutler Review

Cry Of The Forests (2020) – They Speak For The Trees

Cry Of The Forests was seen as part of the Melbourne Documentary Film Festival

So have you noticed how our planet is all kinds of screwed thanks to big industries deciding to put quarterly profits over the concept of humanity living on this planet? I have, it keeps me up at night which is not a thing I needed help doing! Do you know who else has noticed this big problem? The protestors that make up many of the subjects for the film Cry of the Forests and to put this in modern-movie terms, this documentary turns them into environmental Avengers doing their best to defeat the logging company destroying a precious resource… it’s heartbreakingly important.

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October 14, 2021July 22, 2022 leebutler Review

Finding Creativity (2021) – Found It

Finding Creativity was seen as part of the Melbourne Documentary Film Festival

Trying to describe creativity is not an easy thing, it feels like one of those topics that can only be described with the famous phrase used by the United States Supreme Court in relation to pornography “I know it when I see it”. Putting the concept of creativity into words, describing what it means to be creative and how one develops a creative mind is not an easy thing to do… but the documentary Finding Creativity somehow pulls it off in under an hour which is upsettingly brilliant.

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October 13, 2021October 13, 2021 leebutler Review

Black Summer (2020) – Essential Aussie Documentary

Black Summer was seen as part of the Melbourne Documentary Film Festival

From the end of 2019 until the start of 2020, a large portion of my home state was on fire. The fires were mostly in country areas and so intense that the smoke made it over the ocean to New Zealand, where the sky turned an angry orange and the air became so toxic that people in NSW were wearing masks long before it was cool to do so. It was truly a devastating fire, destroying nearly 10,000 buildings and killing 34 people directly and 445 people from smoke inhalation.

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October 12, 2021 leebutler Review

Do Nothing And Do It Well (2020) – Out Of The Cabinet, Into The Streets

Do Nothing And Do It Well was seen as part of the Melbourne Documentary Film Festival

The history of anti-Asian racism in Australia is much like the history of all racism in Australia… it goes back to the Federation of this country and the white people try to pretend we’ve gotten better when we really haven’t. Sure, every country born from colonialism contains some history of racism that still impacts people today but today’s film, Do Nothing and Do It Well, really does whatever it can to make it clear to its audience just how intense this history is for one community.

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October 8, 2021October 8, 2021 leebutler Review

Mental As Everything (2021) – Musical Health

Mental As Everything was seen as part of the Melbourne Documentary Film Festival

The subject of mental health has never been easy to talk about, no matter how serious it might end up being to those who suffer from it. This is kind of strange when you realise how many people have some form of mental health issue, I’m going to wager that everyone reading this either has some form of mental health issue or knows someone who does. Hell, the person writing this knows several people with serious mental health issues. The reason it’s not talked about as much as it probably should be is because of social stigma… something that the brilliant minds behind Mental As Everything are trying to help with.

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