Michelle Carey is the Artistic Director of Melbourne International Film Festival, one of the most important homes for documentaries on the big screen in Australia. Michelle travels the world seeking out the finest documentaries each year, and has selected five of her favourites which you can watch on DocPlay now.
Bill Cunningham New York
There is no one like Bill Cunningham. One of the most important names in New York fashion – and therefore fashion full-stop – he would cycle around the Manhattan streets, snapping interesting and always-fabulous people for the fashion pages of the New York Times. This fun, affectionate documentary captures a life behind the fashion pages, a life that was private, spartan and cheerful. How very unfashion! The unlikely but verifiable forefather of style bloggers today.
Autoluminescent
Directed by Lynn-Maree Milburn and Richard Lowenstein, this is an incredibly rich and moving portrait of Australian musician, Rowland S. Howard. A key member of The Birthday Party with Nick Cave in the ‘70s and ‘80s, Howard was an extraordinary songwriter and guitarist with an uncompromising musical career and life. The filmmakers have assembled some amazing never before seen footage here and the whole film is a true revelation. Plus: it is finally admitted who the Aussie classic, “Shivers”, was written about – you’ll have to watch to find out who!
Putuparri And The Rainmakers
Winner of many awards and one of my favourite documentaries from MIFF 2015, Nicole Ma’s film is epic, beautiful and inspirational. Filmed over 20 years, it tells the story of Tom “Putuparri” Lawford and his people (including Dolly and Spider, his grandparents) as they pass down their aboriginal culture from generation to generation, and face heartbreaking battles, including alcoholism and a land title claim in the Great Sandy Desert, their land. But the story is ultimately very hopeful. A film all Australians must watch.
Tokyo-GA
From German arthouse director Wim Wenders. Not one of his most well-known films, but I would argue it is his most charming. Wenders travels to Tokyo in the ‘80s in search of the Japan of his beloved Ozu (director of one of the best films ever made, Tokyo Story). The film is gentle and touching, stylistically indebted to the Japanese master himself, yet a snapshot diary of contemporary Japanese culture, and full of so many gently delightful moments. A film to make you smile.
The Cove
The film that completely upped the ante for environmental docs and shocked everyone who saw it. This Academy Award-winning doc goes where no other documentary had been before (or since). It exposes the barbaric practice of dolphin slaughter in Taiji, Japan. A distressing watch at times, the film is made with an exuberant activist spirit. It will make you think and probably make you act, and isn’t that the sign of a great documentary? Director Louie Psihoyos still manages to capture some truly stunning images and infuses the whole story with a heartbreaking poetry.
