This month, explore how media shapes the world and our understanding of it: from reappropriated North Korean propaganda and hidden messages in pop culture to a story of obsession that fed the British media for years, a Tasmanian whose camera changed the course of history, and the tales of an Italian community that shaped a city.
Aim High in Creation!
When documentary filmmaker Anna Broinowski decides to fight a proposed coal seam gas project near her Sydney home, she goes straight to the self-declared masters of political filmmaking: the North Koreans. Recently released to acclaim in South Korea, Aim High in Creation! blends unprecedented insights into North Korean society, the creation of an anti-capitalist drama and a wealth of surprises.
Tabloid
Errol Morris (The Thin Blue Line, The Fog of War) turns his talents to the strange tale of Joyce McKinney, who was accused of kidnapping her Mormon missionary ex-boyfriend in Surrey, driving him to a cottage, tying him up and raping him. Morris unwraps the "Manacled Mormon" case, and the British tabloids’ fixation on it, creating a story of obsession that is both madcap and melancholy.
The Pervert's Guide to Ideology
Slavoj Žižek, the world’s foremost psychoanalytic film critic, follows up The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema with another documentary in which he walks into famous scenes from cinema history and looks at their ideological motivators. Drawing parallels between narrative and the consumerist drive of capitalism, Nazi propaganda and Steven Spielberg’s Jaws, Žižek’s examination of popular culture is lucid, entertaining and enlightening.
Frontline
Tasmanian cameraman Neil Davis is best known for his fearless coverage of the Vietnam War, capturing many of the images that showed the reality behind the propaganda for the first time. But, as David Bradbury’s Academy Award–nominated documentary shows, Davis’s life was not about thrill-seeking, but rather a series of ethical choices, huge risks, and gambles that paid off.
Lygon Street: Si Parla Italiano
The evolution of one of Melbourne's iconic streets is a story of Australia itself. Following the Second World War, Italians migrants arrived in the suburb of Carlton and slowly set about transforming it. Sixty years later, in a city that prides itself on coffee, food and culture, Lygon Street: Si Parla Italiano captures the voices and stories of the people who helped make it so.
