The Indievillage Doco Film Fest has revealed the lineup for its inaugural three-day event.
The festival will include documentaries from some of the world’s best filmmakers screening exclusively at Cameo Belgrave and Lido Hawthorn cinemas in Melbourne.
The nine films include a number of Australian premieres and are all screening in Melbourne for the first time.
Indievillage festival director, Michael McIntyre said the program presented stories from around the world made to engage and inform audiences on important social issues.
Frame by Frame by US Emmy award-winning documentary filmmaker Alexandria Bombach will open the festival on December 4.
It won Audience Award at Brooklyn Festival and Reel Women Director Prize at Cleveland International Film Festival and was an official selection at Sundance, SXSW, Hot Docs and AFI Docs.
Frame By Frame follows four Afghan photojournalists as they face the realities of building a free press in a country left to stand on its own – reframing Afghanistan for the world and for themselves.
Closing the festival is director Justin Krumb’s latest film, The Transparentsea Voyage.
Featuring Angus Stone and Isabel Lucas, the film highlights the efforts of a group of athletes, musicians, celebrities and artists working together to focus attention on coastal environmental issues.
Experience the voyage from start to finish as the crew traces the southern migration of the California Grey and Blue Whale from Santa Barbara to the US Border in six tandem kayaks.
The Transparentsea Voyage will screen on December 6 followed by a Q&A with director, Justin Krumb and co-founding director of Surfers for Cetaceans, Howie Vaughan Cook.
Program highlights include Dark Side of The Chew by eco-activist filmmaker, Andrew Nisker.
This documentary looks at how chewing gum impacts our culture, threatens our health, erodes our economic stability and damages the environment.
The Chimpanzee Complex hones in on chimpanzees in a Dutch rescue centre as they face the challenge of resocialising with their own species.
Marc Schmidt's latest film follows the daily lives of the chimpanzees and their caretakers as they negotiate the emotional confrontations and ethical issues that arise from the ambiguous relationship between man and primate. Is it possible to think beyond the boundaries of our human perspective when trying to understand another species?
The Visit, from Danish director Michael Madsen, considers the implications of an extraterrestrial arrival on Earth.
Subtitled “An Alien Encounter,” the film examines humankind’s potential response to extraterrestrial contact on our home planet.
Leaving Africa is a heart warming documentary from Finish director Iiris Härmä.
It follows the story of Riitta and Ugandan Catherine Riitta. Riitta has been working in aid work in Uganda for more than 25 years, and soon it is time for her to retire and to return to Finland.
Before that, Riitta and Catherine will invite religious leaders to a course in which they challenge the priests and the imams to a straightforward, taboo breaking discussion on women’s right to their bodies, sexuality and life.
However, soon Riitta and Catherine will hear of serious allegations made against them. These allegations will jeopardize their entire life’s work.
Other films featured in this year’s program are Ecocide: Voice from Paradise by British director Juliet Brown.
It explores the residents of Grand Isle, the last inhabited barrier island off the coast of Louisiana, thought they were living in paradise until the 2010 BP oil spill hit their shores; Garbage by Andrew Nisker, focuses on your average urban family the Mcdonalds and ask them to keep every scrap of garbage they create for three months.
It then takes them on a journey to show them where it all goes and how it affects the world outside; and The Forecaster by German directors Marcus Vetter and Karin Steinberger, a documentary of financial espionage featuring Martin Armstrong, once a US based trillion dollar financial advisor who developed a computer model based on the number pi and other cyclical theories to predict economic turning points with incredible precision.
Following the phenomenal release of the award winning film YOGAWOMAN, Indievillage has become one of Australia's most innovative film distribution companies.