Aotearoa’s long-running celebration of documentary film returns to big screens (and streaming) very soon – and here are some of this year’s highlights.
Doc Edge Festival has unveiled its full lineup of 71 films and 22 cutting-edge virtual reality and augmented reality projects for 2023. The festival opens at Auckland’s Capitol Theatre on 24 May with The Endangered Generation?, directed by Celeste Geer and narrated by Laura Dern. The film takes us on a journey alongside scientists, artists, and First Nations leaders, searching for solutions to climate change in nature and the knowledge of Indigenous peoples.
Wellington gets treated to Love to Love You, Donna Summer as its opening night film at The Roxy Cinema on 7 June, chronicling the life of the artist whose partnership with producer Giorgio Moroder yielded one of the greatest 12 inch singles of all time in the form of I Feel Love.
Doc Edge 2023 features a number of world premieres, including Seasick, which looks at the degradation of the Hauraki Gulf in Auckland and In the Shadow of Beirut, a portrait of modern-day Lebanon. They join fellow world premieres One Bullet, exploring how a stray bullet connects an Afghan mother and US filmmaker, and All Static & Noise, exposing Chinese authorities’ “re-education” camps for Uyghurs and Kazakhs.
Elsewhere, French filmmaker Julie Bertuccelli conjures a documentary portrait of Aotearoa filmmaking great Jane Campion in Jane Campion – The Cinema Woman, while Rachel’s Farm sees award-winning film director and actress Rachel Ward turn their attention to a farming revolution, exploring how to restore the health of Australia’s farmland, food and climate.
We may have been numbed by the headlines of Russia’s illegal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, but 20 Days in Mariupol goes right to the heart of reality on the ground, following a team of Ukrainian journalists trapped in Mariupol, working to document contemporary wartime atrocities. Russian aggression in Ukraine is hardly new, though, and Iron Butterflies revisits the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in 2014, to explain the truth of what happened.
The USA is hardly spared examination, either. Oscar-winning filmmaker Barbara Kopple’s Gumbo Coalition sees two national justice advocates join forces to combat structural racism—and the rise of white supremacy—under Trump. And the strange relationship between evangelical Christians (themselves often big Trump supporters) and Israel is depicted in Praying for Armageddon, which explores the huge sums raised by Christians hoping the world will end within their lifetimes.
There’s plenty more to discover in the Doc Edge programme—visit the Doc Edge website to see what’s playing in Auckland and Wellington, as well as details of the Virtual Festival which can be enjoyed at home all around Aotearoa.
Auckland Festival: 24 May – 5 June, The Capitol Cinema
Wellington Festival: 7 – 18 June, The Roxy Cinema
Virtual Festival Nationwide: 19 June – 9 July
