The highly anticipated 11th instalment of the Castlemaine Documentary Film Festival opens this Friday and runs through until Sunday at Castlemaine’s historic Theatre Royal.
This year’s theme is ‘Truth. You couldn’t make this stuff up’ and will see 10 incredible films showcased across the three-day event, which will take audiences across the world, back in time and into the future. Make sure you get your ticket and settle in for a wild ride!
The event kicks off with the world premiere of Human Algorithm, which explores how artificial intelligence is changing the way we think and behave, and a performance artist literally turning his body into living art in Stelarc – Suspending Disbelief.
When night falls, the CDoc team crank it up: silent-film masterpiece Man With a Movie Camera gets a live electronic music score with beloved Melbourne band, Underground Lovers Moda Discoteca; and on Saturday night the boundary-blurring hybrid doco-musical Reas transforms a Buenos Aires women’s prison into a stage of song and dance, followed by a live performance by the local glam-pop band, Sugar Fed Leopards that will have you up and dancing.
On Sunday evening Look Into My Eyes from acclaimed filmmaker Lana Wilson (Miss Americana) comes a candid, often funny, and surprisingly moving portrait of New York City psychics and the everyday people who consult them, seeking confirmation, comfort or closure in the welfare and whereabouts of parents, pets and absent friends.
Wilson settles her gaze on the private lives of seven unconventional healers; creative types searching for solace and struggling to make dreams come true in a city of eight million people. They might not always have the answers – but in Look Into My Eyes, sometimes the connection is comfort enough.
Director Lana Wilson said that she had never seen a psychic before making this film.
“But on November 9, 2016, I found myself standing in a desolate strip mall in Atlantic City, New Jersey. I’d just completed filming for a project about Election Night, and on the morning after Donald Trump was elected president, I, like so many people around the world, was devastated,” she said.
“As I stood waiting in that strip mall – uncertain of how my own life and the world itself would move forward – my gaze drifted to the row of discount shops behind me. One storefront drew my eye. Even though it was 8am, it was lit up with a neon sign: ‘$5 Psychic Reading’,” Lana said.
“With a mix of horror and embarrassment, I found myself going inside for what would end up being my first psychic reading. I left the experience noticing the incredible, incontrovertible power of a connection between two strangers, whether you believe in what the psychic is saying or not. Being seen by a stranger in this environment somehow feels as powerful as spending time with the closest of friends. Why was this the case? What were the dynamics behind the mutual connection that created such unique energy? It started to make sense to me why psychic tradition is perhaps the oldest and most popular form of therapy known to man,” the director said.
Look Into My Eyes will cap off the festival screening at 8pm Sunday.
The Castlemaine Documentary Festival Full Weekend Pass offers unbeatable value – access to all 10 screenings, plus their signature special events: two live gigs and LOCALS.
And there’s more! Festival Pass holders can enjoy discounts all weekend: a $30 pizza and drink deal (wine or beer) at Theatre Royal and 10 per cent off meals plus a free wine or beer at Love Shack.
Each pass also guarantees you go into the draw to win a bottle of locally made Forêt Distillery Pastis and dinner for two at Boomtown Winery (drinks excluded).
To secure your Festival Pass, Friday Double Pass or Day Pass visit cdocff.com.au
