We present the second part of our list of 25 Short Docs you cannot miss at the 4th Melbourne Documentary Film Festival, which will take place from July 19th – 30th, 2019 in Melbourne, Australia.

Murder in Mobile by Adam Fischer – USA | 2019 – 24 minutes

In 1948, in Mobile, Alabama, a black man named Rayfield Davis was beaten to death by a white man who was not prosecuted. The crime was forgotten until 2012 when a Northeastern law student was assigned to investigate – culminating in a shocking conclusion. ‘Murder in Mobile’ is a film about race, murder, and one family’s search for the truth 70 years later.

Schedule:
July 25th | Thursday | Cinema Nova | 6:15 pm

Namibia by Matthieu Vinel – France | 2018 – 7 minutes

Two friends, a filmmaker and photographer, traverse the vast expanses of Namibia in their 4×4 Ford Ranger. Discover with them the wild animals of Etosha, the incredible richness of life in the Himba village or the volcanic mountains of Damaraland and meet the locals in Katutura, a poor district in the capital. This hypnotic roadtrip – without voiceover or interview (only music) – will show you something of the soul of this majestic and arid country where time passes differently.

Schedule:
July 28th | Sunday | Cinema Nova | 6:15 pm

Trailer:

Out on the Streets by John Haley – USA | 2019 – 18 minutes

When your family rejects you, where do you sleep? How do you survive? For the estimated 40% of homeless youth in America who identify as LGBTQ, embracing their true identity often meant that they must also struggle to live on the streets. Jason and Luis, two young gay men in Chicago, face this reality head-on in their personal journeys to self-acceptance.

Schedule:
July 21st | Sunday | Cinema Nova | 8:45 pm

Pain is Mine by Farshid Akhlaghi – Australia | 2018 – 13 minutes

One day, One room, One take. After her spinal surgery, she was always in pain, intense pain, unendurable pain. Painkillers have been her refuge for a long time, but one day, she decided to stop.

Schedule:
July 21st | Sunday | Cinema Nova | 11:00 am

Trailer:

Smile by Harriet McKern – Australia | 2018 – 9 minutes

A heart-warming exploration of photographer Tawfik Elgazzar’s community art project, Flash Hub, which provides free portraits for locals and passers-by in Sydney’s Inner West. The film celebrates individuality, cultural diversity and the joy of a photographer seeing his subjects smile.

Schedule:
July 20th | Saturday | Cinema Nova | 11:00 am

Trailer:

Stuart X by Thibault Upton – Australia | 2019 – 5 minutes

Stuart Iredale was born with Fragile X during the 1950s; a time when the disability was little know. He was misdiagnosed with mental illness and spent 40 years of his life in psychiatric hospitals where he was misunderstood, drugged and abused At 60 years old Stuart was correctly diagnosed with Fragile X. He now has a set of processes and care that provide him with an entirely different quality of life. Today he has shown progress towards recovery from years of mistreatment and responds to music therapy by dancing.

Schedule:
July 21st | Sunday | Cinema Nova | 11:00 am

Suspended Generation by Joe Hitchcock and Andrea Egan
US | 2018 – 7 minutes

We all hope that our children have a bright future. This is a story of kids in Kiribati facing the harsh realities of climate change. This is their story from their perspective. Suspended between a home they love, and a world they are only beginning to understand, they are facing these realities now and their story should remind us that they deserve a livable future.

Schedule:
July 28th | Sunday | Cinema Nova | 6:15 pm

Tapume by Hugo Faraco – USA | 2018 – 6 minutes

Tapume in Portuguese means construction wall, and that’s where Brazilian artist Luiz d’Orey finds the material for his collages. In this short film we follow his creative process from the streets to the studio and back to the streets.

Schedule:
July 20th | Saturday | Cinema Nova | 11:00 am

Katong Gabii (That Night) by Jeremy Luke Bolatag
Philippines | 2018 – 20 minutes

KatongGabii documents the lives of two survivors of the Roxas night market bombing in Davao City, Philippines on September 2, 2016. It centers on a vendor at the market whose intestines were shattered by a shrapnel, and a truck driver whose wife and son died while getting a massage. The documentary follows these two survivors a year after the tragedy.

Schedule:
July 21st | Sunday | Cinema Nova | 11:00 am

The Holiday Inn-Side by Charby Ibrahim – Australia | 2018 – 20 minutes

He’s been in and out of juvenile detention for 5 years, but what landed him there started the day he was born. Sixteen-year-old ‘Anonymous’ has been in and out of juvenile detention for the last five years… and he finds himself ‘locked-up’ yet again. As he stumbles around the confines of the secure facility in this fully animated dream-like documentary, he tries to make a little sense of his traumatic past and the circumstances that have led him down this criminal path once more. Although he takes full responsibility for the crimes that he has committed, ‘The Holiday Inn-Side’ asks one key question of its audience through the hazy fog of this creatively warped visual nightmare… ‘What would you do?’

Schedule:
July 21st | Sunday | Cinema Nova | 11:00 am

Trailer:

Uncaged: A Stand-In Story by Blake Johnston and Kelso Steinhoff
USA | 2019 – 11 minutes

Marco Kyris worked as Nic Cage’s stand-in for a decade on 20 films; everything from Cage’s break out role in ‘Leaving Las Vegas’ to the blockbuster franchise ‘National Treasure’. In ‘Uncaged: A Stand-In Story’, Marco talks about his early life as an actor, his journey into the entourage of Nic Cage, and what it was like working in the shadow for one of Hollywood’s Legends of Cinema.

Schedule:
July 19th | Friday | Cinema Nova | 11:00 pm

Trailer:

Voodoo Medics by Kristin Shorten – US | 2018 – 5 minutes

‘Voodoo Medics’ is an eight-part documentary about trauma, resilience and posttraumatic growth in the medics who served with our special forces in Afghanistan. ‘Voodoo Medics’ unpacks the most defining experiences of six medics – affectionately referred to by their call sign ‘Kilo’ – who served inside Australia’s Special Operations Command over 15 years. These highly experienced and decorated medics served on the frontline of the frontline, fighting some of the most traumatic and intense battles – to save their mates’ lives – in the desert and dusty field hospitals of Afghanistan. And now this elite group of specialist medical veterans – known as Voodoo Medics – are being acknowledged for their largely unseen but life-saving contribution to the war on terror. In this revealing and raw documentary, these sworn healers who worked alongside Australia’s most elite fighters share their mental health battles, survivor’s guilt and the contradictions of their complex roles.

Schedule:
July 21st | Sunday | Cinema Nova | 11:00 am

We’re All In This Together by Logan Mucha
Australia | 2018 – 18 minutes

Young queer Australians audition to retell stories from their elders who paved the way for their rights. Scripted verbatim from interviews, accounts of public protest, police brutality and isolation from queer history are retold and reimagined by a younger generation.

Schedule:
July 22nd | Monday | Backlot Cinemas | 8:30 pm