Four Asian documentaries will be screened at the Antenna Documentary Film Festival which will take place from February 9 – 19, 2024 in Sydney, Australia.

And, Towards Happy Alleys by Sreemoyee Singh – India | 2023 – 75 minutes

Despite censorship and repression, Iran’s artists and poets are constantly finding new ways to express themselves. Indian filmmaker Sreemoyee Singh loves the country’s cinema so much that she taught herself Persian and has spent six years making a lively declaration of love to cinema and Iranian film culture. Even if Iranian cinema is a foreign country to you, this experience will hit you right in the heart. Magical moments accrue in this political but liberating and warm film, like when Singh sings a Persian song (something the local women are not allowed to do), when the noise of a drill drowns out a conversation about eroticism on film, or when the great director and humanitarian Jafar Panahi makes one of his former actors shed a tear just by looking her in the eye with a small smile in the corner of his face. (Antenna 2024)

Trailer:

Ryuichi Sakamoto | Opus by Neo Sora – Japan | 2023 – 103 minutes

In the time leading to his death in 2023, composer Ryuichi Sakamoto performed 20 selections from his vast body of work. During the years he suffered from cancer, Sakamoto could no longer perform live. Despite this, he mustered all of his energy to leave the world with one final performance – featuring just him and his piano. Curated by Sakamoto himself, the selection, spanning his entire career, includes beloved film soundtracks like The Sheltering Sky, The Last Emperor, and Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence. Captured with precision and poetry by his son, director Neo Sora, Sakamoto bares his soul through his music, aware that this might be his final opportunity to present his art. A celebration of an artist’s life in the purest sense, Ryuichi Sakamoto | Opus is the definitive swan song of the beloved maestro. (Antenna 2024)

Trailer:

The World is Family by Anand Patwardhan– India | 2023 – 96 minutes | Documentary

Until recently, it was rare to see homegrown works of non-fiction from India. A vital exception has been the work of acclaimed documentarian Anand Patwardhan, whose explorations of social and political life have earned him both festival awards and government bans. The World is Family is his most personal film. Over intimate conversations filmed across three decades, Patwardhan creates an intimate and affectionate snapshot of his late parents. Through their remarkable journeys in life, he captures the history of the nation—the struggle for freedom, the euphoria of independence, and the subsequent horrors of Partition, all the way down to the divisiveness and fundamentalism gaining ground in contemporary India. The result is a precious piece of oral history to hold on to at a time when recorded history in India is itself under threat, being rewritten or erased. For audiences encountering Patwardhan for the first time, this is a warm introduction to a major figure in Indian cinema. (Antenna 2024)

Trailer:

Youth (Spring) by Wang Bing – China | 2023 – 212 minutes | Documentary

Acclaimed for his uncompromising approach, Wang Bing, one of the greatest contemporary filmmakers, captures the daily dramas of young migrant workers in the Chinese textile industry. Cancelling the distance between viewers and protagonists, while carefully avoiding imposing any rhetoric, Bing dives into chronicling the lives of hard labour. What emerges is a vivid portrait of not only a regional economy, but also the love, tenderness, and friendship experienced by its young textile workers. These 20-year-olds have migrated from their hometowns to work for a period of time in the sweatshop capital of China. They share everything. They stay and eat in common dormitories, meet in corridors or on balconies, and above all, spend 15 hours a day at work with the constant hum of sewing machines forming the soundtrack of their destinies. A mosaic of young lives made, Youth (Spring) is the first chapter of a three-part documentary and is yet another masterpiece by Wang Bing. (Antenna 2024)

Trailer:

More information: https://antennafestival.org/