SHORT FILM SESSION: REALITY BITES #2

SHORT FILM SESSION #2 A program of engaging, reallife narratives in short bitesized pieces, Reality Bites presents the year’s very best documentary shorts. From cinema verité, to essay films, animations and ob-docs, this package presents a hardhitting dose of non-fiction shorts spanning the globe. At a time when truth is so often stranger than fiction, these films are not to be missed.

2D LOVE

Dir. Abigail Egden | 10 mins | New Zealand | Documentary | Sydney Premiere | 2019 A 24 year old New Zealander finds himself romantically attached to a fictional character from his favourite anime show. With a 2-dimensional partner that is perfect in every way (apart from being able to touch and talk and all of that), he finds himself wondering if 3D-love is still worth the risk, or if reality might have become a bit, well, irrelevant. A timely parable about human’s growing intimacy with technology, this short documentary provides a rare window into a burgeoning world of a young man grappling with love in all its dimensions.

A MONTH OF SINGLE FRAMES

Dir. Lynne Sachs | 14 mins | USA | Documentary | AUS Premiere | 2019 In 1998, Barbara Hammer had a residency in a shack without electricity. She shot film and kept a journal. In 2018, Barbara began her own process of dying. She gave all of her material from the residency to Lynne Sachs and invited her to make a film. Lynne explores Barbara’s experience of solitude. She places text on screen as a confrontation with a cinema that brings us together in multiple spaces and times.

ANIMAL FARM

Dir. James Hollenbaugh | 3 mins | USA | Documentary | Sydney Premiere | 2019 “The animals do not stay long at the ‘Animal Farm’. Animals arrive but never leave. Uncle Steve won’t let them. It’s a place where animals come to die.”

CHARACTER

Dir. Vera Brunner-Sung | 17 mins | COUNTRY | Documentary | AUS Premiere | 2020 Actor Mark Metcalf made his reputation playing aggrieved authority figures, most famously in National Lampoon’s Animal House and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Now in his 70s, he takes a critical look back on his life and career in this meditation on power, privilege, and the perils of being a “type.”

DARLING PET MONKEY

Dir. Jim McDonough | 9 mins | USA | Documentary | AUS Premiere | 2019 In 1969, two young brothers ordered a monkey from an ad in the back of a monster magazine. After the postal carrier delivered the box — things got weird. Tim Tate’s true’s story has been covered on NPR and made into a musical. This is the story’s first cinematic telling. A co Launch Over/FNF production

IT’S COMING

Dir. Jessica Kingdon & Nathan Truesdell | 9 mins | USA/China | Doco | AUS Premiere | 2019 “The future is here! Well, almost.”

THE PAINT WIZZARD

Dir. Jessie Auritt & Jessica Wolfson | 17 mins | USA | Documentary | AUS Premiere | 2020 Millicent “Millie” McCrory, also known as “The Paint Wizzard” around Austin, TX, is an accomplished house painter who works in a miniskirt, crop top and signature cat ear headband. Born and raised as Michael in a conservative Morman household, she never felt that she could be her true self. A few years ago, at the age of 58, she gained the courage to change her name to Millie and adopt female pronouns. While she identifies as transgender, Millie still struggles with her own ideas of gender and social norms. The film follows Millie in her daily life, as she wrestles with questions of identity and acceptance, painting a hopeful, poignant and honest portrait.

THE THROWBACK

Dir. Louise Bertoncini | 10 mins | Australia | Documentary | Sydney Premiere | 2019 If video killed the radio star, then surely Netflix has killed the DVD store. So how can one tenacious woman keep her doors open long enough to be the last DVD store in the city?