Documentaries

Discover the musical legacy and enduring friendship between celebrated Papuan musician George Telek and Not Drowning, Waving’s David Bridie.

German auteur Wim Wenders’s majestic 3D portrait of compatriot, artworld luminary and friend Anselm Kiefer.

This dryly humorous, Wiseman-esque film about an esteemed Czech art school asks: who gets to decide what art is?

Relive the most thrilling moments of Australia’s beloved tennis tournament in this chronicle of its ascent to top-seed status on the global stage.

This pulse-racing nonfiction thriller follows the individuals risking their lives to defect from North Korea and the pastor granting them passage.

This Cannes-winning blend of documentary and fiction is an intoxicating portrait of the Indigenous Krahô people and their unwavering resistance.

Amid bushfires, the pandemic and punters’ changing tastes, the family behind the Bells Family Carnival fight to preserve its century-long legacy.

Restored by the National Film and Sound Archive, this film recounts how a haven of Indigenous dance and activism arose from segregated postwar Perth.

Pioneering sexologist Shere Hite is rescued from history’s margins in this fascinating portrait from Oscar-nominated documentarian Nicole Newnham.

The wild ride of maverick entrepreneur Michael Gudinski, who defied convention and revolutionised the Australian music industry over five decades.

A mother and two of her daughters are joined by actors to work through their family history and grasp the other two daughters’ heartbreaking choices.

Venture behind the pink tutu with the legendary Sex and the City stylist to discover the creative process that made her a New York icon.

Divided by 4000 kilometres, a son and his dying father connect in this profoundly intimate documentary debut.

From the Deep South to DC, civil rights pioneer and I Am Not Your Negro subject James Baldwin revisits key sites in the US fight for racial equality.

In this surreal and haunting documentary, a Ukrainian filmmaker obsessively sifts through the shrapnel of the MH17 plane crash.

On Her Shoulders director Alexandria Bombach recounts how two unassuming childhood friends became lesbian icons as folk-rock duo Indigo Girls.

Tracing her stratospheric rise, this portrait of the legendary folk singer and civil rights activist reveals a rich life not without its struggles.

Mark Coles Smith (Sweet As) faces down a traumatic event from his past in the hope of helping young First Nations men in the Kimberley.

An autobiographical story about the complexities of being an Aboriginal child raised in a white world, and a celebration of friendship and resilience.

Produced by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, this film recounts how local musicians banded together with U2 to offer hope to Bosnians in war-torn Sarajevo.

Winner of Rotterdam’s top prize, this moving documentary explores the lives of Cameroonian children at the edge of a war zone.

A rollicking deep dive into the life of one of rock ’n’ roll’s most exhilarating personalities, whose queerness was hidden in plain sight.

This essential music documentary asks: why is the 1970s’ most original and ethereal folk singer almost forgotten today?

Revered filmmaker Jeni Thornley (Maidens, MIFF 1979) composes an immersive cine-poem from her extensive super-8 archive spanning three decades.

This poetic, visually striking meditation on growing up under apartheid in South Africa is unlike any documentary memoir you’ve seen before.

Winner of Un Certain Regard’s Best Director and L’Œil d’Or at Cannes, this Moroccan documentary sets out to untangle personal and national secrets.

The thrilling, debauched and frequently hilarious adventures of the legendary Melbourne post-punk band, in their own words.

Abandoned by an indifferent government, a remote Siberian village stands united in the face of a massive forest fire that threatens its future.

Brazil’s modern master returns with a haunting tribute to the filmgoing experience in this Cannes-touted documentary.

This time capsule of an extraordinary unseen history is a work of documentation and preservation – both of a moment in time and of the moving image.

Four First Nations trailblazers – a senator, a magistrate, a media icon and a poet – put everything on the line for a brighter future.

Four First Nations trailblazers – a senator, a magistrate, a media icon and a poet – put everything on the line for a brighter future.

David Cronenberg, Baz Luhrmann, Claire Denis and a host of directors discuss cinema’s future in this riveting sequel to Wim Wenders’s 1982 classic.

Sit courtside as the Boomers win their history-making Olympic medal and affirm Australia as a force to be reckoned with in global basketball.

In the southern Estonian woods, a group of women talk and embrace the soul-cleansing power of steam in this Sundance award-winning documentary.

Music video auteur, photographer and Control director Anton Corbijn takes history for a spin, demystifing the vinyl record artwork of the masters.

Cartoon villain, master manipulator, traitor or true patriot? You decide in this engrossing portrait of Donald Trump’s wily adviser Roger Stone.

A cast of neurodivergent teens prepare to come of age and hit the stage in their school’s time-travelling, John Farnham–themed musical.

This archival explosion relives the wild and unhinged madness of the turn of the millennium.

Activist and filmmaker George Gittoes follows the frontline artists daring to stand up to the Russian invasions of Ukraine and Afghanistan.

From Star Trek to actual space travel, 92-year-old William Shatner has done it all. Alexandre O. Philippe beams us up with this touching tribute.

Revered auteur Wang Bing (Ta’ang; Alone) documents the breakneck pace of China’s garment factories.

Deep in the US’s Catskill Mountains of the 50s and 60s sat a refuge for transgender women and cross-dressing men to experience life without fear.

A double Berlinale award winner capturing the joys, heartaches and rhythms of rural Mexican life as seen through the eyes of children and young women.

This stirring Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner chronicles the love story of a Chilean couple navigating Alzheimer’s disease.

Three children spread their wings as they farewell their parents and enter a boarding school for students who are blind or have low vision.

An intimate self-portrait of Black model, booking agent and fashion changemaker Bethann Hardison and her challenge to the colourist status quo.

Winner of the Berlinale Golden Bear, this empathetic film invites viewers to spend time with the residents of a floating art-therapy centre in Paris.

This Sundance US Documentary Directing Award winner is a revelatory portrait of a hospital chaplain and the people under her care.

Described by its maker as a “meditation on access and loss”, this trailblazing film reframes cinema from a d/Deaf and hard-of-hearing perspective.