Check out these three documentaries competing for the Documentary Australia Foundation Award as part of the Sydney Film Festival 2020 On-Demand program.
DESCENT
“When you learn to cope with cold water immersion, it’s going to help you cope with stress, fear, anxiety, and all other kinds of negative emotions.” This is a quote from this healing film that pushes your limits on comfort, tolerance, endurance, pain, and danger.
THE PLASTIC HOUSE
A hypnotic contemplative reflection of the past through the present. This is quite a very quiet film as it painstakingly plows through the garden of familial memories of an Asian-Australian upbringing.
A HUNDRED YEARS OF HAPPINESS
Starts with a humble slow cooking of sour eel vegetable stew and fried fish by the mother of the bride-to-be and culminates with a Vietnamese wedding to her Korean husband. Along the way is a fascinating portrait of countryside Vietnam with all its dainty and exotic customs, colours, and flavours.
Netflix’s new hit series, ADOLESCENCE, created by Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham, is a brilliant blend of compelling content and style – an instant masterpiece! Following last year’s breakout British hit BABY REINDEER, Netflix has delivered yet another gripping, dark psychological exploration that is sure to resonate with audiences.
Not much is known about famed Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s wife, Antonina Miliukova. Wikipedia summarises her in Tchaikovsky’s biography with just a few statements, stating that their marriage in 1877 was “a disaster” and they were “mismatched psychologically and sexually” and only lived together for six weeks before Tchaikovsky left her, as he was emotionally agitated and suffered “from acute writer’s block.” Their separation forced Tchaikovsky to confront the truth about his sexuality with the support of his family. Ultimately, he “never blamed Antonina for the failure of their marriage.”
