Editor

Antenna Documentary Film festival is proud to announce this year’s lineup of respected local and international guests, featuring award-winning filmmakers and industry experts including Vice President of Artist Programs at Tribeca Film Institute Ryan Harrington and Multi-Award winning Spanish director Ventura Durall.

Ryan Harrington is an esteemed and dynamic force in the documentary world, and has supported over 200 films in his tenure at the TFI. He provides over $2 million in grants to documentary, cross-platform and fiction storytellers, while developing filmmaker training labs and workshops worldwide. He has also managed the theatrical documentary arm of the A&E Television Networks, where he championed the films American Teen and My Kid Could Paint That and the Oscar-nominated Murderball and Jesus Camp.

He will feature at the festival as both, a member of the international competition jury and as part of the festival’s DocTalk event.

Multi-Award winning Spanish director Ventura Durall and emerging Spanish filmmaker Jordi Morato will attend the festival to screen their films, bringing fresh and unique insights to audiences.

Ventura Durall’s latest film Bugarach, which is Antenna’s 0pening Night film, was premiered in competition at the prestigious Vision Du Reel and Hot Docs Film Festival (2014). His previous films have premiered at IDFA, Dok-Leipzig and Sundance and won awards in more than 15 international film festivals. The Creator of the Jungle (“Sobre la marxa”) is the debut feature length film from Jordi Murató and has screened at Rotterdam, Hot Docs, BFI and Vision De Réel. His previous work includes the award-winning short film “Cami de terra”. Both filmmakers will participate in a Q&A session after the screening of their films.

Cutting-edge Filmmakers Sam Smail, Nick Watson and Nathan Penlington will also attend the festival, bringing with them for the first time in Australia their unique Choose Your Own Documentary as a not-to-be-missed program highlight. Described by The Independant as ”Deeply nostalgic and Dazzingly modern”, Choose Your Own Documentary follows Nathan Penlington and his team as they embark on an epic and emotional quest of obsession, friendship, loss and adventure. But there is a twist. The destiny is in the hands of the audience, who decide Nathan’s fate from over 1,500 paths and multiple endings via remote controls.

Sam Culter, the former band manger of the Rolling Stones will also attend this year’s festival and will hold a Q&A after the screening of the classic documentary, Gimme Shelter. The film covers the events of the 1969 American tour and Sam will be at the screening to tell the audience the true unfolding events before, during and after the notorious concert.

Antenna Festival showcases some of the very best in Australian Documentary. Judy Ryner, will attend the festival and hold a Q&A after the World Premiere of her film ‘I Will Not Be Silenced’, which charts the story of an Australian woman’s horrific gang rape and her heroic fight for justice in Kenya. Christopher Houghton, director of Sons & Mothers and Anne Tsoulis, director of the These Heathen Dreams, will also hold Q&A’s after the screenings of their films.

Antenna Festival will hold a tribute to renowned Australian filmmaker Pat Fiske, with a screening of her seminal documentary ‘Rocking The Foundations’ and will hold a special Q&A after the screening with key figures from the film.

Other international guests at Antenna, include Ingrid Kopp, Director of Digital Initiatives at Tribeca Film Institute and Jeffery Winter, Executive Director of The Film Collaborative. Both join Ryan Harrington and other leading industry figures at Antenna’s DocTalk - which provides an exclusive opportunity to gain juicy insiders’ secrets of the documentary world.

”We are thrilled to have such a diverse and talented lineup of guests in attendance at Antenna in 2014” says Festival Director David Rokach, ”we believe their insight and insider knowledge will add to our already rich and carefully curated festival program, delighting audiences”.

Guests will participate in talks and Q&A’s across the Antenna Documentary Film Festival, which is set to challenge, seduce and entertain.