MELBOURNE PROGRAM 2020

SOLD OUT! ENCORE 29 FEB 2:40pm. Academy Award-nominee Fernando Meirelles (City of God) and Malian musician/activist Inna Modja take us on an epic journey to the frontline of climate change along Africa’s Great Green Wall — an ambitious vision to grow an 8,000km ‘wall’ of trees stretching across the entire width of the continent to restore land and provide a future for millions of people.

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Go behind the news headlines and follow former Greens leader Bob Brown and a passionate collective of concerned citizens as they journey 3500km across Australia with the hope of preventing the development of the potentially climate-destroying Adani Carmichael coal mine. Convoy is an intimate look at what it takes to undertake a major environmental act of defiance.

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Your Turn depicts the Brazilian student movement from the protests of 2013 until the election of the new president, Jair Bolsonaro, in 2018. Inspired by the collective voice of the movement itself, the documentary is narrated by three high school students, who represent central points of their struggle.

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Moving from the deep Amazon rainforest to Washington D.C. and back, Spears From All Sides follows the battle between big oil and the native Waorani people in Ecuador. It is a dramatic story of deception, brutality, betrayal, and in the end hope.

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SOLD OUT! ENCORE SESSION 29 FEB. An Australian-made exploration of the rules governing the Murray Darling Basin and how they are destroying the environment, causing extinction-level events, and displacing communities. With water rights and security becoming increasingly vital issues for communities, When the River Runs Dry offers hope for a better water future.

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On a remote island in the Pacific, populated by wolves, ravens and two whale researchers is a town with the promise of a second industrial boom. Torn between the wish to protect its territory and the pressure to cope with investors, the town struggles to protect its identity, and the future of the majestic creatures that inhabit its borders.

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Magic Medicine follows three volunteers in the world’s first medical trial of psilocybin, the psychoactive ingredient in magic mushrooms, to treat depression. A deeply sensitive and absorbing portrait of the human cost of depression, and the inspirational people contributing to groundbreaking psychedelic research, and its potential to increase human flourishing.

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The Wheels of Wonder follows a team of ambitious social impact creators as they enter Lebanon’s capital, Beirut, with a curious project. Their mission: to trial and test an unusual prototype play cart with the hope of improving the lives of refugee children through “loose parts” play.

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EXTRA SESSION ADDED BUY TICKETS FOR 7.10 PM. The 4.30pm session is sold out. In the midst of a growing mental illness epidemic, an investigative health journalist enlists a team of scientists to put meditation to the test. But after a 30,000 kilometre journey around the world from the bright lights of Manhattan to the dusty refugee camps of the Middle East, what begins as a year-long self-experiment transforms into a life-changing experience.

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A probing exploration of the cutting-edge, grand-scale proposals to combat global warming by radically interfering with our climate. Are large-scale modifications of the earth’s climate our best hope at avoiding catastrophe? Global Thermostat explores the best man-made interventions, their potential impacts, and their inherent risks for us all.

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Global warming, food and water shortages, catastrophic storms, extinction of species, plant and animal habitat loss; the list of environmental and economic catastrophes afflicting our planet in greater frequency and severity, goes on and on. 8 Billion Angels refocuses our global emergencies and provides real solutions to steer us on the path to lasting sustainability and prosperity for the earth and all of its inhabitants.

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An exploration of how unconscious bias defines and influences our workplaces, justice systems and technologies. With bias infiltrating our decisions at the conscious, and unconscious level, this important film asks, “how can we ‘de-bias’ our lives” and make the world more equitable, and just.

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Narrated by Stephen Fry, this haunting, deep, and lyrical film provides an engrossing exploration of our relationship with artificial intelligence. Award-winning Danish director Jeppe Rønde brings together ten of the world’s leading scientists – and one robot to explore what it means to be human in the age of exponential technology.

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Shot in France, California and Texas, Thirst for Power explores the history of civilisation’s quest to produce abundant water and energy. With profound insights, and millennium old-wisdom, the film explores how ancient innovations and technologies can help to insure the long-term future for these life-giving forces. Changing the way we think about water and energy can secure the long-term sustainability of both precious resources.

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A profound, lyrical film which explores the wonder and beauty of nature and offers solutions to the overexploitation of natural resources and the erosion of biodiversity. This wonderful Canadian film reminds us of the fascinating mystery of life and our duty and power to preserve it.

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Using a combination of chutzpah, humour and candour, Peabody Award-Winning filmmaker Judith Helfand delves deep into the politics and economics of disaster and disaster preparedness. Why are some disasters easier to prepare for than others, and how can we get ready for what is to come?

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Motherload is the story of a new mum searching for freedom and connection in a gas-powered, digital and divided world. A fun, cheeky, and charming documentary that looks at how the humble cargo bike could be an antidote to the isolation, disconnection, and climate impacts that come with our modern way of life.

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Academy Award-nominee Fernando Meirelles (City of God) and Malian musician/activist Inna Modja take us on an epic journey to the frontline of climate change along Africa’s Great Green Wall — an ambitious vision to grow an 8,000km ‘wall’ of trees stretching across the entire width of the continent to restore land and provide a future for millions of people.

Read more

SOLD OUT! ENCORE SESSION 29 FEB. An Australian-made exploration of the rules governing the Murray Darling Basin and how they are destroying the environment, causing extinction-level events, and displacing communities. With water rights and security becoming increasingly vital issues for communities, When the River Runs Dry offers hope for a better water future.

Read more

You Bet I Dance! follows a Staatsballet Berlin class of children with cerebral palsy as they embark on their first big adventure into the world of ballet. Dance is a form of expression, yet not everyone is granted the same access to it. You Bet I Dance! changes this narrative and explores what is possible for children with physical and cognitive limitations when given the opportunity to participate and learn. 

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A funny and fascinating exploration of our relationship with a rapidly developing technology, Hi AI asks: How will artificial intelligence impact our most personal and intimate lives, what will we win and what will we lose, and what will this seemingly unimaginable world of the future look like?

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Following the courageous journeys of the world’s first “cyborgs” – a quadriplegic, a blind man and a woman with Parkinson’s, I Am Human covers the ways science is cracking the mysteries of the brain and using them to solve huge problems in people’s lives. The documentary unpacks the emerging complexity, real world possibilities and imminent implications of merging machine and human intelligence.

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Sustainable Nation shows how innovative new technologies, developed in Israel, can help free women and the world from life threatening poverty, illness and lack of opportunity. Follow three of the world’s leading experts on their quest to bring innovative and sustainable water solutions to an increasingly parched planet.

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A profound, personal exploration of what it means to wake up to the truth about climate change and its future impacts. Travelling the world on container ships to meet five of the world’s leading climate and energy experts, Once You Know asks ‘how can we live, love and dream in the face of what is coming?’

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Housing prices are skyrocketing but incomes are not. From the award-winning filmmaker of Bikes Vs Cars and Big Boy’s Gone Bananas, Push sheds light on the causes and contributors to the gentrification of cities and searches for solutions to the global housing crisis.

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Five years after his first film, award-winning producer/director Torsten Hoffmann revisits the big brains and big egos behind Bitcoin and sets out to explore the evolution of the blockchain industry and its utopian ideas. Can this technology, designed to operate independent of trust and within a decentralized network, really provide a robust alternative to traditional banking and the Internet as we know it?

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Follow the eccentric founder of the ‘World Toilet Organisation’, Jack Sims, as he tries to inspire the world to ‘give a shit’ about the 2.4 billion people world-wide who lack basic sanitation. Spending years lobbying 193 countries, Jack shows everyone just what it takes to be the world’s #2 guy.

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From the makers of The Story of Stuff, The Story of Plastic is a seething exposé, uncovering the ugly truth behind the current global plastic pollution crisis, and a celebration of the global movement rising up in response. Revealing the urgent information global audiences need to know immediately, The Story of Plastic will not only change viewers’ lives but will fuel a worldwide engine of change.

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Sanctuary follows international celebrity Javier Bardem, his brother, and the leaders of Greenpeace as they embark on an epic adventure to create the world’s largest sanctuary in the Antarctic Ocean. On their voyage aboard the Arctic Sunrise we are shown first-hand how science, politics and social media have joined forces to bring together almost 3 million people in the fight to preserve the natural world.

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