Four Australian feature documentaries have been selected to take part in Antenna Documentary Film Festival’s 3rd Rough Cut Lab. Supported by City of Sydney and Screen NSW, the two-day workshop is designed to assist filmmakers with creative and storytelling advice at the final stage of editing, as well as identify new pathways to reach global audiences.

The Selected Projects are:

La Lucha (The Fight) by Violeta Ayala & Daniel Fallshaw, the story of a group of Bolivian people with disabilities who march across the Andes to speak to President Evo Morales, where they’re met with riot police, barricades, teargas and water cannon.

Days of Fire by Amiel Courtin-Wilson & Alice Jamieson-Dowd, a portrait of a man who is diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, schedule his death and wrestle with love, time and regret.

Paradise by Karl Malakunas, Marty Syjuco & Michael Collins, about three environmental crusaders confronting murder and betrayal as they battle to save an island paradise in the Philippines.

In(di)visible by Ben Ferris, filmed through the window of the filmmaker’s studio while on residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris in 2017, the film contemplates the indivisibility of our external and interior worlds.

The 2021 Rough Cut Lab Mentors are:

Victor Kossakovsky is one of the living legends of creative documentary cinema, who’s known for films such as ¡Vivan las antípodas! (2011) and Aquarela (2018). His films have garnered Kossakovsky many international awards, and retrospectives of his work have been presented in the most prestigious cultural centres including the MoMA in New York and the Centre Pompidou in Paris. His most recent film, Gunda (2020), premiered at the Berlinale and was one of the most talked-about films at the festival.

Mandy Chang is a Commissioning Editor at Storyville, the BBC’s flagship international feature documentary strand. Her credits include Oscar-shortlisted One Child Nation (2018), BAFTA-nominated The Fourth Estate (2018), the multi-award-winning Welcome to Chechnya (2020) and more recently, The Mole: Infiltrating North Korea’ (2020). Prior to this Mandy was Head of Arts at the ABC and had a distinguished career as a documentary filmmaker.

Maëlle Guenegues, is an Acquisition & Festival Manager at Cat & Docs, a leading international sales company, championing some of the most innovative, director-led documentaries. Successful titles include Five Broken Cameras (2011), Of Men and War (2014), Citizenfour (2014), Sonita (2015), and Cameraperson (2016).

Simon Price | Editor 

Simon Price, Australia based award-winning documentary and fiction film editor. Simon has brought his craft and story skills to acclaimed feature films such as Ruin (2013) Antarctica: A Year on Ice (2013) Free in Deed (2015) The Leunig Fragments (2019) Martha (2019) and In My Blood It Runs (2019).

The Antenna Rough Cut Lab will be held on 18 and 19 January 2021.