Australia premieres music docos at Sydney Film Festival

The Sydney Film Festival’s Sounds on Screen program has a series of Australian premieres of music documentaries on Joan Jett, Whitney Houston, MIA, Nico, and Ryuichi Sakamoto.

* Bad Reputation: music video director Kevin Kerslake (Nirvana, Green Day, Red Hot Chilli Peppers) turns his eye on Joan Jett as her career is fuelled by her obsession with proving the detractors wrong,

Interviews include Jett, Debbie Harry, Iggy Pop, Billie Joe Armstrong (Green Day) and Miley Cyrus.

* Mathangi/Maya/M.I.A: the British Sri Lankan Tamil hip hop figure’s college friend Steve Loveridge pulled this portrayal of the from 700 hours of footage.

‘Maya’ Arulpragasam’s father was one of the five founders of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, one of the most committed, feared and ruthless of guerrilla forces, as Sri Lanka tumbled into a lengthy civil war.

She inherited from him a no-nonsense attitude and a passion for politics.

* Focus On Italy: a biopic of one time Velvet Underground singer and Andy Warhol associate Christa Paffgen (aka Nico).

Written and directed by Italian filmmaker Susanna Nicchiarelli on the star’s final days, it stars award winning Danish actress Trine Dyrholm (Love Is All You Need), Scottish actor John Gordon Sinclair (Gregory’s Girl), and Romanian actress Anamaria Marinca (Europa Report).

* Whitney: Oscar winning filmmaker Kevin Macdonald (Marley, The King of Scotland) pulled together an unflinching portrayal of Whitney Houston with interviews by those closest to her, and rare footage from the Houston estate.

* Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda: an intimate portrait by Stephen Nomura Schible oft the Japanese composer and electronic pioneer who made some of the most progressive records from the 1980s (some with trend setters as Bowie and Sylvian) and won an Oscar and Golden Globe for his music for The Last Emperor.

Coda is a companion to the album (async) – his first after he was diagnosed with cancer.

* Hearts Beat Loud: the Brett Haley-directed Toni Collette-starring  light-hearted dramedy about a single dad who wants to turn a father/ daughter weekly “jam sesh” into a father- daughter live act.

After their first song becomes a global hit, the two set off on a journey of love, growing up and musical discovery.

* I Used to be Normal: A Boyband Fangirl Story, directed by Melbourne based Jessica Leski, it Investigates the crucial role music plays in our lives by loving a boyband through the exploits of four girls and 90 interviews.

* RocKabul: Australian journalist Travis Beard lived in Afghanistan for seven years before embarking on this profile of Afghanistan’s first and only metal band, District Unknown,  how teenagers surrounded by bombs and bullets had their release though metal of a sonic kind , and of the expats’ party scene.

One of the band members now lives on the Gold Coast.

* Mehsampur: directorial feature debut from Indian director Kabir Chowdhry (The Last Act) has its world premiere in Sydney.

It’s a narrative / mockumentary about a filmmaker following the death of iconic Punjabi folk musician Amar Singh Chamkila.

It stars real people present at Chamkila’s death, playing fictional versions of themselves.

* Juliet, Naked: this is about the joys of being obsessed with indie-rock.

It is based on the novel of the same name by Nick Hornby (About a Boy, High Fidelity)

Directed by TV’s Jesse Peretz (Girls, Orange Is the New Black) it is a romantic comedy about Annie (Australia’s Rose Byrne), and her unlikely romance with singer-songwriter Tucker Crowe (Ethan Hawke), who is also the subject of her boyfriend’s (Chris O’Dowd) long-time music obsession.

* Bisbee ’17: unconventional documentary by Robert Greene is about a 1917 deportation of Mexican and European immigrant miners just north of the Mexican border brought from town of Bisbee.

It comprised of interviews with contemporary residents of Brisbee, dramatic recreations, and an intense musical number composed by in-demand composer Keegan DeWitt.