MIFF 68 1/2

Normally at this time of year I would be racing between cinemas to line up for my next movie as part of the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF). However, this year's physical festival was cancelled once the coronavirus pandemic hit. With Melbourne currently in Stage 4 lockdown, MIFF thankfully has gone online as MIFF 68 1/2 and is available for streaming across Australia. Since there weren't any mini passes available this year, I was good and only purchased six films to watch instead of my usual 10 plus.

I started with the Opening Night film First Cow by Kelly Reichardt, which is based on the Jonathan Raymond novel The Half Life. Set in the Oregon Territory in the 1820s, the movie is about the unlikely friendship between Cookie (John Magaro) and King-Lu (Orion Lee) as they enter business together selling oily cakes at the market with the secret ingredient of cow milk they've stolen from wealthy Englishman Chief Factor. The tension of the film is will they eventually be found out?

My usual preference of film genre at MIFF is documentaries, and this year was no exception. The Go-Go's told the story of one of the greatest all female bands as they emerged from the LA punk scene in the late 1970s to international stardom. It contained archival footage of them performing, photos and interviews with all of the band members as they detailed the trials and tribulations of the band's history. Martin Margiela: In His Own Words featured the avant-garde Belgian fashion designer speaking for the first time about the inspirations for his key fashion collections throughout his career. Margiela shunned fame and publicity in order to let his clothes be the focus (and he still doesn't show his face in this film).

My other three films were part of the Social Justice 3 Pack bundle. 9to5: The Story of a Movement detailed the women who came together and organised female office workers in the 1970s and 80s into a huge movement for better pay, professional recognition and ultimately as a union. These office women's stories were the inspiration for the movie 9 to 5, and unfortunately the struggle of underpaid primarily female workforces continues to this day. My favorite film of all the ones I watched was Coded Bias, which explored the research done by some female academics into the racial and gender biases that are written into the coding for AI and algorithms used by the main tech companies. It's an incredibly important film that shows the real life impacts of this so-called "impartial" technology on society. 

 

My final film was Hong Kong Moments, which documented key dates in the 2019 pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong as told from seven citizens from all walks of life on both sides of the movement. Filmmaker Zhou Bing allows them all to speak for themselves and the film documents daily life alongside the street battles between police and protestors. It culminated with the local district council elections, which saw a large group of pro-democracy candidates elected.

MIFF 68 1/2 is available for streaming from 6 - 23 August 2020.