Established in 2011 with the aim to promote, celebrate and champion creative documentary cinema, Antenna provides a carefully curated program of 50 outstanding non-fiction works.
The 11-day festival will feature seminars, talks, panel discussions and Q&A sessions, as well as an industry conference (DocTalk), professional development programs (Rough Cut Lab, Meet the Experts) and awards with cash prizes to help foster the next generation of documentary filmmakers.
The Italian Cultural Institute (IIC) in Sydney has collaborated with Antenna for over 10 years, promoting the best documentary feature films directed or produced by Italians.
Under the guidance of founder David Rokach, the 2022 festival will feature two Italian documentaries: We Are The Thousand and Chef Antonio’s Recipes For Revolution.
Directed by Anita Rivaroli, We Are The Thousand follows the story of 1000 musicians and amateurs who meet in the northern Italian town of Cesena to celebrate their favourite rock band, the Foo Fighters.
The instigator of the idea, Fabio Zaffagnini, organised a concert where 1000 musicians from all over Italy played Learn to Fly simultaneously in a bid to get the Foo Fighters to come and play in the town.
Since then, the group known as “the Rockin’ 1000” has been seen in concert all over Italy.
The second film, Chef Antonio’s Recipes For Revolution, is an Italian-Australian co-production directed by Trevor Graham.
The film tells the story of Albergo Etico, a hotel in the Piedmontese countryside, and its adjoining restaurant, the Tacabanda Ristorante.
Both ventures are run by chef Antonio De Benedetto, who transforms the lives of young people living with Down syndrome by providing them with practical skills and employment.
A branch of Albergo Etico, the Hotel Etico, is based in the Blue Mountains, around an hour from Sydney.
The Antenna Documentary Film Festival is scheduled to run from February 2 to 13.
For more information or to buy tickets, visit the website.
