Oz doc festival AIDC lines up ‘Writing With Fire’ & ‘Wild Wild Country’ directors

The Australian International Documentary Conference (AIDC) has unveiled the full program for its first-ever hybrid event, with the producers behind Flee, Writing With Fire and Netflix’s Wild Wild Country among the line-up.

Jonas Poher Rasmussen, whose Oscar-shortlisted hybrid animated documentary Flee received the Sundance Grand Jury Prize, will feature alongside Wild Wild Country’s Chapman and Maclain Way, who were also behind Untold.

Sushmit Ghosh and Rintu Thomas, whose Writing With Fire was shortlisted for an Academy Award, will also feature.

AIDC’s program includes over 40 sessions and will take place in-person at ACMI Melbourne, and simultaneously online, from 6-9 March. An online-only international marketplace is planned for 10-11 March.

Other talent attending the event includes Australian filmmaker Eva Orner (Chasing Asylum), the former co-head of movies at Amazon Studios, Ted Hope, and investigative filmmaker Nanfu Wang (In The Same Breath).

The co-head of documentary at TIME Studios, Loren Hammonds, will also feature, as will producers Darren Dale and Jacob Hickey of First Contact production house Blackfella Films.

Janet Han Vissering of Nat Geo Wild, Aloke Devichand of Netflix, Topic’s Mahalia Cohen and other execs from streamers including Amazon and Stan are among attendees and will “launch new initiatives and opportunities for documentary makers”, according to the AIDC.

The event’s theme, ‘Bearing Witness, will consider how documentaries have continued to bring us vital stories from the frontlines and the margins during unprecedented times.

Natasha Gadd, AIDC CEO & creative Director, said: “As we launch the AIDC 2022 program, we celebrate and pay tribute to the ways in which our documentary and factual storytellers have continued to adapt and innovate in the face of ongoing challenges, bearing witness to and bringing us stories from all corners of the globe.”