Beautifully shot from the front of a bike, the audience becomes a part of the adventure in Spoke which explores the camaraderie, exhilaration and dangers of being a cyclist in America and will screen in the Melbourne Documentary Film Festival. Em Baker (director of Spoke), one of three cyclists who rode across America (San Francisco to Orlando) to advocate for and empower cyclists gave us insight into their journey.  What inspired you to tell this story and the story of the victims killed in bicycle accidents?It came about in two parts. I was curious about crossing America on a bicycle, but I didn’t know anyone who’d done anything like that. As I started looking into it more seriously, people expressed concern that I might get hurt. So I looked up the statistics, and was surprised to find that the U.S is a notoriously dangerous place to cycle. That became the focus of the film.How did you prepare for the trip mentally and physically?We didn’t! We left on a wing and a prayer and hoped it would work out! What cameras did …

We chatted with director Nick Barkla about his debut documentary Inside Fighter, and his journey following boxer Frank LoPorto’s crusade to win the world title in America against an undefeated champion, Austin Trout.What brought you to Frank’s story? I was training in the same gym Frank trains in and we had become friends. In getting to know each other, Frank told me he was ranked 12 in the world in the WBA light-middleweight division and might be in line for a world title shot. Time was running out for him as he was at the end of his career, so I became interested in making a documentary about a guy who may or may not get a chance to fulfil his lifelong dream before he has to retire.  We’re still in touch. Frank is a good mate and he and his girlfriend Lisa are looking forward to seeing the film at the Australian premiere July 9 at MDFF with an audience.  What were Frank’s thoughts on the documentary? Frank likes the film. It was confronting for him to watch initially, …

We chat with Jeff Hann, director of The Coffee Man screening at the Melbourne Documentary Film Festival in July. The Coffee Man follows Sasa Sestic’s journey to the 2015 World Barista Championships and his pursuit for the perfect cup of coffee. How did you meet Sasa and why did you want to tell his story? I met Sasa in Canberra through my brother in-law Mick. We had lunch together and talked about doing some filming around the coffee world and exploring direct trade coffee in countries such as Ethiopia. I then asked Roland if he wanted to get involved and he said “YES”. The filming evolved from a film about the coffee world, to a character Journey and we saw the obsession and passion for coffee that Sasa has and loved the way it came across on the camera, therefore we wanted to follow him and tell his story as we believe he’s an inspirational person, especially in the coffee scene. You guys did a lot of travelling in the documentary – What was the most challenging aspect of …

Peter Davies talks to us about the triumphs and challenges in directing the documentary The Four Horsemen and sharing the story of four Aussie brothers who took on the Equestrian Polo world in the 1930′s. The Four Horsemen will screen at the Melbourne Documentary Film Festival in July, How long it take you to make The Four Horsemen, you have put a lot of work into the film sourcing arrival footage, interviews and re-enactments. Yes, a lot of work went into sourcing footage, photos, interviews and re-enactments but I had a good team around me to assist with the process. In all, production of the doco took a year and a half. A lot of research went into the process prior to filming, and great family assistance was provided when it came time to organise and digitise the mountain of photos and newspaper clippings of the brothers that existed. Documentaries always have mountains of footage to cut down, and ours was no different. Luckily I had the excellent Ren Thackham, who was a great help in laying down part of the base edit, …