Jane Mills is one of the programmers at the Antenna Documentary Film Festival. Antenna is an annual festival, established in 2011, with the mission to promote, celebrate and champion creative documentary cinema as one of the most exciting means by which we can connect to the contemporary world.
In 2009 she was appointed Associate Professor in the School of Communication (later the School of Communication and Creative Industries) at Charles Sturt University, Bathurst, NSW. She is now in the School of the Arts & Media at UNSW. Mills is the author of eight books, and a frequent broadcaster on television and radio, and a film critic for ABC Radio 702. As well as programming for Antenna, she’s also on the Film Advisory Panel for Sydney Film Festival and is a contributor to the Cinema Reborn festival. From 1995-2001 she was Head of Screen Studies at the Australian Film, Television & Radio School (AFTRS).
Before coming to Australia in 1995 not only did she teach, but she was the Founder Director of the Edinburgh International Television Festival and a Founder of Sheffield DocFest. Amongst many other amazing roles, she was also Head Production at Granada Television in UK, as well as a researcher on the investigative current affairs programme, World In Action, and a presenter on the daily news programme.
We could go on but you get the idea. We were thrilled to chat to Jane about Antenna and what she thinks of the world of documentary film today.
How do you divvy up the programming in the team and getting through all the films that you could screen. Have you seen most of the selections?
Jane Mills: I think I’ve seen more than the other four programmers this time, but that’s really by chance. Sometimes, three of us will like a film and one of us won’t, but ultimately the festival director Dudi Rokach decides. I try and put myself in other people’s shoes, and even if it’s not my particular taste, I can imagine other people might like a certain film, and so I go for it. Especially if I think it fits in with the sorts of films we like to screen at Antenna.
Tell us a bit about the opening night film.
I’m really looking forward to seeing this again. Opening night can be tricky because you often get audiences who aren’t necessarily that into documentaries; they may come with a sponsor, or just like opening nights!
The Last Guest of the Hollywood Motel is about a footballer who played for Norwich City in the 70s. At first I thought- why am I watching a film about some old footballer who disappeared from Norwich – but about three minutes in I was hooked. The filmmaking is so skilled. It’s very touching and moving and there’s an amazing ending.
Ramiel Petros and Nicholas Freeman are the two directors – they’ve made something just beautifully crafted.
Do you think that layer of craft can be even more important than in features – to create some kind of hook and story when real life doesn’t necessarily follow a narrative arc?
I think documentary filmmakers haven’t necessarily pushed to the limit the extent to which imagination can and should play a big part in documentary films. A lot of audiences can look at a documentary and say it’s really fiction. But there’s a way of getting to reality by using dramatic devices in a way that only the documentary can do- it has a special relationship with reality. Imagination is part of who we are, and it’s real. Filmmakers, and importantly film funders, are more prepared nowadays to push the envelope. It’s also a way to overcome the problem of – where do you point the camera when what you want to look at no longer exists. Lots of the films we are showing this year are using imagination in astounding ways.
The term hybrid is used sometimes around documentaries, and animation in this form can make for some of the best work. What is so captivating about hybrids, and what hump is it getting over for audiences?
I think in Western European culture, animation has always been associated with childhood, fairy tales and easy viewing. In Eastern Europe, and many Asian countries like China and Japan, animation hasn’t necessarily always been that. Some people have a sense that there is only one reality. But I think more and more people are realizing that we all we could all go to the same event and have a different point of view and a different perception and a different memory – and memory is real for each individual. So animation documentary really disturbs those who think animation is only for children and there’s only one reality. That’s why it’s brave and a great challenge.
At Antenna we show audiences filmmakers who are brave enough to push the boundaries, cross over those those humps, and encourage audiences to do the same. When it works, it’s so lovely to be in the cinema when the audience just goes – Oh, wow!
I love it.
For closing the night you’re screening Ghost Elephants, the new film from Werner Herzog. Tell us what you think about his work.
Herzog is one of the best known documentary filmmakers and he’s really on top of, not just his craft, but his skill and his imagination, and he has a sense of playfulness and fun. I love the way he’s in awe of a lot of what he sees in the world and this film certainly captures that.
Herzog is an obsessive and he loves making films either about himself (I think all his films are actually a bit about himself), or films about other people who are obsessive. Ghost Elephants, brings that together, as there is a scientist who believes there is a special type of elephant – a ghost elephant –he’s obsessed and he’s got to find them. And then Herzog becomes obsessed. And then we, the audience become obsessed.
It’s a really great film. It leaves us with the idea that maybe we should just keep dreaming about ghost elephants.
You’re also screening Sentient, which was in our top films to watch at Sundance. Can you tell us a bit about it.
Tony Jones is an interesting journalist and he’s made a film that goes beyond just journalism because journalism tends to be just descriptive. This film explores the notion of trauma and the extent to which the animals who are tested in laboratories are traumatized, often by incredibly weary and well-meaning scientists- it’s shows us how those who work in these laboratories are often traumatized too. I’ve never seen that discussed anywhere before. It’s a really interesting way of asking ourselves – what are we’re doing to animals? Is it actually necessary? Are we investing so much that we’re not looking at alternative ways to try and improve human health and human life? Tony will be at our Q&As direct from Sundance!
There are some other cool guests coming we’ve noticed.
We have Pauline Clague, who’s a First Nation Indigenous filmmaker. She has made films about her own family and understands family relationships in a way that’s quite unique to her. Her film is called Colleano Heart. It’s a very extraordinary and beautifully told story about a circus group called the Colleanos who were hiding their Aboriginal heritage. It’s about the hidden generation, and Pauline will be there herself for Q&As.
Gillian Armstrong is probably better known for her feature films, but she made five documentaries, which are a longitudinal study, about three Adelaide girls. They were 14 when she first started filming them, and every few years she’s gone back. They were all working class kids, and Gillan really explored feminist issues with them. I hope there’s a documentary filmmaker somewhere doing the same sort of thing now! Gillian will also be around for a Q&A.
DocTalk is your industry event during the festival- is it more masterclass, inspiration, or practical information?
It’s all of those things. There is going to be a conversation with American director Kirsten Johnson- she’s a documentary camera person as well and is very impressive. We’ve also invited her to introduce four films that have helped frame her approach to documentary filmmaking.
One of them Man With A Movie Camera, the 1929 Russian film by Dziga Vertov. It’s probably my all time favourite film. It uses old footage to show a different story about the Russian Czar’s, which is extremely, extremely clever.
Another is Agnès Varda’s film One Sings, The Other Doesn’t, which is all about sisterly solidarity and the determination to live independently of men.
I’ve very intrigued to go to the Brett Story session during DocTalk about justice and the catharsis of films. It’s a troubled area because filmmakers are not psychotherapists, and people react in different ways. I’m very interested in what triggers people and what people think they should be getting from film.
Lets check that question off that you started to answer- what are your favourite films?
As well as Man With A Movie Camera, I love Singin’ In The Rain– whenever I feel a bit miserable, that’s the film I go to to cheer myself up.
Also top of my list is Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and Some Like It Hot.
Another film I really admire is Toomelah by Ivan Sen, the Australian Indigenous filmmaker. It’s superbly generous and a beautifully made work of art.
Any other films from Antenna you want to give a shout out to?
There’s beautiful film in the festival called Memory, by Vladlena Sandu. It’s a French and Netherlands film, and it’s exceptional it uses play and ideas from other films, and archive footage. I don’t think there’s a word to describe it, but I think the way in which it breaks down those walls of silos that we were talking about before is inviting audiences to do the same.
You’ve were the first Director of the Edinburgh TV Festival and one of the team that started Sheffield DocFest. What do you bring from all your experience back to Antenna?
I feel so happy to be able to contribute, and Dudi Rokach himself has got a very eclectic taste. It’s so lovely for me to have a director of the festival who has got a kind of sensitivity to what he’s seeing and hearing on the screen. Beyond narrative, a documentary can give a sense of feeling or empathy and that’s really what has stayed with me over the years.
There’s a film that I particularly like in this Antenna called Trillion by Victor Kossakovsky. It’s not for the fainthearted, it’s slow cinema, which is fairly rare in documentary. It’s probably avant-garde experimental, and we see a very similar shot being repeated over and over and over. Somehow what I found happening to me is I was looking inside the film for the story, but then I started looking inside myself for the story. It was as if the film was helping me create a feeling and a sensibility, and it gained a sort of extraordinary emotional power; the film and the images have stayed in my mind.
You’ll be busy during the festival introducing 20ish films and doing Q&As. What are you most proud of in the program?
The audience is prepared to taste and try new things and not always play safe. It’s gratifying when people come up to me afterwards and say that they really liked my introductions or something. But what I really like is when they I helped them see something differently. That’s what films should do. There’s a need for that now, even an urgency. I’m really looking forward to it.
Before we go, tell us about your music choices for this article?
“Masters of War” is from the soundtrack of the brilliant documentary, The Vietnam War (Ken Burns & Lynn Novick, 2017). Bob Dylan’s version is probably the best known but the one on the soundtrack is by the wonderful Staples Singers.
Find some more Irresistible highlights for this years Antenna Documentary Film festival here.
The Antenna Documentary Film Festival opens Thursday 5 February and runs until
Sunday 15 February 2026.
