From Thursday 30th July to Sunday 2nd August, nearby Palace Electric Cinema in the New Acton cultural precinct is the site of a highly anticipated documentary film festival. Now in its third year, Stronger Than Fiction is the only festival in the ACT dedicated to the art of documentary cinema. The documentaries screening throughout the festival are thought provoking and insightful, offering audiences an honest and entertaining look at bizarre and often challenging pursuits from around the world.

The Stronger Than Fiction festival features films such as The Wolfpack (2015), a documentary about a family of teenage boys who, since birth, were confined by their parents to their New York apartment, movies being their only source of imaginative stimulation. Director Crystal Moselle is travelling to Canberra from the USA for the event.

Another is Director Ondi Timoner’s Brand: A Second Coming (2015), a revealing portrait of Russell Brand that follows him from drug addiction to political agitator. Equally intriguing is Drone (2014). This documentary by Tonje Hessen Schei is about gamers who get co-opted to point, click and kill and then end up with PTSD.

A series of Q&A’s have been arranged throughout the festival to facilitate commentary on the wide range of issues presented by the filmsl. The ANU’s own Women’s Officer, Loren Ovens, will be speaking at the screening of The Hunting Ground (2015), a confronting examination of rape crimes on University campuses in the USA, and Dr. Luigi Tomba, Senior Fellow at ANU’s Australian Centre on China in the World, will be looking at Hao Zhou’s documentary about contemporary China, The Chinese Mayor (2015).

All up there are 13 different documentaries being screened over the four days, and as Student tickets are only $13.50 (Adults $17.50) why not make the short walk over to New Acton and see something that will really make you think?