Right now, the Castlemaine Documentary Festival is a flurry of frantic changes and bitter jokes. At least, artistic director Claire Jager acknowledges, there are people much worse off than first world organisers locked down with a stash of good coffee and a veggie garden outside.
But a huge amount of planning has been wrecked. Castlemaine (known to insiders as Upper Fitzroy) is a buzzing creative town, where even the railway station coffee is sold by an excellent actor. Each year the documentary festival gets better and better, so the films are carefully curated with excellent panels. They are screened in the Theatre Royal which is late goldfields, post-hippy shabby-chic and a great nest for a festival.
