Aural Reflections: Music, Self and Objectivity in 'Now Sound: Melbourne's Listening' and 'Her Sound, Her Story'

Both the act of turning the lens on a subject and the act of engaging with the end product involve, to some degree, the insertion of oneself into the work; nowhere is this more felt than in the music documentary, a form that is at once a chronicle, a critical tool, a symbol of community and a capsule of fandom. Anthony Carew examines how these elements manifest in the recent films by Tobias Willis and Claudia Sangiorgi Dalimore.

Additional keywords:
Melbourne music, self-reflection, The Tote, Courtney Barnett, Sampa the Great, Jen Cloher, Vera Blue, Sui Zhen, Julia Stone, Mojo Juju, nostalgia, fan service, formula, trope, rockumentary.