Award winning M.A.D Stories documentary continues its journey through prestigious film festivals

M.A.D Stories, a South African documentary, won the Best Documentary award at this year’s Cannes Indie Short Film Festival. However, the accolades don’t end there; the film has also been nominated at the Tokyo Indie Shorts Fest, the Venice Shorts, and, most recently, the Hip Hop Film Festival.

M.A.D Stories, an acronym for Mark (Music), Anthony (Art), and Duckitt (Dreams), is based on the true story of Mark Anthony Duckitt, who also narrates the film. In May 2013, Mark’s world changed after a car crash left him paralysed, the film then follows his journey from aspiring rapper and motion graphics editor navigating South Africa’s underground music and multimedia scenes. This is where he meets Denis Leach, the producer of the documentary, as both of them chase the dream of being successful musicians.  

During their drama-filled journey full of twists, they cross paths with South African icons Jack Parow and Waddy Jones, steering the story into an emotional and unexpectedly dark turn.

M.A.D. Stories Director Mark Anthony Duckitt describes the film as raw, while also celebrating the power of perseverance, resilience, and the unbreakable human spirit. 

Besides winning the Best Documentary Award at Cannes Film, the documentary has been recognised at other international festivals, Duckkit says it’s unbelievable.  “It’s surreal to think a globally recognised festival like the Cannes, not only nominated my life story but gave it an award for best doccie amongst the world’s best filmmakers, it’s just unreal,” he said.

Duckkit also hopes that the film inspires people. “What I want the audiences to take from this film is to never stand still and always move forward no matter what happens to you and no matter where you are from and how insignificant you think your story is, it’s unique and matters. I want it to invoke inspiration, cause the highest human act is to inspire,”  he said.

The filmmakers aim to raise funds to attend the Hip Hop Film Festival in the United States, where their film will be showcased before a panel of judges that includes industry icons like Spike Lee.