HOW MUCH: FREE
WHEN: Until Tues 17 August
WHERE: Mercury Cinema, 13 Morphett St
MORE INFO: mercurycinema.org.au

See an exciting and diverse line up of micro to low budget feature dramas, documentaries and animation from around the globe, FREE!  Four films in this year’s program have their Australian Premiere! Films range in budget from $70 to $1 million AUD with many recognised by some of the world’s leading Festivals, including Cannes, Sundance, SXSW and Toronto.  Look for the Skype Sessions offering you the opportunity to be part of a Q&A with the filmmaker directly following the screeening.

FilmLab is an initiative of the South Australian Film Coorporation.  www.safilmlab.com.au

Tuesday 3 August, 6pm

FILM: The District
Dir: Aron Gauder
Hungary / 2004 / 87mins / Animation / Budget: $525,000

A group of teens from the wrong side of Budapest’s tracks band together to make themselves rich by traveling back in time, burying a horde of wooly mammoths under the city’s streets, then returning to the present and drilling for oil. As creators of a new oil-producing nation, their scheme draws the attention of Putin (who uses the district’s Russian hookers as spies), Blair and George W. Bush. In the midst of it all, star-crossed teen love is in bloom.

This outrageous and visually stunning animated satire plays like an unhinged ghetto updating of Romeo & Juliet smash-filtered through a politically-charged – and politically-incorrect – kaleidoscope of clashing world views and social unrest, complete with musical numbers and a wicked soundtrack of Hungarian hip-hop.

Winner of too many awards to name!

Tuesday 10 August, 6pm – AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE

FILM: Breaking Upwards
Dir:Daryl Wein
USA / 2009 / 88mins / Romance / Budget: $15,000

‘Breaking Upwards’ explores a young, real-life New York couple who, four years in and battling codependency, decide to intricately strategize their own break up. Based on an actual experiment devised by director/actor Daryl Wein and actress Zoe Lister-Jones, the film loosely interprets a year in their lives exploring alternatives to monogamy, and the madness that ensues. An uncensored look at young love, lust, and the pangs of co-dependency, ‘Breaking Upwards’ follows its characters as they navigate each others’ emotions across the city they love. It begs the question: is it ever possible to grow apart together?

Winner of the Grand Jury Prize and Best Narrative Feature, Brooklyn International Film Festival

Tuesday 17 August, 6pm – AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE

FILM: Colin
Dir: Marc Price
UK / 2008 / 97mins / Horror / Budget: Approx $70

Followed by Skype Q&A with Producer/Director Marc Price

So can anyone now ‘just make a movie?’ Possibly not anyone, as talent is always required, but certainly price alone no longer seems to be a barrier to making films and getting them into cinemas. Marc Price’s debut zombie movie was made for just £45 and has turned the industry on its head. Following completion it was funded by UK Film Council to get into cinemas across the UK and it continues to sell into distribution across the globe.

As well as being an industry phenomenon it is also great fun, playing with the usual zombie format by shifting the perspective from the living to the living dead. We meet Colin just as he’s made the shocking discovery that he has been bitten by a zombie. He dies, but then comes back to life as a one of the undead and gives us the zombie-eye-view of suburbia in the throes of a cadaverous apocalypse.

Winner of the 2008 Revenant Film Festival Special Jury Prize and Best Feature on a micro budget at Raindance Film Festival