Screening 1 - Friday 6 May at 7:30 pm

The Lodger

United Kingdom (1926), 75 minutes, Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

With live music and special effects by Phil Cockerill!

Eerie thriller based on the story of Jack the Ripper. Foggy London town is gripped by fear as a vicious serial killer known only as The Avenger stalks the streets. A family becomes suspicious when their new lodger shows signs of nervous agitation and starts taking midnight strolls.

Despite being only Hitchcock's third film, many of the hallmarks of his direction are already recognizable, including a case of mistaken identity, discomforting sexual undertones and the exaggerated significance of simple actions to maximize the tension.

Haunted Spooks

USA (1920) 20 min., b/w, sound. Producer: Hal Roach Cast: Harold Lloyd

A Harold Lloyd comedy in which to become eligible for an interitance a young married couple have to contend with a 'haunted' house. Harold Lloyd at his best.

Shaun of the Dead

United Kingdom (2004), 99 minutes, Directed by Edgar Wright

Following the success of their sitcom Spaced, co-writers Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg wanted to make a feature film. Having enjoyed filming an episode in which zombies attacked the main characters, they decided to write a horror film, but they didn't want to simply make fun of the genre. So they considered another approach: what if it didn't start out a horror movie, but a love story? Better yet, a comedy love story. Get people involved with the characters, and then ... WHAM ... hit them with the zombies.

Screening 2 - Saturday 7 May at 9.00am

Since Otar Left

Franco-Belgian co-production (2003), 102 mins, Directed by Julie Bertuccelli

The deserving winner of the grand prize in the International Critics Week at Cannes in 2003, Since Otar Left (Depuis qu'Otar est parti) is an exquisitely bittersweet drama set in Tbilisi, the crumbling capital of the post-Soviet republic of Georgia. Three generations of women - the stoically beautiful Ada (Dinara Droukarova), her lusty mother Marina (Nino Khomassouridze) and whip smart grandmother Eka (Esther Gorintin) - live together in a book-filled apartment. When news comes that Marina's brother Otar has been killed on the job in France, Marina and Ada decide to conceal his death rather than break Eka's heart. Yet their lie soon spawns larger and larger ones.

Screening 3 - Saturday 7 May at 11am

The Weeping Camel

Germany (2004), 87 minutes, Directed by Luigi Falorni & Byambasuren Davaa

A family of nomadic shepherds in the Gobi Desert use a traditional musical ritual to try and save the life of a rare white baby camel after it is rejected by its mother.

This so-called narrative documentary has a rhythm and beauty to it that fits with the ethnographical nature of its subject matter so that it's hard to know where the documentary ends and fiction begins. The actors are real nomads who played out their daily lives before the camera, with some re-enactments for the filmmakers. They are delightful, beautiful people, especially young Ugna who practically steals the film from the camels. The style of direction, simple still shots, reflects the lives depicted. And the landscape is stunning.

This is a film to be treasured.

Screening 4 - Saturday 7 May at 4.00pm

Dirty Pretty Things

UK (2003), 97 minutes, Directed by Stephen Frears

Nominally, Dirty Pretty Things is a genre film, sitting smack in the middle of the thriller category - if indeed that genre exists - although it's been called an urban thriller because it's set in gritty, grotty London, and a romantic thriller because there's a relationship in it. Yet writer Steven Knight, director Stephen Frears and the actors have done their work so well that Dirty Pretty Things is as much about the characters' struggle to forge lives in a grim underworld, as it is a gripping thriller.

Screening 5 - Saturday 7 May at 8.00pm

Festival Express

UK / Netherlands (2004), 90 minutes, Directed by Bob Smeaton

The Festival Express was a train taking rock 'n' roll greats around Canada in 1970, so that they could play a number of festivals. The Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, The Band, The Flying Burrito Brothers and many more toured around the country, living together, partying together and jamming together.

The material for this film had been stored in the National Film Archives of Canada for 25 years and was rediscovered in 1994 in pristine condition.

The concert footage is fantastic, expertly filmed and edited. The sound is superb... This doco does everything right.