Haig Park Pickture Festival

Eleven films. Three cinemas. Three colours.

An innovative initiative is parking itself in Braddon as an exciting extension of this year’s Enlighten festivities. Looking forward while looking back, a retro film festival of choose-your-own-adventure stylings will take place as Haig Park presents the Pickture Festival.

Presented by the ACT City Renewal Authority, this Friday – Sunday there will be a selection of features screening in a social outdoor setting as part of efforts to enliven and re-engage with some of our underutilised inner-city spaces.

Each afternoon, the event will be open from 4 PM with music to accompany food and drinks available until late. Features will screen from 7:45 PM. On Saturday night, the festival will host late-night screenings of R-rated sessions commencing at 10:15 PM.

Also, this is not a shhhhh event.

Films

Loosely organized into three separate strands, the films get underway on Friday night. Hot tip: the yellow cinema programming represents the film festival’s more family-oriented fare.*

Friday, 1 March – 7:45PM

Edward Scissorhands (Dir. Tim Burton) 1990 – A film which by now surely needs no introduction. Johnny Depp has scissors for hands in this iconic and darkly-tinged suburban fable. Revisit the locally prescribed High School English text and be enchanted by its romantic fantasy drama in the Yellow Cinema.

Desperately Seeking Susan (Dir. Susan Seidelman) 1985 – A desperately bored housewife (Rosanna Arquette) finds herself embroiled in a comically dramatic case of mistaken identity following a minor mishap. Madonna stars as Susan. Get mixed up in the Blue Cinema.

The Lost Boys – (Dir. Joel Schumacher) 1987 – Cue heaps of broody, moody vampires as two brothers move into an edgy and bloody town in this 80s cult horror-comedy classic. Aptly colour-coordinated to screen in the Red Cinema.

Saturday, 2 March – 7:45PM

Labyrinth (Dir. Jim Henson) 1986 – David Bowie is the Goblin King! Also, kids get lost in a maze. Adventure ensues. Get lost in the Yellow Cinema.

Beat Street (Dir. Stan Lathan) 1984 – Mid 80s New York City hip-hop music and culture, and a dynamic duo trying to make their big break in show business. Bust a move in the Blue Cinema.

The Fifth Element (Dir. Luc Besson) 1997 – Figuratively speaking, a futuristic cab driver (Bruce Willis) ends up with a much more complicated fare than he had bargained for. French auteur Luc Besson’s genre-defining sci-fi action mind-melt released at the zenith of his career. Buckle up in the Red Cinema.

Late-night sessions – 10:15PM

Pulp Fiction (Dir. Quentin Tarantino) 1994 – The endlessly quotable and Cannes Palme d’Or Award-winning pop-culture masterpiece littered with profanity, superstars, kinetic energy and legendary one-liners. Textbook Tarantino. Yellow Cinema.

True Romance (Dir. Tony Scott) 1993 – Drugs, action, violence, the mob, more pop culture, more one-liners, thrills, spills, many kills. Tarantino-penned (again) but with traditional Tony Scott direction. Brother of Ridley (Alien; Blade Runner; Gladiator), Tony would go on to direct hits like Crimson Tide (1995), Enemy of the State (1998) and Man On Fire (2004) before his tragic suicide in 2012. Blue Cinema.

Sunday, 3 March

Purple Rose of Cairo (Dir. Woody Allen) 1985 – It’s New Jersey, 1935, and a film character (Jeff Daniels) walks straight out of the screen and into unsuspecting Cecilia’s (Mia Farrow) lovelorn life. Yellow Cinema.

Romeo + Juliet (Dir. Baz Luhmann) 1996 – Directed by the Aussie iconoclast, this dialogue-displacing revision of Shakespeare’s masterpiece sees the setting updated to a hip, modern-day Verona Beach and a young Leonardo DiCaprio’s career well and truly launched. Get star-crossed in the Blue Cinema.

District 9 (Dir. Neill Blomkamp) 2009 – An allegorical albeit extra-terrestrial tale set in a Johannesburg slum. Blomkamp’s debut feature-length sci-fi action thriller with a message before he would go on to make Elysium (2013) and Chappie (2015). Screening in the Red Cinema district.

Tickets

One ticket buys you the option of three movies in your chosen session (two movies in the case of the Saturday Night Late session).

Adults (17+) $15 + booking fee. Child (5-16) $10 + booking fee. Children under 5 free. Purchase tickets HERE. You can also purchase at the venue on the night.

Sound

Audio from two of the cinemas will be transmitted via radio; receivers with standard 3.5mm audio jacks will be supplied with seating. Earphones will be provided for purchase ($5). For enhanced audio, bring your own headphones.

For more information on the festival, assorted FAQs and additional location information, visit the Official Website.

*Late-night Saturday session of Pulp Fiction is the exception to the rule.