Think turn of the 20th century pebble-dash walls lit with subtle projections, an amply stocked bar housed in the oldest building on the site (a rustic former industrial school) and faint calls of the wild drifting up from the nearby Yarra Trail. “Ultimately, we are creating a fun and sometimes surreal environment for our guests,” says creator and programmer Jay Rayner. “Each screening will begin when the nightly flyover of bats starts circling the Convent grounds”.
Rayner is a cinephile and Canberra native who, after working at a Melbourne multiplex for the past four years, decided to start his own cinema under the stars. The Shadow Electric was inspired by Rayner’s first movie memories in Australia’s capital. “There was (sadly no longer around) a small independent cinema named the Electric Shadows. My mum and dad used to take me there as a small child, and it is the last time I actually remember there being short films presented before the feature – a time before advertising had taken over pre-show content”.
It is with this ethos in mind that Rayner has approached his venture, which prides itself on selective programming and a first-rate cinematic experience. “The idea was born from wanting to present an outdoor film night that was in part an opportunity to show quality cinema in a social setting,” says Rayner. “After visiting the Convent and seeing a Peepshow puppet production at Fringe Festival many years ago, I decided that the Convent was the perfect place to approach about the idea”.
The main challenges have arisen from Rayner’s ambition to create an open-air cinema that measures up to its indoor counterparts. He has imported a custom-built screen from the United States, as well as employing what he claims is the “highest quality digital projection known to man” and digital surround sound.
The Shadow Electric is offering an eclectic mix of current buzz films and old favourites. Rayner’s personal recommendation is Drive, which screens on Friday January 13, the 2011 car chase epic starring meme-of-the-minute Ryan Gosling and British belle Carey Mulligan. Centring upon a taciturn stuntman who moonlights as a getaway driver, Drive features a healthy dose of self-reflexivity and ’80s noir nostalgia.
Each session will kick off with a selection of local shorts, animations and video clips from some of Melbourne’s brightest young filmmakers. Curated by Mikey Leonard, who runs short film night Beg, Scream And Shout at various bars across town, these cinematic entrees should prove a big drawcard. “It is important because there is a real lack of presentation spaces for people to see short films,” says Rayner. “It is no mean feat producing a short, but it seems that after premiere screenings and film festivals the general public rarely sees this unique film category”.
The program also features recent hits like Woody Allen’s return to form, Midnight In Paris, starring Owen Wilson as a jaded screenwriter who mourns the golden days of yore; Attack The Block, a tongue-in-cheek sci-fi romp from the producers of Shaun Of The Dead, and We Need To Talk About Kevin, the adaptation of Lionel Shriver’s bestselling novel, in which Tilda Swinton plays the tortured mother of a particularly malign progeny.
Classics include Stanley Kubrik’s adaptation of Lolita, Nabokov’s infamous tale of Professor Humbert Humbert and his fascination with the eponymous nymphette. And of course, no pop-up cinema program would be complete without a screening of ’80s cult smash Heathers, a murderous look at high school cliques starring everyone’s favourite sticky-fingered waif Winona Ryder.
Rayner also recommends Ten Canoes, and rightly so. Screening on Australia Day, Rolf de Heer’s 2006 masterpiece was the first Australian film to be told entirely in an Aboriginal language. But it is Kubrik’s The Shining that Rayner would most like to see screened at the venue – hopefully something to look forward to in the future. Accompanied by the night-time noises of the surrounding bushland, the Convent may just be the perfect place to show Kubrik’s much-loved tale of the madness that overtakes an isolated hotel’s inhabitants.
The Shadow Electric also boasts a boutique drink and snack bar in the old industrial school – think edamame over popcorn, gelato over choctops, olives over chips. Bartenders will be serving up an array of summer cocktails, as well as a selection of wine, beer and cider. Moreover, Sundays at the Convent are set to be a summer centrepiece. The venue will open at 3pm, offering a recovery session with DJs, ping-pong, hairs of the dog and the Taco Truck’s culinary stylings to ensure you’re feeling shipshape before the night’s screening.
So if you’re fond of fresh air with your flicks, grab some buddies and make the trek over to the Abbotsford Convent. This new kid on the northside block will feel like an old chum in no time.
