Feature length film Evicted! A Modern Romance

FILMMAKERS SPEND HOME LOAN DEPOSIT ON A COMEDY ABOUT THE RENTAL MARKET SQUEEZE

This fresh and topical Aussie comedy is about the trials and tribulations of looking for a home to rent in Sydney – sound relatable? Created by collaborators Rowan Devereux and Sophie Saville, the film will be screened in Narooma at 2pm on 30 April and in Merimbula at 7pm on 1 May. The creatives behind short films Peach (St. Kilda Film Festival, Frameline 44, Best Comedy at Canberra Film Festival) and The Dinner Party (Cinefest Oz, West End Film Festival, Sydney Indie Film Festival) are proud to see their first feature brought to the South East and will take part in a filmmakers’ Q&A following the screening, together with a local representative speaking about our local housing shortage. Evicted! A Modern Romance follows four housemates on the verge of eviction, as they trawl Sydney's fraught rental market in search of a new place to call home. With an impending eviction hanging over their heads, freshly unemployed Maggie (Amanda Maple-Brown), gig-economy worker Will (Will Suen), and feuding couple Isabelle (Rose Haining) and May (Clare Cavanagh) embark on a seemingly futile hunt for an affordable share house. Along the way, they encounter “kitchen-toilets”, one-way attics, and an alleged haunted house. As life happens on the side, unlikely friendships, endless mishaps, and hook-ups gone wrong abound. Evicted! A Modern Romance casts an amusing, yet critical, eye over the job and housing market. Using comedy as a vehicle, it tells the story of a generation caught in the changing tides of growing real estate prices and an increasingly competitive job market. Following a tough few years for the arts community, filmmakers Devereux and Saville successfully crowd-funded the micro-budget film with some help from their own home deposit savings. “We realised it’s cheaper to make a feature film in Sydney than to buy a house. We’re hoping if the film is successful enough we’ll be able to afford a 2 by 1 apartment”, shared Devereux. They will share their experiences in a workshop ‘Funding Indie Films’, taking participants behind the scenes of the making of Evicted! A Modern Romance and speaking about the process of self-funding, making and selling independent films in Australia. For all the keen filmmakers in our region this is a chance to learn and gain valuable insights into independent filmmaking. Please contact info@farsouthfilm.org.au to register your interest in the workshop. The venue and times are TBA.