MINA film fest a phone-tastic moment for Swinburne students
- Denby Weller
- 8 minutes ago
- 2 min read
The Mobile Innovation Network and Association film festival, presented by SmallRig kicked off on Friday night at ACMI with a diverse lineup of smartphone films from over 20 countries.
The opening night was a hit with an enthusiastic audience of filmmakers, film aficionados and Swinburne students and faculty.
The festival, now in its fourteenth year, has seen a huge uptick in entries in 2025, and screenings will be held in Federation Square on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, from 6pm to 7pm. On Monday 27th October, the lineup for the 'New Voices' program features work by Swinburne students.
Festival Director and Curator, Swinburne's Assoc. Prof Max Schleser, introduced proceedings, highlighting the diversity of entries this year and setting the stage for a selection of films that took the audience from the streets of New York to the Galapagos Islands, from the rolling hills of Wales to a claustrophic apartment in industrial Germany, and many more settings.
Eric Perriard's Station was a highlight - an extraordinary montage of life on the streets and waterways of Hong Kong, and works made with, or entirely by generative-AI were the subject of a lively discussion during a panel after the screening. The panel, moderated by Swinburne's Dorcas Maphakela, celebrated the affordances and availability of smartphone filmmaking tech, but views about the gen-AI revolution were mixed.
The night was rounded out with a selection of films for sister festival, SF3, which highlights the work and stories of people with disabilities.
The screenings in Fed Square this week are free; see MINA's website for more info.
Comments