independent cinema

since nineteen eleven

Note: As our capacity has now increased, we are no longer taking online pre-bookings for films, unless they are one-off screenings or special events. Visit our box office at 30 Hargraves St, Castlemaine, to purchase a ticket. Box office opens 30 minutes prior to each screening.

now playing.

the best from hollywood, and handpicked cinema from around the globe

May
26

PARIS OPERA BALLET: DON QUIXOTE

Duration : 2h 50 with 2 intervals

Director: Rudolf Nureyev

Inspired by Marius Petipa’s choreography, Rudolf Nureyev’s Don Quixote is a true celebration of dance with a Spanish flavour. The soloists and the Corps de Ballet are carried away in ensembles and pas de deux to the strains of a spirited score.

Written in the 17th century, Cervantes’ novel recounts the adventures of Don Quixote, an idealist and bookworm who one day decides to ride across Spain with the naive Sancho Panza.

In Nureyev’s ballet they meet Kitri and Basilio. The two lovers use every trick in the book – from a puppet performance to a fake suicide – to be reunited, despite Kitri’s father’s resistance.

In the end it is Don Quixote who delivers the happy ending after battling windmills and crossing paths with Cupid, Dulcinea and the Queen of the Dryads. The costumes and colourful sets sublimate a vivacious and entertaining work.

Show acts and characters

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May
26

PREMIERE: WHAT ABOUT SAL + Q&A

STARRING: Gerard O’Dwyer, John Jarratt

DIRECTOR: John Jarratt

DURATION: 1:40

RATING: M

Join us for the premiere of WHAT ABOUT SAL, along with an in-person Q&A with writer and director, John Jarratt (Wolf Creek, Play School).

This heart-warming and feel-good story follows Sal, a young man in his thirties with Down syndrome, who discovers that his mother is dying from lung cancer with only months to live. Sal embarks on a journey to find his estranged rock musician father, whom his mother had a one-night stand with resulting in Sal's birth. The search for his father becomes a race against time as Sal's mother's health deteriorates.

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May
28

PARIS OPERA BALLET: DON QUIXOTE

Duration : 2h 50 with 2 intervals

Director: Rudolf Nureyev

Inspired by Marius Petipa’s choreography, Rudolf Nureyev’s Don Quixote is a true celebration of dance with a Spanish flavour. The soloists and the Corps de Ballet are carried away in ensembles and pas de deux to the strains of a spirited score.

Written in the 17th century, Cervantes’ novel recounts the adventures of Don Quixote, an idealist and bookworm who one day decides to ride across Spain with the naive Sancho Panza.

In Nureyev’s ballet they meet Kitri and Basilio. The two lovers use every trick in the book – from a puppet performance to a fake suicide – to be reunited, despite Kitri’s father’s resistance.

In the end it is Don Quixote who delivers the happy ending after battling windmills and crossing paths with Cupid, Dulcinea and the Queen of the Dryads. The costumes and colourful sets sublimate a vivacious and entertaining work.

Show acts and characters

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May
2

SPECIAL EVENT: DAMAGE + Q&A

Join us for a special fundraiser screening of DAMAGE, followed by Q&A with director, Madeleine Blackwell and introduction by Mount Alexander Refugee Support (MARS).

Ali is not a citizen. He drives a taxi using another man’s license and relies on the GPS to negotiate his way around a city he doesn’t know. His passenger, Esther is an old woman who can’t remember where she is going. She is angry because she has been stripped of everything that is familiar to her and she doesn't recognise the world anymore. They travel through the night in search of a vague destination while surveillance cameras mark their journey, coldly redacting the human element, defining who belongs and who does not, who is safe and who is not. What they are left with is their damage – she can’t remember and he can't forget. 

Profits from ticket sales are being donated to Mount Alexander Refugee Support, a group of Mt Alexander Shire residents
wanting to assist a refugee family to settle in our amazing community.
See https://refugeesponsorship.org.au/ for more information about the program.

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Apr
28

ROYAL OPERA: MADAMA BUTTERFLY

RUNNING TIME: 2hr28min

STARRING Asmik Grigorian and Hrachuhí Bassénz

When the young geisha, Cio-Cio-San, marries American Naval Officer Pinkerton, she believes she is entering a real, binding marriage for life. Forsaking her religion and community, she learns all too late that for Pinkerton, their marriage is merely an illusion – with tragic consequences.

With a score that includes Butterfly’s aria, 'Un bel dì, vedremo' (‘One fine day’) and the Humming Chorus, Giacomo Puccini’s opera is entrancing and ultimately heart-breaking. Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier’s exquisite production takes inspiration from 19th-century European images of Japan.

Asmik Grigorian and Hrachuhí Bassénz share the role of Cio-Cio-San, with Kevin John Edusei conducting.

TICKETS VIA BOX OFFICE ONLY - $25 FULL / $22 CONC/LOYAL ROYAL MEMBERS

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