THE MERCURY CINEMA

The Mercury and Iris Cinemas are run by the Media Resource Centre to enhance screen culture and to give screening opportunities to emerging South Australian film, video and digital media artists.

Cinemas are also available for hire. For more information CLICK HERE.

CONTACT
Operations Manager, Jeremy Chance e-mail

Exhibition Manager, Toby Bramwell e-mail
Ph. (08) 8410 0979

This webpage is a work in progress - comments?

CLICK HERE FOR THE LATEST MERCURY CINEMA CALENDAR!

JOIN OUR MAILING LIST!
Be among the first to see our quarterly program - email us your name and contact details, including postal address.

TICKET SALES

Call 8410 0979 9-5:30 Mon to Fri with you credit Card handy.
Call into the MRC 13 Morphett St Adelaide (behind the Mercury) 8-5:30 Mon-Fri
Buy tickets at the box office from one hour prior to the advertised screening time.

useful links

MERCURY for hire

The Mercury and Iris Cinemas are available for hire. We offer highly competitive rates for your screening, conference, lecture or party. We can screen just about anything from 35mm CinemaScope to your Powerpoint or web based presentation. AND we can look after your catering and liquor requirements with the minimum of fuss!

THE FINE LINE BETWEEN TRUTH AND FICTION

6 July – 13 July

Documentary is a malleable genre, embodying creative approaches both objective and subjective. While the manipulation of the documentary subject has been acknowledged since Nanook of the North (1922), the veracity of reality as it has been presented on screen leads one to question whether certain films can be considered documentary at all. Presented here are three films that invite the audience to take a closer look and then decide for themselves what they should believe.

3 X DOCUMENTARY SHORTS || SHERMAN'S MARCH
DAVID HOLZMAN'S DIARY

7:30pm Monday 6 July

3 X DOCUMENTARY SHORTS
WERNER HERZOG EATS HIS SHOE (18+)

Dir: Les Blank US 1980 20mins 16mm
Werner Herzog honours a vow he made to Berkeley student Errol Morris that he would eat his shoe if Morris ever made a film. Morris went on to direct the acclaimed documentary The Thin Blue Line (1988).

LA SOUFRIERE (18+)

Dir: Werner Herzog West Germany 1976 33mins 16mm
Herzog and his crew rush to the island of Guadeloupe, which has been evacuated in the face of a imminent catastrophic eruption of the volcano La Soufriere, to find the last three residents.

THE WAR GAME (18+)

Dir: Peter Watkins UK 1966 49mins 16mm
This simulation of atomic holocaust using methods of reportage in a fictional framework pioneered docu-drama on British television but was banned for broadcast by the BBC, instead finding it’s way onto the art-house cinema circuit.

Winner Best Documentary Feature Academy Awards 1967.
Listed in 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

7:30pm Thursday 9 July

SHERMAN'S MARCH:
A MEDITATION ON THE POSSIBILITY OF ROMANTIC LOVE IN THE SOUTH DURING AN ERA OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS PROLIFERATION (18+)

Dir: Ross McElwee US 1986 160mins 16mm
Filmmaker Ross McElwee journeys through the South with the intention of documenting the route taken by Union Army General Sherman who waged war against the largely female civilian population of the Confederacy. Along the way he is distracted by the mysteries of modern Southern womanhood and haunted by the spectre of nuclear war, all the while assessing the progress of his movie in a series of soliloquies to the camera. Print courtesy of the National Film & Sound Archive.

Listed in 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

7:30pm Monday 13 July

DAVID HOLZMAN'S DIARY (M)
WITH BONUS FILM:
NO LIES

Dir: Jim McBride US 1967 73mins 16mm
Acting on Godard's dictum that "film is truth 24 frames a second", David Holzman proceeds to obsessively record his every waking minute over the course of a week, alienating everyone around him in the process. Like watching a car wreck in which he is the driver, Holzman captures every angst-filled detail of his chaotic life as it falls apart around him. A mockumentary years ahead of its time, this savvy take on the Cinéma Vérité obsessions of the sixties skews notions of what is real and what is not. Print courtesy of the National Film & Sound Archive.

Preceded by short No Lies (1973).