Memories are made of this

Rachel Gilchrist in Memories of Tomorrow.

Locally made epic The Chronicles of Narnia will cost around $150 million. Those feature films sure are an expensive business. But Auckland film-maker Amit Tripuranemi made his 86-minute thriller Memories of Tomorrow for just $15,000.

There really is no comparing the scale of the two films, but let's just say there were no cafes on the set of the movie with "no budget".

The key to making Memories of Tomorrow then?

"Luck," laughs 27-year-old Tripuranemi. "And every one worked for nothing, basically on equity points, which meant if I managed to sell the film and make a profit then we'd share it."

Tripuranemi is talking to three film distributors about buying the movie, and it premieres at the Asian Film Festival at Auckland's Academy Cinema next Friday.

Other films showing at the festival, which runs until June 1, include Chicken Rice Wars (Romeo and Juliet Singapore-style), Blind Shaft (banned by the Chinese Government), Scent of the Lotus Pond (from Sri Lanka), Maqbool (an Indian adaptation of Macbeth), and Boys In the Sky (from Uzbekistan).

The storyline for Memories of Tomorrow revolves around John (Richard Thompson) and Tanya (Rachel Gilchrist), who lead a seemingly normal life.

But John is haunted by nightmares and has no recollection of his past. Then, the arrival of a stranger (Ray Trickitt) kicks off an uncontrollable string of events.

Most of the 31 crew attended South Seas Film School on Auckland's North Shore, from where Tripuranemi graduated in 2003.

The crew and core cast of six dedicated 20 days, during weekends spread over five months, to shoot the film.

"While making the film the idea was to get everyone to have project ownership," says Tripuranemi. "I didn't want to have all the power or the ownership because that would've meant I was forcing people to work. I wanted people to give their own passion and energy."

Tripuranemi came to New Zealand from India in early 2003 on a student visa. He settled on New Zealand because it was cheaper to study and the Indian film industry was not open to experimentation.

"The first thing you need over there is song and dance sequences, otherwise you don't get investors," he says, referring to the country's Bollywood films.

"Plus, the technical expertise in India is good but the work ethic is still not there."

. There was no chance of Memories of Tomorrow being made in India, as there is little dialogue in the movie, let alone singing and dancing.

And the reason for a short script?

"Well, because English is my second language, the dialogue might sound good in my head but when it's spoken ... ," he laughs.

"So I didn't want to get caught up by saying, 'No, I want that line, let's do it again', especially when my dialogue sucks. So we improvised quite a bit."

Tripuranemi believes audiences don't necessarily need to be told a storyline.

"The idea is to pull the viewers into the story. Even in normal life we tend to pick up a lot of stuff non-verbally so that was another thing I wanted to try."

He admits that because the film is shot digitally rather than on film - another money-saving measure - the quality suffers.

But he remains optimistic.

"It does affect us in terms of selling it, because distributors tend to pick up movies that are shot on film.

"But I think if the story is good, and the movie is good, they'll buy it."

And that's when he can pay his crew.

Festival

What: Asian Film Festival
Where: The Academy, Lorne St, Auckland
When: May 20-June 1
Highlights: The Beautiful Washing Machine (Malaysia); Boys In the Sky (Uzbekistan); Beautiful Boxer (Thailand); Chicken Rice Wars (Singapore); Blind Shaft (China); Scent of the Lotus Pond (Sri Lanka); Maqbool (India); Memories of Tomorrow (New Zealand)