Sci-fi/Thriller anthology The Bostrom Scenario is Writer/Director Ricky Townsend’s first feature film, and it’s been a six-year labour of love.
The feature is a natural continuation of award-winning short film Truth.exe which was selected for the Boston Sci Fi Festival, and won Best Student Film at the 2020 Miami International Sci Fi Festival.
Producer Ella Waswo has been on board the project since the beginning.
“It’s been amazing,” she explains. “We were a bunch of second year students at Ilam Fine Arts school when we started it. We made a short film first and after it was shown in international festivals and we saw how good the response was, it made us think that there was more to explore in both the world we created and its characters.”
She describes the film as a ‘plot puzzler’ in the sci fi/ thriller genre. It focuses on the character of Alice Wonder (Isayah Snow) who is grieving the murder of her brother but who nobody knows ever existed. Alice searches for answers, unravelling the story of a supernatural photographer and the film crew of a cursed documentary.
Writer and director Ricky Townsend says he wanted to explore philosophical themes in the sci fi film.
“For me, making this film was a chance to show that New Zealand is just as capable of making philosophical, plot-puzzle cinema that is usually reserved for the likes of Donnie Darko, Primer, Inception, Mulholland Drive and of course Doctor Who,” he says. “I’ve been inspired by the writings of philosophers such as Nick Bostrom, David Chalmers and Jack Copeland, and my film takes the philosophy of their work and fuses it with Gnostic mythology.”
The feature film was made on a shoestring budget of $20,000 and Ricky says this is proof that “even a tiny film can tell a big story.”
The Bostrom Scenario also successfully raised over $8,000 on crowdfunding platform Boosted, and is currently building an international following in the international festival circuit (Official selection at Galacticat Film Festival, Gen Con Film Festival, Phoenix Film Festival. Best Sci-Fi thriller, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Colour Grade at Miami Sci-Fi Film Festival).
Ella says the Crowdfunding allowed the production to finance a sound mix – something that’s crucial for acceptance into international festivals.
“Once we finished shooting and we had a solid edit, we knew we wanted custom music, so the Boosted campaign meant we could get an incredible musician, Peter Liley, to do our music, which really helped us in the festivals.”
The reception so far has been positive, and the plan now is to show the feature around Aotearoa.
“We’d love to premiere around the country – Auckland is next,” says Ella. “It’s been really interesting self-distributing the film, as we really didn’t know how it all worked. It has been a challenge though, as cinemas are still dealing with low attendance following Covid and we’ve found that a lot of cinemas won’t take a chance on random indie films.”
That hasn’t stopped the crew behind The Bostrom Scenario, though. Having worked on the film for more than six years they’re determined to show it to as many people as they can – starting with the Christchurch premiere on October 3rd at the Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna ō Waiwhetu.
Tickets are still available, and they are on a sliding scale – to make it affordable for anyone who wants to see the film.
You can find tickets here.
and you can watch the trailer here.