Local movie screening at the Belmore on Sunday

HUGO Morgan said he is excited and nervous to be screening his feature film in his hometown of Scone on Sunday, but said he hopes locals enjoy their work and recognising the locations and local people in it.

We finished filming at the start of this year, but because of covid we haven’t been able to have screenings and hopefully give some enjoyment to people watching it, I’m both excited and nervous,” said Hugo.

“Once locals see it, they’ll recognise almost all of the locations I’d imagine,” he said.

“It’s a roadtrip movie that’s supposed to go through all of New South Wales, but we thought we can fake that part of it and film a lot of locations around Scone and use what resources we have as a hometown,

“We were in the Golden Fleece for three weeks and it is eight different buildings in the film, we’ve got the Belmore, the Royal and there’s a host of scenic locations around Scone as well as the Aberdeen RSL, the carpark behind Home Hardware in Muswellbrook and other places,” he said.

“We had a few scenes with a few extras and in the culminating scene we had about 20 people and it was fun to get everyone there and we’ve also got local talent acting in it as well,” he said.

Lorna Driscoll and James Smart have cameos, while Cosmo Posa has a leading role.

The film has been screened in ten overseas film festivals and won awards including Best Feature Film at the Berlin Indie Film Festival and the soundtrack is soon to be released on Spotify.

“The feedback has been positive and just getting selected into any festival at our stage is quite exciting and everyone who has watched it seems to have really liked it and enjoyed the music,” said Hugo.

“There have been screenings in Ireland, some in England, most notably the Berlin Indie Film Festival we took the best feature film award there and one in America and we’ve won a few awards, Best Musical and things, our first screening in Sydney is this month and then we’ll have the local screening on the 19th and then one in Melbourne next year,” he said.

“We think it’s really important to have a screening locally where we filmed the movie and there are a lot of people in the community that the film would not have happened without, so it will be nice to bring it back and be showing your family,” Hugo Morgan said.

Hugo began producing film when he was in early high school, he is now studying at the Victorian College of Arts in Melbourne and hopes to make a living from telling stories in the medium he loves most.

“I started in early high school, I’ve always been into story telling, I’ve enjoyed lighting, photography, and music and I see film as another avenue for all of that, it is the ultimate combination of mediums,” said Hugo.

“We have plans for more low budget productions with Mazgo in the next few years and ideally I want to keep collaborating and telling stories; the end goal is to make films where you can pay everyone who works on them a decent wage for their creativity and their input and make it so you can survive making films and actually get them out there,” Hugo Morgan said.

Colelct Your Roadkill is described as a coming of age road trip, comedy, drama and diegetic musical, about a musician and his unlikely manager running away from their past lives and travelling across country New South Wales on the run.

• When: 8pm, Sunday, December 19.
• Where: Belmore Hotel beer garden, 96-98 Kelly Street, Scone.
• Tickets: Collect your roadkill – screening.