Halifax- based filmmaker Seth Smith said the screening of his film Lowlife is open to all ages, but the trailer would suggest otherwise.
“I would say it’s a weird mystery drama but it definitely has like horror movie elements with gross or disgusting things happening. If it were to get rated, it would be a PG movie, I guess,” said Smith. “It has some unsettling moments that are more moody that creep under your skin in that way.”
Smith said the film probably “grosses out” adults more than children. The 99-minute film follows a man and woman who fall into a “living drug” induced episode. The couple becomes addicted to psychotropic slugs which alters their realities. Their indulgences lead them to a battle between body and soul.
The black-and-white film challenges this subject with surrealism and imagery filmed in various Nova Scotia forests during the spring of last year.
“I grew up watching VHS horror movies from my local movie store, and you can tell everything is handmade. You can see the craftsmanship in the props and the work. The fact that we shot it in black-and-white hides a lot of the strings from puppeteers and things like that. I think it’s a little creepier and added a neat mood,” said Smith.
Lowlife won the audience award for best feature at the Atlantic Film Festival this year and the official selection at the Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal. Fastasia focuses mostly on films that are considered off the beaten path.
Smith is the main visionary behind the film. He’s the director, editor and co-writer for the film. Darcy Spidle, also known as Chik White, also helped to write the script for Lowlife and played the lead character of Asa. The cast were ‘non-actors’ and the film was created with no-budget. The filming was done over six months.
“Basically, no one got paid and everything was borrowed,” said Smith. “I couldn’t get around post-production costs, so we ended up doing some indiegogo starter things and we made $5,000.”
Their post-production costs were the only costs covered, but Smith said Lowlife is based on a do-it-yourself grassroots idea. Smith is sending his film on tour.
It will be shown all 13 provinces and territories, 23 cities, over three days. The film will be screened at Gallery Connexion on Friday and will continue across the country, with its final screening in Iqaluit, Nunavut.
“I can’t say for sure, but I don’t know if anyone’s really done it in this way before. But it’s kind of emulating a theatrical release. Like galleries and theatres, alternative venues. But I think we always kind of had the idea,” said Smith.
Smith said going on tour was the only way he and his cast and crew knew how to get his film out there. He has been a member of the Halifax-based alt-pop band Dog Day with his wife, Nancy Urich, who is part of the cast and crew of Lowlife. Many cast and crew are also involved in bands, and the tour seemed like a natural progression after filming ceased.
Lowlife is Smith’s first feature film and he wanted to feel comfortable around his cast and crew, which is why he kept it so small. He also said the leads were the “craziest people [he] knew,” and didn’t mind enduring the cold mud and water they had to submerge into in some scenes.
“I didn’t want to be bossing around people who were more knowledgeable than I am. We kept the crew pretty small because they were just people I knew.”
Smith, Urich and Spidle had recently moved to the country from the city, and the rural areas became an inspiration for the film. Smith didn’t want the film to be neatly tied at the end, but wants viewers to become involved with the storyline.
“I like the looseness. You take it home with you and try and solve it like it’s your own problem.”
Lowlife will be screened Nov. 16 at Gallery Connexion at 8pm.
