The Sweet Shop holds preview screening for Mark Albiston and Louis Sutherland’s debut feature film ‘Shopping’ in Auckland last night

Last night, The Sweet Shop held a special preview screening at the Rialto cinema in Newmarket, Auckland for Mark Albiston and Louis Sutherland’s debut feature film Shopping.

Set on the Kapiti coast in 1981 the film follows the teenage Bennie as he falls in with a charismatic thief and his close-knit gang of ‘shoppers.’

Written and directed by the duo, Shopping follows on from the success of the pair’s award winning shorts Run and The Six Dollar Fifty Man. After premiering at the Sundance Film Festival the film went on to be awarded the prestigious Grand Prix award in the Generation section at the International Berlin Film Festival.

Following the screening members of the industry joined the directors and their cast for drinks to discuss the film.

Says Fiona King, executive producer at The Sweet Shop: “It was lovely to see such a great turn out of people from the industry, from agency to post production, actors, crew and students. Everyone had a really great night.”

Says Sutherland: “We love telling stories and this one was is very close to home so even though it was remarkably well received over seas, it feels bloody good to finally bring it back.”

Says Albiston: “Kiwi’s get the nostalgia of living in 1981 in ways that people overseas never will. Someone told us that hey could almost smell the locations – that kind of comment is the special sauce for us. It was a real kick showing our story to kiwis and another packed house.”

A successful evening and an exciting glimpse of things to come for Albiston and Sutherland.

(Pictured: 1. Mark Albiston (Director, The Sweet Shop), Ben Dailey (Producer, The Sweet Shop), Sharlene George (Global Executive Producer, The Sweet Shop), Louis Sutherland (Director, The Sweet Shop) and Fiona King (Executive Producer, The Sweet Shop); 2. Ben Fahy (Editor, Stoppress) and Fiona King (Executive Producer, The Sweet Shop); 3. Nicki McKelvie (Account Director, DDB); 4. Alistair McDonald (Directors Assistant, The Sweet Shop), Geoffrey Joe (Designer, Colenso BBDO) and Curtis Baigent (Director/Designer, Augusto); 5. Crowd shot)