I went out tonight to see The Horseman, an ultra-low budget Australian revenge thriller, that opened last week at the Chauvel. I was really looking forward to it, enthused by good word of mouth from friends, Paul Byrne’s four star review in the SMH, and interviews with director Steven Kastrissios about his struggle to bring the film to the screen.

I arrived at the cinema to learn that the screening had been cancelled for a private function. It’s the first time in many years of movie-going that I’ve turned up to find an advertised session cancelled. To be fair, while the session was advertised in the weekend’s paper, it did not appear in today’s SMH. Still, it was incredibly disappointing.

One of the Chauvel staff gave me an A4 flyer on the weekly session information for Palace cinemas for Thursday July 15 to Wed July 21 and told to come back tomorrow. Not much help – tomorrow The Horseman is screening at 2.40pm. It’s not screening at all on Saturday or Monday. Its only session are on Sunday at 11.15am, Tuesday at 2.10pm and Wednesday at 11.00am. The film doesn’t make the ‘current highlight information’ on the inside of the flyer (which covers everything else playing at the Chauvel). I wouldn’t count on it lasting beyond Wednesday. With two kids, it’s difficult for me to see films during the day on the weekend, so I guess I’ll catch it on DVD.

I understand that distribution is a brutal bums-on-seats business, but I feel for Kastrissios.