Flinders University student film-makers have let their creative imaginations run riot in a collection of short films to be shown as part of the OzAsia Film Festival program.

East by South East, which will screen at the Mercury Cinemas at 7.30pm on Sunday night (October 4), brings together seven films that seek to explore contemporary cultures across Asia and their resonance within Australia.

The films are made by honours Screen and Media students, who in the latter stages of their course at Flinders are encouraged to take more experimental, non-narrative approaches to film-making.

The films range across topics from Vietnamese puppets and Japanese woodblock art to meditation and martial arts.

“The idea of the films is to encourage the audience’s imaginative engagement with various aspects of Asian culture,” said Screen lecturer Cole Larsen.

Part of the production process included consultation sessions with the Festival’s film programmer, Glenys Rowe of the Media Resource Centre.

“Meeting contextual requirements remains important, even when creativity and inspiration are at the fore,” Mr Larsen said.

“In the end, I think the students have produced a set of short films that are fascinating, stylistically varied and highly watchable.”

“But don’t take my word for it – come and see for yourself.”