Ruben Russo in Arlo by the Sea.

Arlo and the Sea, a new LGBTQ+ short from filmmakers Damian Overton and Ruben Russo, will premiere at the SmartFone Flick Fest in Sydney this month.

The Queensland-based filmmakers told Cinema Australia recently that they’ve been wanting to work with each other for a long time but are often constrained by budgets.

After a coffee meet up, they decided to tackle the concept of using an iPhone to make a film to enter SF3 SmartFone Flick Fest. This opened a whole new creative film process for them, and they were able to shoot Arlo and the Sea with just the two of them as the crew, director Overton, and Russo in his first lead role.

The film follows Arlo who lives by the sea and spends most of his time alone, until he meets a boy named Finn.

“Arlo and the Sea has been one of my favourite creative experiences,” Damian tells Cinema Australia.

“The freedom using the phone to shoot was a brand-new experience. Most of the film was shot using natural light. The whole shoot was was extremely challenging but also very rewarding. I am honestly so proud of the film we produced, the collaboration, the short time frame we executed it in and the story we produced.”

Arlo by the Sea will premiere on Saturday, 18 November at SmartFone Flick Fest – Australia’s international smartphone film festival for filmmakers of all ages open to anyone with a smartphone or tablet and a great idea for a short film.

Full details about this weekend’s SF3 here.