Title : How regional film fans started their campaign for control
link : How regional film fans started their campaign for control
How regional film fans started their campaign for control
A snub by a western New South Wales cinema has led to a group of regional film fans becoming trailblazers in bringing internationally acclaimed films to the bush.
Kellie Jennar, of the Dubbo Film Society, spearheaded a months-long effort to bring the internationally acclaimed movie Sweet Country to the regional city of Dubbo.
"We've shown the demand, we've shown the barriers to screening these important and culturally diverse films," Ms Jennar said.
There was a groundswell of community support for the society after the local Reading Cinema turned down a request to screen the Indigenous film.
That community effort culminated on Friday night when the film's director Warwick Thornton came to Dubbo, which has a large Indigenous population, to hand-deliver the film and answer the audience's questions after the sold-out screening at the Dubbo Regional Theatre and Convention Centre.
During the Q&A session, Thornton said mainstream cinema was scared of taking a punt on Australian films.
"They want to stick to a formula and we are lesser for it as a community," he said.
Following the success of the community campaign, Ms Jennar said other film enthusiasts had been in contact about how they could create a similar push for screening international movies.
"I think it's time we start standing up for ourselves and that regional people and regional towns have amazing talents and abilities and we deserve as many options as our city counterparts," she said.
Ms Jennar said the group was now rallying to raise funds for a similar projector to Reading Cinemas' to enable the regional theatre to screen new-release films, instead of waiting until they were available on DVD.
"We have the beautiful facilities available. It's just the technology," she said.
"It's unfortunate that one cinema within 150 [kilometres] has the monopoly on that technology."
Circumventing control of what gets screened
Dubbo Mayor Ben Shields said he was eager to explore how the council could partner with its state counterparts and the society to get the funding needed for the projector.
The campaign and subsequent Sweet Country screening has caught the attention of Western Sydney University cinema studies lecturer Anne Rutherford.
Dr Rutherford made a spontaneous trip to Dubbo for the screening, intrigued by the local film society's ability to mobilise and how it managed "to circumvent the control of what gets screened".
She wants to undertake research to see how other regional centres can disrupt the status quo around films screening in Australia.
For Ms Jennar, the snub by the local cinema was a "blessing in disguise", with the group embracing the local regional theatre and catering for the showing.
She said it was a challenging thing to "understand why people in Melbourne head office would understand what regional audiences would want to see".
Reading Entertainment has been contacted for comment.
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