Born in 1948, Alun’s extensive career began at the age of 17 as a cinecamera trainee with the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation where he shot news, current affairs and documentaries for television. After leaving the Corporation, aged 20, he became a freelancer, although he didn't use the term at the time, and was involved with feature work from the beginning of the new wave of New Zealand cinema.

Alun's work features in numerous high profile New Zealand projects such as the quintessential Goodbye Pork Pie (Geoff Murphy), Mr Wrong, Bread and Roses, War Stories, Perfect Strangers and Lovely Rita (Dame Gaylene Preston - 2001 Laureate), Heavenly Creatures, Forgotten Silver, The Frighteners and Lord of the Rings (Peter Jackson), The Piano (Jane Campion), What Becomes of The Broken Hearted, End Of The Golden Weather and Came A Hot Friday (Ian Mune), and Vigil and River Queen (Vincent Ward).

Gerard Smyth's documentary Barefoot Cinema: The Art and Life of Cinematographer Alun Bollinger, screened nationally at 2008 Film Festivals and on Television One in the same year.

Alun was a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) - for services to cinematography in 2005 and received an Arts Foundation Laureate Award in 2006 .

He is a member of the New Zealand Film and Television School Trust and offers occasional master-classes and lectures at film schools. Much sort-after for his skills as a director of photography, Alun prefers to spend at least half the year away from the film business, working on other projects back at his home in Blacks Point, near Reefton on the West Coast of the South Island, where he and his wife Helen live among their extended family.