MovieFest Charitable Trust

Movies educate, entertain and inspire by expanding our knowledge and creating empathy and an emotional awareness of stories, involving events and occurrences both factual and fictional.

THE CO-ORDINATOR

My name is Graeme Moffatt and I am a Documentary Filmmaker and trustee of the MovieFest Charitable Trust, currently re-screening the 1970 iconic and classic three screen film This is New Zealand, in cinemas throughout New Zealand.

In the process of visiting Hawkes Bay venues, I discovered that the owners of the Regent Cinema in Dannevirke were working to re-open their theatre after being closed for the past 10 years.

THE PROJECT

The MovieFest Charitable Trust, was set up in 2005 with the objective of organising amateur short movie competitions for schools and amateur movie-makers.

• We promote the screening of films through organising festivals and filmmaking competitions
• We provide appropriate venues and facilities for films to be screened and filmmaking courses to be held

These are with the aim to further the efforts of the MovieFest Charitable Trust to assist in the public education of artistic taste.

We have entered into an agreement with the owner of the Regent Cinema to conduct the management and maintenance services, and have appointed three additional trustees from Dannevirke to assist in this effort.

This agreement includes getting it back operational, and to facilitate this we have obtained a digital projector, that will initially enable the screening of a range of films, when the cinema has been bought up to an adequate standard.

STAGE ONE

Our aim is to take one step at a time with the first one being to set up a small museum, which will include a small auditorium, to showcase the history of the cinema and the production of films during the past 103 years, that the theatre has been in existence.

We have been offered a range of filmmaking equipment, and will be looking for additional small items, as these will be invaluable to show how films were captured and edited using 16mm and 35mm film stock.

THE GOAL

In order to get underway as soon as we can and prior to the cinema re-opening, we need $4,000 to:

• Design & print placards and to purchase display panels to mount them on
• Acquire a small digital projector
• Procure a small number of comfortable theatre seats
• Purchase and install display lighting, including electrical wiring and connection

This museum will have an emphasis on the changes that have taken place with the Regent Cinema since its opening in January 1919.

It will also detail the important role that the New Zealand National Film Unit has had in the New Zealand filmmaking industry, especially prior to television transmission in the 1960's.

This was a state-owned film production organisation that took over private film studio Filmcraft in 1936, before eventually being sold to Television New Zealand in 1990.

Peter Jackson ultimately acquired the operation for use in the production of films such as 'Lord of the Rings', and shifted it back to Miramar in the late 1990's, renaming it Park Road Post.

WHY THIS MATTERS

Communities exist for a number of reasons, however it is what makes them survive that is the important issue.

Many have been founded due to some need such as a shipping port to the outside world or a farming supply centre, and although those reasons may not be the driving force anymore, it is the residents and the relationships that they forge that keep them going.

Centres for socialising and entertainment are a large part of the glue that binds communities with one accord, and cinemas have long been a part of the agglutinate that keeps them together.

The Regent Cinema, founded in 1919 as the Arcadia Picture Theatre, has been pivotal in the role that movies have played in the education, entertainment and inspiration of the Dannevirke community, and it is paramount that this aspect of the daily life is preserved for present and future generations.

OUR REQUEST

We need your support to get this unique film museum and the Regent Cinema operational, in order to benefit the local and wider community.

Please give us a donation so we can turn this into a reality.

WATCH THE VIDEO