WEA Film Study Group

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The WEA Sydney Film Society is a non-profit film society based in Sydney, Australia. It is a club of WEA Sydney, which is part of the Workers' Educational Association .

It was established as WEA Film Study Group in 1961. From July 1965 to December 1967 the WEA Film Study Group published the cinema journal FILM DIGEST. Notable screenwriters, filmmakers and film critics such as Frank Moorhouse, Michael Thornhill, Ken Quinnell and John Flaus have been members of the WEA Film Study Group. Since 1978 the WEA Film Study Group has published Monthly bulletin to provide film notes and film news to its members. In 1999 it changed its name to WEA Sydney Film Society.

It screens a double-feature program each Sunday at noon and on occasional Saturdays. There are about 48 programs a year. There is a short recess after Christmas and during the Sydney Film Festival. The group usually do not screen on public holidays or during public holiday weekends. The Society's screening room is located on the ground floor of the WEA Centre at 72 Bathurst Street, Sydney.

Films including animation and avant-garde programs came from Australia, the USA, Great Britain, Ireland, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the former USSR, Egypt and India. Silent films projected at appropriate speed, with well-chosen accompaniment continue to be popular. Art-house films as well as wide-screen blockbusters such as 55 Days at Peking have been featured. Most of the films screened by the society are selected from the more than 6,000 titles held by the National Film and Video Lending Service, owned and managed by National Film and Sound Archive – the National Film and Sound Archive.

Many significant films can only be seen in Australia by members of the general public if they belong to a film society. A number of the titles available on 16mm film for the film society screenings are not currently available on pay or free-to-air television, videocassette or Region 4 DVD. WEA Sydney Film Society is a member of the Federation of NSW and Associated Film Societies and the Australian Council of Film Societies.

[edit] References

  • Anne Coombs (1996). Sex and anarchy : the life and death of the Sydney Push. Ringwood, Vic. : Viking. ISBN 0-670-87069-2. 
  • Darryl Dymock (2001). A Special and Distinctive Role in Adult Education. Sydney: Allen & Unwin. ISBN 1-86508-567-7. 
  • David Stratton (1980). The last new wave : the Australian film revival. Sydney: Angus & Robertson. ISBN 0-207-14146-0. 

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